Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple, Open the Doors, and See all the People..

That's the trouble, isn't it? They're all inside for the most part. Almost invisible. You almost have to go looking for them. I remember a time when you couldn't get away from them. Times were different then, I guess. If you ask people these days, ""Where are the Christians? Where are Jesus' people?" What will they say?

Would it be something like; "Oh, they are all downtown in the slum, making complete fools of themselves, singing, dancing around, talking to everyone who will listen about Jesus, cleaning up in the rough neighborhoods and vacant lots, painting storefronts, visiting senior citizens, taking around meals to shut ins, helping people fix up their houses. Why, there's whole groups of them, walking through bad neighborhoods, displacing gangs and drug dealers, hanging out in parks and on the streets downtown making music and witnessing to people who are curious.

They're just being publicly joyful, making joyful noises to the Lord, singing gospel songs together, laughing and talking, some are helping people get their lives together, some doctors and nurses are giving away free health screening services, some Christians from NA are talking to people about getting addiction counseling, or going to AA, some just drive around giving water and sandwiches to homeless people, a couple of big bouncer types are standing guard at night in the homeless shelters to help make them safer so people will use them, some are finding places for runaways to stay, making food and feeding the poor, some hippie types are running a little storefront to give away free clothes and shoes, most evenings and weekends there's even more of them, just hanging out in a park, making a welcome place to sit and have coffee and maybe talk if you want, during the week, there's some helping people with job hunting services, even paying a small wage to help some of the older folks in the neighborhoods and even in the church.

Some girls are providing a free day care center for homeless people so they can try to find a job, some guys with vans are running shuttles to the Department of Economic Security, the DMV, or the Social Security office. There are some guys on the weekends with tools, helping single mothers get their cars fixed so they can get to work. On Friday and Saturday nights a couple of times a month, they're putting on free concerts of gospel and Christian music, with choirs from churches all over the city, having prayer meetings and sometimes all out church services right out in the park, where anybody can find them, and be part of it if they want. Some of them are preaching and teaching, calling people to Christ, some of them are speaking in churches all over town recruiting young and old alike to come and help, to find a place to serve God, to go out and make a difference, you know same old thing you always see them doing. Bunch of dang fanatics!" Right?

Not really, not any more. Not for a long time. You might see some of them helping build a house or two with Habitat for Humanity, until Jimmy goes back to Georgia, you might see a few, maybe even several of them out on the street in front of Planned Parenthood, you see them advocating against same sex marriage during the run up to the latest proposition, protesting euthanasia, on a vigil at a death sentence being carried out, or at some republican politician's rally, you see them in the parking lots at their churches. you might see them in Denny's after church, and you might even be able to tell that some of them are Christians. You might see the Jehovah's Witnesses out walking through neighborhoods knocking on doors, young Mormon boys riding around on bikes doing more or less the same things. You might even see a few of them doing some of the more radical things I mentioned before, but you'd have a hard time finding them, if you didn't know where to look. I'm not saying nobody's doing anything, I'm saying MOST Christians are doing almost nothing anyone can see.

You might see a few working at soup kitchens and food banks, you might see some at Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, you might even see a few out on the street preaching and evangelizing, maybe a few passing out tracts, or slapping them on windshields. Mostly though, they look just like everybody else. You wouldn't know for sure really, and don't look to close to see what they are really up to, or watch how they act in traffic.....you wouldn't be impressed sometimes. There's nothing all that different about them, nothing that really sets them apart from the world they all live in, is there? There's the odd fish symbol, or a dove, maybe a sticker from their mega-church in the window, there might be a cross hanging from the mirror, maybe a few who visibly carry their bible around with them. At work, they mostly keep their heads down, although some manage to get on people's nerves, or act like a little Christian social clique. For work, I think that's probably OK....work is work and it's an unfair imposition there, yet, I'm afraid that's where you'll see most people trying to evangelize.....because there's no where else to do it.

It seems to be taken for granted that because we are a Christian country, and most of us are Christians, that you don't need to stand out, to be different than everyone else. You don't have to stand out. It's perfectly alright to blend in, not make waves. It's somewhere else that needs our attention, right? America's a Christian country, everything is just fine. No need to go all radical over Jesus...........is there? Maybe there is, maybe we should be out there being a pain in the neck to people. giving atheists and agnostics a place to argue, to try to talk us out of Jesus. Instead, what do we really have? Not much anyone can see.

Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple,
Open the Doors, and See all the People.

Otherwise...you really don't.


God bless and keep you,

James