Hello Xanga

This past weekend, we had our all church retreat up at Redwood Christian Park in Boulder Creek. It was a fantastic time to get away, enjoy some great fellowship, build up our body and really learn about God's love and how we can truly respond. This year's theme, "God cares so we care," really impacted those that attended.

It's an annual tradition to break up everyone who attends into "fun" groups to make silent skits (and we use the term silent loosely- we had music, sound effects and more). Each skit is based on scripture and the goal is to be able to get others to guess what scripture your skit was on. This year, each group went above and beyond, setting a record for most dance numbers in a single year.

For those that haven't seen these skits yet, can you guess what bible story each skit represents?

GROUP 1



GROUP 2



GROUP 3



GROUP 4



GROUP 5



GROUP 6



post your guesses in the comments! See if you can name them all!

As the last votes are coming in it appears that Proposition 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, is leading 52% to 48% with 95% reporting.  I am in agreement with this definition of marriage.  It is what the Bible teaches and what our society has held for a long time.  At the same time I do have concerns.

My concern about the passage of Prop 8 and more significantly the contentious campaign that preceded it is that it doesn't do much to change the perception of 91% of unchurched people between the ages of 16-29 that Christians are anti-homosexual.

The book unChristian by Kinnaman and Lyons contains the observation from a gay man named Peter.  "Many people in the gay community don't seem to have issues with Jesus but rather with those claiming to represent him today.  It's very much of an "us-versus-them" mentality, as if a war has been declared."

The battle for Prop 8 may have casualties we have not considered.  It may have widened the gap between Christ followers and a segment of society that needs to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.  Bridging the gap requires as much prayer and passion as the battle for Prop 8.  It requires us to shift the focus from winning a debate to taking the time to build relationships with people who are outside of our comfort zones.

One of my priorities as a Christian is building bridges that lead to relationship with those outside of the church.  This is why I am so proud of the way our church is building bridges by planting beautiful community gardens and by filling food pantries.

 

With this in mind I have been reading a book by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons called unChristian.  Since I haven’t read the whole book this isn’t a book review, rather they are reflections of what I have read so far. 

The authors did extensive research on the attitudes that young people, ages 16 to 29,  outside of the church think of Christians.  The back cover offers an overview.  “Using words like “hypocritical”, “insensitive” and “judgmental” young Americans share an impression of Christians that’s nothing short of …unChristian.”

 

They found that a large number of people outside of the church think of Christians as antihomosexual (91%) and judgmental (87%) than as having a faith you can respect (55%) or as consistently demonstrating love for people (55%).  More think of Christians as hypocritical (85%) than people you can trust (52%).

This is not the kind of impression that I want to give to the world and community I find myself in.  I want to be known more for what I stand for, not what I am against.  As a follower of Jesus Christ, I want to look for ways to love the people in the world I live in.  For me this means doing more listening and less opposing.  It means taking time to build relationships with people that are outside of my comfort zone.  It requires me to evaluate ways that I am being more unChristian than Christian.