Trying not to turn around Thomas Grey's words

Two quick stories and then I promise I will tie them together with a point:

1. I just read a great little piece of writing on Scott Allen's blog a few days ago. Scott writes about something he read in C.S. Lewis' book, The Great Divorce, about men who hate goodness actually being closer to it than men who claim to have goodness, but instead know nothing about it. What Scott talks about in his short piece is arrogance; the attitude of "I'm right and you're not and never will be." You know people like that, right? You're not one of those people, right? Well Scott adequately and eloquently points out that not once in Jesus' teaching did he practice this attitude or encourage others to do the same. Jesus' prayer was that others would learn and know goodness by His example, not through the practice of condemning others or belittling their opinions (although, ironically, he is the only who could have been arrogant, and it actually have been OK).

2. Until recently, I carried around a little piece of paper in my wallet that was titled: What Should Change about Southeast's Worship Service. On this scrap paper, I had a list of eight things that I thought should change about the service on Sundays that would make it more fulfilling, more meaningful, more inspiring, and would cause less problems. I had suggestions for the Praise Team, for Michael, for the AV crew, etc. I thought these ideas were flawless, of course, because of all of the worship services I have planned in my life and all the people I have made happy doing it (of course, I have planned exactly zero in my lifetime). I don't carry around that list anymore....just don't see the point in it. But I sure see the point in why I was convinced it would all work: arrogance.

So my question is this: When did we start adopting the phrase "arrogance is bliss?" Thomas Grey must be rolling over in his grave at the thought. When did it become OK for me to start thinking, "well I know what our church should be like, I know how we should worship, I know what traditions we should do away with, I know what God really wants!"

Well I have news for myself. I love and serve a God who has called murderers and adulterers men after his own heart and who called the "religious elite" of his time a group of snakes. Who am I to denounce the beliefs, the practices, the traditions practiced by those who love the same God I do. The same worn-out tradition that I think is disfunctional could be the same pragmatic necessity to my brother or sister when feeling closest to God.

And it's that brother/sister distinction where I find myself so often getting in trouble. In my personal situation, I so often find myself thinking that all of you in the "young adults" demographic are my brothers and sisters and the other folks at Southeast or at other churches or other denominations are just church-goers or people with whom I am friends. But it's funny, because, while I have such a heart for people our age, as much as I try, they are not the only people who desperately need God. We think all the time that because we are younger and more in tune with pop-culture and ground-breaking technology that we know the way to reach people's hearts. Well, for some, we do.....but for so many more, we don't. Do you think my 70-year old Hispanic neighbor in Heritage Park gives one flying flip about blogging and viral marketing? I doubt it.

And it's laughable to think that we will all be different than previous generations and that we will actually change with the times. When we are blogging on this old decrepit thing called the internet in 50 years, our grandkids will be beaming virtual messages into memory chips implanted in their brains and saying the exact same things about all of us.

So to me, the lesson here is simple. If this was a world of 18-35 year olds, we would all be right most of the time. Worship would be geared towards them, outreach would directly affect them, technology would influence them, etc. But obviously, it's not. There are a lot of people in this world who don't care about our World Wide Interwebnet and our 7-11 songs (the same 7 words sung 11 times). What they desire is a little personal door-to-door conversation and some good old-fashioned When the Roll is Called up Yonder.

So can we agree we're not right all the time? Can we agree that cell phones and Powerpoint songs and Nooma videos are not what make us brother and sister? Can we agree that sometimes we just have to realize that God works in ways we can not see or understand, but he loves the 27- and the 87-year-old just the same?

Thank God for that.

I'll end with one of my favorite quotes from author Bernard Bailey. It seems quite fitting:

"When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it."

RK

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When I sent out my email last week, I accidentally put a wrong link to this website instead of the actual URL. I apologize for this, because it apparently takes you to a completely different site that has nothing to do with me or us or Southeast, and it was not my intention for that to happen.