Church carpet can go to hell......

."We know of a senior pastor of a church in our area who, after refurbishing the facilities with fresh paint and new carpet, stood before the congregation with a cup of coffee. To the shock and sighs of the congregation, he then intentionally poured its contents directly onto the new carpet, creating a dark puddle and a permanent stain, He said to the church that the carpet can go to hell but he didn't want the kids in the neighborhood to have to. The
people outside the walls are far more important than the carpet inside of them.
They left the stain as a permanent reminder that the mission is not in the building, but outside in the streets." (Church Transfusion: Neil Cole)

I Became My Enemy

"Somewhere along the way I was taught that evil is fought through justice and might. The Way we combat evil is by making sure that people get what they have coming to them. An eye for an eye. You attack me and I’ll attack you. Fair is fair. And there were times in my own life when I’ve been so hurt that I was sure retaliation would make me feel better. But inevitably, when I can’t harm the people who harmed me, I just end up harming the people who love me. So maybe retaliation or holding on to anger about the harm done to me doesn’t actually combat evil. Maybe it feeds it.
In the end, if We’re not careful, we can actually absorb the worst of our enemy and on some level even become them."
(Nadia Bolz-Weber. Pastrix: The Cranky Beautiful Faith of A Sinner & Saint.)

Waste Your Time Talking About Christianity

"I was in Washington, DC, last year with
a man who has been a chaplain to world
leaders. As we talked over dinner, all he
did was talk about Jesus. At one point,
he got so impassioned, he put down his
fork, which had a beautiful piece of prime
beef on the end of it, pointed his rickety
old finger at me, and said, “Don’t waste
any more time talking about Christianity,
or church, or Christians—just tell people
about Jesus!" Then he shared a story
about Billy Graham. He said that one
day Billy came in to meet him, and he
asked Billy, “What, after all these years
of incredible ministry, would you have
done differently?” Apparently Billy got re-
ally emotional and said, “I would have
talked about Jesus more.” Billy went on
to expound about how he had spent his
entire life trying to get the whole world to
become Christians, and now he realized
that was a mistake.

Like so many of us, Billy realized
that converting people to Christianity was
never on Jesus’s agenda, and so it really
shouldn’t be on ours. He never intended
to start another world religion. He never
intended to create Christian nations or
wipe out other world religions and con-
quer in the name of Christianity. Jesus
simply came to show any person how to
be in relationship with the one true God,
without any religion!"

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Sacrilegious Jesus - Give Us More Sacrilege.

"Almost everyone
loves Jesus! In a complementary book I
wrote on the life of Jesus, Sacrilege, I
made the case that people talked favor-
ably about Jesus because He was sac-
rilegious about everything. Sacrilege just
means to remove or peel away religious
facades to reveal the real deal. Jesus
was constantly doing and saying things
that broke down the falsities of religion.
He was sacrilegious with Scripture and
told the Bible scholars of the day to
quit being arrogant about all their knowl-
edge, calling them instead to obey what
they knew. He was sacrilegious on the
Sabbath, healing people and doing things
that made sense to people. He was sacri-
legious with social norms and constantly
ate with sinners, touched lepers, included
little children, and dignified woman. He
was sacrilegious with Jewish family cus-
toms and taught people that His Father’s
family was more important than any in-
dividual family. And He was sacrilegious
with the temple and spiritual leaders, as
He destroyed the need for it and them."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Speak of Jesus and You Win Every Time

It’s sort of strange to mention another
book right at the beginning of a chapter,
but a dear friend named Carl Medearis
wrote a timely book titled Speaking of
Jesus. One thing I’ve learned is that there
is a way to speak of Jesus and there’s
a way not to.

“Speaking of Jesus.” I even like the
way that sounds, don’t you? I never liked
it when someone told me to go witness or
give my testimony or share the gospel. All
those seemed pretty weird and unnatural,
but speaking of Jesus? Now that sounds
nice.

Carl has taken me to places you would
never think a Jesus conversation would
be a good idea. Several years ago, he
took me to Lebanon and several other spots in the Middle East. In Beirut we had
some chat time with Hezbollah leaders;
in Amman, Jordan, we met with Muslim
men who had billions of dollars; and in
Jerusalem and the West Bank (in Pales-
tine), we met with people who see West-
ern Christianity as a farce and one of the
world’s greatest evils. But each one of
them loved to speak about Jesus!

People will always struggle with Chris-
tians and church and things that have
happened in the name of Jesus, but
amazingly even those who don’t know
much about His life intuitively find His
story and His words something warm to
speak about."

- Hugh Halter. FLESH

Meals Draw Us Together

Over and again, meals inspired and drew us together in surprising ways.....

"As Christine Pohl writes: "A shared meal is the activity most posting tied to the reality of God's kingdom."

No surprise, then, that so many New Testament stories- parables of banquets, feasts in homes, the Last Supper, miracle feedings - revolve around food.

Twenty-five years ago, a friend named Bill told me something I still often recall:
"If you can read the gospels without getting hungry, you're not paying attention."

(Arthur Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking)

You Can Change The World

"One person cannot change the whole world, but you can change the world for one person. You also can’t change anything quickly—but if you ask God to show you what makes Him mad and breaks His heart, and then take action by making small, consistent commitments of time, money, relationship, and prayer, you will make a tangible difference over the course of your life."

