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Omaha, Nebraska, United States
I am more and more convinced that most congregations die from a staggering lack of imagination. Let's change that. Let's imagine a creative future with God and each other together. Drop me a line on email or leave a comment if you have thoughts on God, Jesus, congregations, the church or whatever.... I look forward to our conversations.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

A Few Thoughts on "the Christians"

I had barely gotten settled onto the barstool, when Gar, my favorite bartender, challenged me with a question. "How come Christians are so angry these days," he asked? "What makes you folks so pissed off?" (Sorry for the language, but Gar is a bartender...)
That is an interesting question...
First, are Christians angry these days? I suppose some are always angry, as Christians are people, and people are always in conflict one way or another. I asked Gar what he was talking about.
"Well," he said, "some guy came in here last night saying if we didn't stop sinning we would all go to hell. And he wasn't pleasant about it."
I can imagine anyone who walks into a bar shouting for the sinning to stop, and invoking hell on the sinners might not be a pleasant person. "But that happens all the time, why did it bother you so much last night? As opposed to the other 1000 times?" (Gar's bar is located within 300 yards of four different Christian churches. He gets this every now and then.)
"I don't know, Scott. He seemed so self-righteous about it. It just ticked me off."
"So really," I mused, "it's the self-righteous thing you noticed, not his anger?"
"I guess."
Here's a way that you can tell Christians apart: any Christian will tell you if we don't change our ways things are going to get worse...but the real Christians are the ones who while saying that know THEY are the ones who are sinning--- just by saying that. (In most of Christian scripture, judging fellow humans is sinning...judging is God's prerogative only. By the way, me using the word "real" in the last sentence makes me a sinner...but you already knew that.)
I smiled over at Gar, and started texting. "Who you texting," he asked?
"My insurance agent. Apparently, there's gonna be a fire."

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