Right All The Time

"One of the sources of futile struggle in the spiritual life is the assumption that one has to become a person without problems, which is, of course, impossible."

Thomas Merton - A Vow of Conversation

How nice to encounter clear thinkers along the way who help me crawl out of my self-made muddle. Merton is one of those "this is the way, walk ye in it" figures for me.

That little snippet above points to a freedom of spirit we crave and typically grub along without. I have problems. I'm frequently wrong and expend a ton of energy to hide my unconfessed and all too frequent goofs . I must then, be that big piece of doggie doo-doo that the world revolves around and will always be a loser in the spirituality department. Abandoning the need to always be right is a liberating exercise. Ditching that itch liberates because the illusion of perfection and being always correct is just that - an illusion, a phantom.

When I choke down the truth serum that error - sometimes colossal error - is a large part of my make-up, the blinders recede a bit and I inch toward the truth. Though not fully arrived, I do begin to see reality from there and so I keep my head down and "press toward the mark." Truth, even truth about self, is at once light and airy, winsome, disinfecting and liberating.

 "The truth shall set you free." No joke.

Feel the Chill Yet?

Hey church people, here's a chilling reality:

We are failing.

When it comes to the primary mission of the church, Jesus, who's supposed to know these things, says there are two certainties: the harvest is plentiful and it's ripe and ready to go. So where are all the people? We should be cramming our churches full of people evidencing a contagious life changing experience we shared with them. This thing is so good it's supposed to go viral.

For all of our tricks we can't seem to compel them to join us in any significant numbers. Take all the folks in all the church  buildings on the best Easter Sunday you've ever had and it's a fraction of those who will show up at all the shopping venues on the same day. Either Jesus is mistaken about a plentiful, ready harvest or we are floundering badly.

Let's stop being consoled by that phony statistic that reports 40% of Americans attend weekly worship on a regular basis. Take a peek past the steering wheel this Sunday and you won't see 4 in 10 of your neighbors headed to church.

They aren't travelling with us. We are failing at our primary task of reaching a lost world. That makes us failures.

Deep surgery is called for. Something has to change. Reformation, anyone?

Just A Question

This isn't for people that have a gripe, have been legitimately wounded or think church is bunk.

What if only 10% of those who have received a tangible, spiritual or emotional benefit from a church -

• financial assistance
• food
• improved health
• a job connection
• social acceptance
• some measure of peace

were meaningfully involved in a worshipping community this weekend? A healthy, standard issue church, house church, whatever.

What if the 40% of Americans who consistently say they attend worship services regularly actually did?

What if Christians stopped lying to pollsters? What if they stopped kidding themselves? Just asking.