Filed under: life
Thank God for SafeEyes on my laptop for work. I have set it up so that most entertainment websites are not permitted. Otherwise I would be very unproductive. Case in point: Hulu.
Made note to check it out on the other computer some day, and when I did I realized how much of a time-waster this site would be for me. Just to watch Arrested Development, News Radio, The Office, and 30 Rock, alone, would kill 4 work weeks! And tonight I noticed a section for movies. Wonder if it will always be free?
So tonight we also rented our first flick from iTunes: Mean Girls. Hadn’t seen it – put it on our watch list. Since we’re big fans of 30 Rock (arguably funnier than The Office as of late), we had to see where Tina Fey started to get her stride. It was ok. Not as funny as I had been told. But the big bene was testing out iTunes’ renting feature. I couldn’t figure out how to get it on my iPod, so we watched it on the computer. No biggie there. Still – I’d like to figure out the iPod thing.
Today was a funky day. Woke up at 7am, struggled to get motivated, then just gave up and went back to bed. Slept til around 10am, worked, blah. I can’t put my finger on why, exactly, this funk hit me today. I think it’s a lot of things: out of rhythm, unmet expectations in myself and others, lack of nearby friends, and just weighed down by the world – the chaos.
I am currently reading Seize The Night by Dean Koontz, and in the last 20 or so pages, it has really become a fascinating book. The beginning was tough. Koontz’s main character is hard to digest at first, but now the stor is really coming together.
For anyone in Christian ministry employment, or anyone who is thinking about it, I highly suggest reading the blog of Chris Marshall. Chris is a friend and an elder/pastor of the house church network we’re part of, though it is not his paying-”job.” In his recent posts he has stirred up a fury of discussion about ministry jobs, and what it might look like for the traditional church in America in the near future. It’s not doom and gloom stuff – just putting the dots together. I would suggest also reading this post to get a dashboard view of how Chris’ post spread like wildfire.
As someone whom as only been employed part-time by a church, but has several friends that either are currently or formerly full-time “ministry job” folk, I see this conversation as a big weight being lifted. It is refreshing. This will be harsh for some to read, but I say it in the context of the topic: Most of the ministry job people I know are terribly out of touch with the average working man and woman. Blue-collar, white-collar, regular office stiffs, business owners, etc. – totally out of touch with us. It is bitter-sweet because everyone I know is very well intentioned, and intellectually/spiritually rich with ideas and communication vehicles for getting their points across. But what has always bothered me, even when I was somewhat part of it, was the “come to us” systemic thinking, be it subtle or blatant.
The “come to us” thinking can be innocent. It can be a dynamic outreach event or – cringe – street corner evangelizing. It is the thinking that programming, events, cute websites, trendy design, or controversial topics will somehow cause a person to answer the call of Jesus to follow Him. Entire mega-churches are thriving on this because for the most part, the “come to us” thinking, if executed well, really works.
“Come to us” thinking can get you 5,000 butts-in-seats, paved parking lots, AV equipment that would suffice for any headline concert, and branding that P&G brand managers would perk up over. But is it worth it? Why am I wanting to draw all kinds of connections between this and Fight Club right now?!?! 
The intentions behind these words are not to take down the mega-buildings, as Tyler Durdin did at the end of FC. I am not about to do that because God will not be mocked. No matter how silly, how over the top, it will not have the last word.
If there is one thing I am driving at with these thoughts it is what I have been realizing more and more in the teachings of Jesus: That intentions are really, really important, and what appears to be important might not be. I refer to stuff like Luke 13, where He talks about those who know Him and those who think they know Him. Luke 19 and John 12 stick out to me as well – each point having a person or persons with what seem like good intentions only to be corrected by Jesus.
It’s Martha buzzing around the house prepping a meal… it’s the ministry job folk looking down on Jesus for warming up to a sleazy tax collector (or maybe someone gay or an illegal alien or, for me, a Leftist Liberal in today’s terms?)… it’s Judas pointing out that the expensive perfume could be sold for a good deal of money and used for a ministry event (“outreach” thing today???).
Of these three instances that have resonated with me, it’s John 12 that eats at me, and the Judas/Jesus exchange. Just considering where it took place – the home of Lazarus – after what had happened not long before this scene. I asked this question in house church a few weeks ago, and it’s worth asking now in the context of the “ministry job” conversation: What if Judas wasn’t the slimy guy I was taught to see him as? What if he was a ministry funding, brand message-focused CFO of Jesus Inc. wanting to make sure that ministry resources were utilized in the most efficient manner possible? “Financial Sustainability” comes to mind. What if he gave Jesus up not because he was evil in the Hollywood sense, but in the sense that he thought he was seeing the breakdown or end of his little corporation? It’s a slippery slope. And I am in no way arguing to paint him as a victim. I just wonder why, if he was the blatantly-corrupt guy I was taught to see him as, why the other 11 guys didn’t see it. Based on how John refers to him in a few cases as the guy who would later turn Jesus over, it came as a shock to see Judas as the bad guy.
I think this has important questions embedded in it for those of us in The Body in America, and our big programs, careers in faith, and education systems that grow consumers of “ministry.” I could paint this much, much uglier, but I think that it would be a lot of emotion on my part. Best to keep this as objective as I can.
Lots more to get out of my head, but the rest needs more time to digest. I’ll do that in a few days.