(Hugh Halter. Flesh)

Destroying Relational Community

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “He who loves community, destroys community; he who loves the brethren, builds community.”

His point is that when people focus on finding Christian friends to huddle together with, they generally destroy the utopia they’ve built up in their minds, but those who simply love people always create genuine, deep community."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Economical Church Structures

"..... God was clearly weary of our worship without works of compassion. And just like Jesus with the money changers, we must be willing to fight the natural consumerism of our culture both inside and outside the church that asks us to provide a safe place of spiritual encouragement while millions face daily trauma, sex trafficking, bloated hunger, and treatable diseases.

God designed the church—but not a church that functions for itself. The church is the “people of God,” and therefore it shouldn’t have to cost that much. Programs, pastors, and sanitized churches cost a lot. Therefore, anytime we let “church” become the recipient of its own giving, we are dangerously close to the same exploitation that Jesus turned over. He wants His church, His people, to be released from all that hinders true love and true help from reaching those who need it the most. I am so proud to know hundreds of church leaders who are courageously reevaluating their level of consumerism and making painful and personal adjustments to avoid the money-changer scenario. In order to gain the respect of the culture around us, I think it’s fair to get a little cranky at the cost of organized religion.
Jesus did.
(Hugh Halter. Flesh)

Sunday Is Not The Churches Best Work

You can see why religion made Jesus so mad and why He was actually moved to action. He knows that church attendance alone, if left unchecked with real involvement with others, turns people into pharisees—and that if unchallenged, this leaven creates a justified apathy that ends up exploiting the people who really need God the most. Religion takes up a lot of time and money and delivers very little. This type of faith is of no use to Jesus, and if Jesus called out His closest friends on this issue, we should consider an occasional integrity check. I make this critique with quite a bit of caution because I don’t want to be an alarmist or a downer on the church that I love. But people outside our faith would stand up and cheer if we would be honest and consider a little good-hearted critique of what we call “church.” Let me go further: I’m a huge church lover. I pastor a local body, and I believe that the church throughout history has shown its ability to mobilize people for the good of humanity. Whether involved in social programs, neighborhood benevolence, Protestant work ethic, hospitals, schools, or just good ol’ fashioned generosity, Christians account for a staggering percentage of social good throughout the world. Yet as we approach a new world fraught with injustice, hunger, disease, poverty, and social and sexual exploitation—and as the world looks for the true face of God to believe in—I feel we can no longer view the viability of the church through the lens of a Sunday church service. That’s simply not the time we do our best work.

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Divorced, But Still Talking

"The church wants to feel able to explain about her spouse even when she has lost sight of him; even when, although she has not been divorced, she she no longer knows his embrace, because curiosity has gotten the better of her and she has gone searching for other people and other things."

(Carlo Carretto. The God Who Comes)

Holy Spirit Can Pass Through Church Walls

"The spirit Works where he wills. The spirit of God cannot be restricted in his operation by the church; he is at work not only in the offices of the church, but where he wills: in the whole people of God. He is at work not only in the "holy city," but where he wills: in all the churches of the one Church. He is at work not only in the Catholic Church, but where he wiills: in Christianity as a whole. And finally he is at work not only in Christianity, but where he wills: in the whole world.

The power of the spirit of God can pass through all walls, even Church walls.....

No decrees of the Church, in doctrine or practice, can force him to act or not to act at a given time."

(Hans Küng. The Church)

How About Pastors With Other Jobs

Most do this.

"I don’t feel that there is anything bad about having a full-time pastor, but our little portion of the body of Christ is making the intentional choice to work in the world, simply because it seems to give us more street cred, more natural interaction with the culture, and less need to put money into propping up a program to keep consumer Christians content. Although it is often more difficult to manage life, our struggle is everyone’s to share, and it helps the Christians who join our community know that their lives, vocations, and struggles matter deeply."

(Hugh  Halter. FLESH)

Why Wait For Other To Support You?

“Based on the world as it exists today, with the unique economic, social, and global issues facing people, what is my best response and option for blessing people and sustaining my life?” I believe that in most centuries, as in the time we live in today, those who take the Trappist approach may enjoy life and do more good than those who wait on others to empower their passion."

Hugh Halter. FLESH)
Rodney Stark, in his book The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success, said that capitalism was invented in monasteries in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. The reason was that these men, unlike the greedy, self-oriented society, actually believed that God was letting them steward His resources and followed the call to bless people and create sustainable products in line with God’s heart for them. They dealt with integrity, compassion, creativity, and hard work, and it changed the world. Again, not all monastic orders place such a high value on business enterprise. The Franciscans and Dominicans, like Buddhist monks, have to depend on charity and donations and sometimes stand on street corners, begging for help. They believe that, like Jesus, those who are “set apart” will be provided for. Again, I don’t think it’s helpful to dissuade people from being dependent on others, but as you consider your own calling, I want you to be aware that there are options. Missiology requires that we ask, “Based on the world as it exists today, with the unique economic, social, and global issues facing people, what is my best response and option for blessing people and sustaining my life?” I believe that in most centuries, as in the time we live in today, those who take the Trappist approach may enjoy life and do more good than those who wait on others to empower their passion.