myopic pilgrim

In the body of Christ, sometimes I feel like the appendix.

James Emery White of Mecklenburg Community Church had a piano teacher in his church that convinced him to teach a biblically-based class on parenting that was to be held off site and charged a nominal fee to attend. The piano teacher had tried inviting his friends and clients to church, but they hardly ever came. So he thought of bringing the pastor to them in the form of a parenting class. He gave out recordings of the White’s parenting sermons and then asked those interested to sponsor a table for couple hundred dollars. It was a big success in that it was well-attended (they had enough to pay for the clubhouse and some refreshments) and many of those families visited the church in the subsequent weeks. (Source: Leadership Journal: Gateway Country)

I noticed four things about this pre-evangelism event.

Valued by the community

Maybe more importantly, it was valued by the piano teacher. He was the one who suggested placing a dollar amount on the class. Doing so communicates that’s it worth something. It’s like the man who placed an unsold recliner from his garage sale in his driveway with a sign saying “FREE.” It stayed there for days until he changed the sign to say “$50.” It was stolen that night. It’s not about making a profit. It’s about covering costs and communicating value. Read the rest of this entry »

He said: Is that a rainbow on your bag
I said: Yeah, it’s from Hawaii.
He said: Isn’t the rainbow the symbol for the gay community?
I said: Oh, I don’t know. Is it?

I should’ve said: I thought it was a symbol of God’s promise to not flood the earth again.

After years of sneering a friend of mine has caved and joined the narcissistic horde of bloggers. Kenny writes, he plays basketball, he’s dishwasher safe. You can find his deep thoughts at Zealous Convert where so far he’s been blogging daily.

You want to be a better Christian, so you start thinking of things you need to do to accomplish this. You start with things you need to stop doing.
No more getting drunk or buying adult magazines.
You’re through with lying or speaking insults.

If you’re on top of things you realize Christianity also means doing stuff too, not just refraining from certain things. So you know you should pray more. Then you move into other things like going to church on a regular basis or joining a Bible study. You need to start telling your friends the gospel. And you need to have regular quiet times (devotionals).

You mean it this time.

Doesn’t this sound mundane compared to the way Jesus describes a life with him?

Abby and Kenny gave related responses to this question. They describe what appears to be a normal (did I say mundane?) life. What sets that life apart is answered by Abby, bring God with them as go about their day.

Is it enough to pull the divine into the mundane? Is that the example of the Incarnation?

[tags]Christian life, Christianity, Incarnation[/tags]