If you read nothing else....

I have to remember to save messages in the middle or I will lose them. I have just spent an hour ranting about the ‘Church’ and poof my message was deleted in the middle. I hate when that happens. I was on a great tirade about how Big God is and that there are black holes 7 BILLION X 6 TRILLION light years away from us (It would take you 32 years to could to even one billion) and that’s how big God is. TO reach the Nearest star traveling 25,000 mph it would take 10,000 years. How long to get to that 7 to the 13th power black hole? That’s math I can’t do. And here we are so concerned about whether or not the guy next to us in church has a tatoo or the people across the asile might be getting a divorce. How can we make such a big God so small and petty?
God’s desire is to be in realtionship with us. It is what keeps us from God that is sin. If a tatoo is what you think keeps people from God, Then don’t get one! On the other hand if another person is awestruck by God and in love with God and in communion with God, but has a hundred tatoos, then tatoos are not a problem to God.
Emerging Worship is for the Emerging Generation. This new emerging generation sees the Church as an enemy of sorts. They watch us do the same old dusty, worn out worship every week after week. They see the hipocracy and exclusionary practices and they want nothing to do with it. And I can’t blame them. They don’t see God in church. The songs we sing are a few hundred years old. The services are always exactly the same in the same order at the same time with the same inflection. I’m getting tired just talking about it. It’s boring. Is God really in this? Yes, God is with me and in me and goes to Church with me, but how can I commune with that God in a fresh new way if the service is old and worn out?
Now let me say this, the church I am in now is awesome and the services are good. The music is upbeat and the messages are touching. BUT we are the Christian church that is associated with all those other churches. I look at our worship team and the only person under 35 is a young woman who will soon be leaving for college. Unfortunately We Are Old! We have old church. It's the same way we've been doing church for ten years. Maybe not here, but I've been a part of several churches and one in NZ. There is nothing wrong with doing what we do. It meets the needs of us middle agers. But is it meeting the needs of the youth? Try and go to TNL one Tuesday night and you will see that it is not.
Let me make one more point: We are Jerry Falwell and John Hagee. We are all the self righteous, bigoted hatefilled "Christains" the our children see on TV. This is what they see. Would you want to be a part of that?
On top of it this is the Church that began the Crusades, the Spanish Inqusition, and endorsed salvery. This is the Church that rejects the outcast, the single mother and the gays. The emerging generation sees this and balks. Let those who are perfect cast stones. Pull the pole out of your own eye before you attempt to remove the small spec from your brother’s eye. LOVE is THE LAW. Love is the law that abides. My question is “How can you walk my walk for me? ” If you are so busy walking my walk for me how can we walk together?