My Angst...

“Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

“When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do.”

Then he added, “No go and learn the meaning of this scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Matthew 10:10-13

I have recently heard of a church growth philosophy that makes my stomach turn. It’s a philosophy that targets a certain class of society that will be able to financially support the ministry and purposefully ignores the poor that might “scare away” the sugar-daddy’s. In other words… there are churches that say, “We don’t do homeless.”

I can’t decide if I should throw something out of righteous anger or cry. I feel the Christ in me do both.

How has the apple fallen so far from the tree? Christ PURSUED the down-trodden, the lost and hopeless, the broken and outcasts. Do we really think as the body of Christ that we are serving his mission if we pursue anyone else?

We spend our money building magnificent buildings for our worship gatherings, while neglecting to put a roof over someone’s head. We provide kids a Disneyland-worthy play land on Sunday mornings, while 1 in 5 children live in poverty. We perform the gospel each Sunday Morning under the lights and cameras, while girls are forced to “perform” all week long to pay their rent.

Are we really being the body of Christ? Or are we enjoying spending our money on ourselves so that we can have the coolest church in the city?

What is the gospel if it’s simply proclaimed every Sunday morning from a sound system but never seen in practical acts of love throughout the week?

Jesus healed the sick… he mended the broken… he sought out the outcasts.

For the first time in my life I have the pleasure of attending a worship gathering with homeless people, with drug addicts, and people still drunk from the night before. There is no huge building, no stage, no impressive lights or cameras. Just Jesus and His family, His gospel, and His transforming power working through practical acts of love. I finally feel like I am part of a mission worth dying for. A mission I will spend all my days living for… pursuing the forgotten.