I want to be part of a church filled with Guerilla Lovers...not to be confused with Gorilla Lovers.
I went to a men's retreat this weekend and we talked about how Christianity is supposed to be a revolution rather than a religion. Christianity is supposed to be something that hopes to strangle out evil in the world, but not by frontal, accusatory assault, but rather through wild, crazy acts of love. The speaker called us to be Guerilla Lovers. Love where it is not expected. Show love where to do so is unusual and even crazy.
Life is uncomfortable so often, so often love will be, but love can cross all boundaries and there are nearly no defenses against it.
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So I'm hearing you say you love Gorillas! I have to admit I find that a little awkward.
Although I can sometimes find an occasional chimpanzee somewhat attractive, and from time to time might even be jealous of all their hair- I have never been a "lover" of our hairy relative.
So, we are to show crazy love where it's not expected to gorillas. I love gorillas as much as the next man, but I'm not sure about showing crazy, unexpected love to them.
I love the concept of Christianity as a revolution. Good stuff. Thinking about how revolutionary it is.
Strangle out evil through acts of love. Basically, show people there's a better way to live- and we do this through close contact with others- through relationship.
This is a good point- basically we are challenged to show others that life can be different than what they know- and we do this through love, but this means that we need to be live close enough to touch them. We need to live where they live- and that's the tricky part for Christians- for me. We naturally create a nice safe coccoon (sp?) where we can be safe from people different from ourselves. We live near and with those who don't know God, showing them a different way- and loving them. Cool stuff.
p.s. I was just joking, I'm sure you are not actually an intimate lover of primates.
What's funny about my life when I observe it, is that I really really really want to not surround myself with a Christian cocoon, but I am in it anyway. I need to find ways to get myself involved in peoples' lives outside of that bubble. I used to have that at work, but my work has recently become a more and more Christ-follower filled environment. I coached T-ball, and that helped some, but I can and need to do better.
I think this can be hardest for people involved in vocational ministry, BUT that is what we're called to, so let's be creative, right? Right.
Your jokes are great. It was one of the themes of the weekend. Keep them up.
Interesting that you should mention that "vocational ministers" have a struggle to reach those outside of the cocoon. Seems to be topic on people's minds lately.
Couple ideas:
* Hang around the town well, er, maybe town hotspot. The local pub seemed to work for Vince.
* Just do what you love to do and meet people in that place. Play in a band, walk the dog, lobby for an issue, etc. You're more comfortable when you're enjoying a passion of yours and not forcing it on anyone. I've found my best ministry happens when I'm doing my job with an extreme fervor. Of course you have to have a job you love for that...
:-)
In starting a church, I'm thinking that we need to think what through what we ask of those who attend our churches. The typical person who goes to our church- what do we ask of them? How many nights a week do we ask of people?
I've thought that one idea is to cast a vision of people that they should give one night a week to church (sometimes two), serve in one way on Sun. morning, and then use their gifts, and passions to serve one way in the community. Like Matt was saying about coaching a t-ball team or something.
It's a great idea to use your gifts in the community, but not if we end up doing church stuff like 2-3 nights every week.
Dan, our pastor works at Starbucks everyday and through this has made many relationships. Dan Kimball from the book, "The Emerging Church" talked about how he got his haircut by the same person once every two weeks. I've heard how some moms meet mom groups during the day from the community. As pastors, we could try to find something we could do every week or so in order to make a relationship with someone.
I have not successfully done this, so right now, this is only conceptual to me. Maybe you guys have had better luck- hopefully.
P.S. Go Cleveland Indians! Kill the Yankees!
I don't really have an opinion on the Indians, but I am not a Yankees fan, so Go Indians!
I have also really started to notice how much I don't get involved when I could get involved in the community. When Here Today was going strong, it's all I did, and now I have to make conscious efforts to do it. But, it is worth it when I do.
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