Outside the church (club) Part II

I do not wish to offend anyone. On this blog, my refering to churches as 'clubs' or even 'social clubs' is not meant to be insulting or cynical. Cynicism, last I checked, is not a fruit of the spirit. I have never seen anything good grow from cynicism so forgive me if I come across that way.

For years I have felt there was something weird about churches yet couldn't put my finger on exactly who, what, when, where or why. Then I met the poor. The poor are REAL and I love realness. The poor can't hide their sins as good as those reading this blog (middle class?). It's hard to hide one's "homelessness" (dirty clothing, weathered skin, perhaps an alcohol stained breath). And I'm convinced that being homeless (well...90% of the homeless) is the result of many things that all boil down to a lifestyle of deceit. Please...I'm not trying to shove all homeless folks into a box. Everyone has a different situation. Guys that hold signs on street corners (called 'flying a sign') are almost all con artists. They told me themselves and confessed this. They shared with me their tactics (very methodical and thought out) and what they spend thier earnings on (rarely what was advertised on the sign). It's all a lie. Another example: many people in the poverty culture are overweight, even obese. Sure, affordable and free foods given away at church pantries are usually some of the most non-nutritional and fatty foods available. But being overweight can demonstrate several sins: sloth, gluttony, undiscipline, etc. WARNING***I AM NOT JUDGING PEOPLE OR THE POOR. I am making the point that the poor's sins are MORE VISUALLY OBVIOUS than my sins. My sins are easy to hide from others: oh...that porn link just appeared in my email box. Might as well peek - it's not like I was looking for it. Judgemental comments swim in my head daily. Why do I stare at some women's body in public? Lust?? The list goes on. Forgive me, G-O-D.

Oh yea...back to church/club. The 'club' nickname for churches was stolen directly from Reggie McNeal's book "The Present Future" about the postmodern/emergent church debate. I really didn't like this book. Well the first 2-3 chapters were great but the rest went downhill fast as I interpreted it as highly religious. Meet the new boss...same as the old boss (another post). PF started very fresh an truthful: Christians by and large have sold out Jesus' mission for the shallow practice of "what keeps the church (ie: club or institution) running". Let's face it...church is a club. There is membership, expectations, a hidden mold to fit into, dues to pay (that ink toner ain't free), etc. The organism is truly an organization or institution.

While working at izzy which operated in a local church I fell in love with the poor. And the more I became close friends with the poor the weirder church became for me. Example: immbedded within most Christian's minds is the desire to get people to join our church. We come up with cool programs, marketing schemes, etc (this should be an entirely different blog post). At izzy, we operated a food pantry for the poor in the community. Then later a clothing room, showers, soup kitchen, overnight stay for the homeless, and a computer lab for the community. Out of the hundreds or 1000's of different people who came through our door I can think of ONE who 'joined the church' we were housed at. And that person never quite fit the mold of membership and was a huge burden on the church members due to her poverty culture. Yet I'm not disappointed with this woman. She was expected to completely change cultures just to 'fit in'.

My basic gist here: the poor are a foriegn culture and the club member Christians have often expected them to fit into the club's mold. Get with the program, etc. Honestly, I have NO PROBLEM with my Christian brothers who attend club. If that's your calling than go be blessed and do it. But I know what MY calling is so I'm going with it. I'd rather be at my 'lost' neighbor's backyard BBQ on Sunday with good grillin', cheap beer, and loud Spanish music than sitting through another talk on 'how to maintain the club'.

Hopefully this post will give reference to future posts that mention 'club'.