Boy, Did I Need a Vacation!

Hey everyone! Let me start by saying I am amazed that people even read this thing. Somehow it is the most viewed page on the Chapel website (if you haven't been there, it is www.jacksonvillechapel.org)! That's just nuts. Maybe Dave and Warren will actually start writing in their blogs. Nope... probably not.

It has been, as usual, a ridiculous couple of weeks. Just when you think things are pretty crazy, you are reminded of how moronic your tendencies actually are.

Case in point: I ran over my laptop with my car.
yeah. no kidding. it is the stuff of legend. Needless to say, I needed a vacation. Lucky for me, I got one.

I have been down at the Jersey shore for a the past 5 days spending time in the sun, watching my one year old son get a better tan than his father. He kicks some major butt, by the way. He's crazy cool--way cooler than I ever was, even when I had much better hair.

Anyway, being down here has given me some great down time (even if I am working on side video projects until 3am). I have eaten way too much junk food, watched some good comedy (you MUST see John Pinette's new DVD, "I'm Starvin'"...pretty much wet myself), and have gotten the chance to do something I LOVE to do when I get a moment to--read.

I finished up Blue Like Jazz while I was down here. Again... read this book. (please see aforementioned caution--I don't need any emails about it :) When I finished it, I turned to another book that has been in my stack, They Like Jesus, but not the Church by Dan Kimball.

First of all, Dan is from Jersey--Paramus to be exact--so he already is on my good side (note: if you told me I'd be sticking up for Jersey 5 years ago I would have laughed at you).

The book is all about the perception of the church in a post (or even pre)-Christian culture, meaning that we're no longer in a culture in which we can take a Judeo-Christian mind/value set for granted. Many would argue this is false. I would guarantee the arguers are over 30 years old.

Through his research all over the country (he is a pastor, but travels frequently to speak... I just saw him in Chicago a few months ago), he has found that emerging generations (those in the 18-30 age group that are unfortunately missing from most of our churches) perceive that the church:
- is an organized religion with a political agenda
- is judgmental and negative
- is dominated by males and oppresses females
- is homophobic
- arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong
- is full of fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally
I can hear some of you saying "Amen" as you read the last two. I'd ask you to pay close attention to the words "arrogantly" and "whole" before you start writing me a rebuttal already.

While the book is an awesome read for any church leaders (he has another similar book for those who aren't pastors/ministry leaders), it has gotten me thinking about what I believe about the perception of the Church and my church in particular.

Over the next six posts, I'll comment on each of these perceptions. Hopefully, with Dan's forgiveness (please read his blog at dankimball.com), I'll mention some of his thoughts on these things that prompted my responses and I'd like to encourage any of you to drop a comment on my blog, too, so I can hear some of your thoughts.

To be truthful, much of me believes that these issues and perceptions will have a lot to do with whether or not the church reaches future generations or dies an aged death sticking to its guns. While many of the church's "guns" (I hate war metaphor) are good ones, others need to be melted. I hope and pray this future discussion will help us all to examine our hearts in order to be used to reach the hearts of those God loves.