christianese

I took some of the Toona girls to my parents house in OH-IO this weekend and it was SO fun. They got to meet my parents and bro, see Hudson - and why its the best, and I got to share with them my life prior to meeting them. It was so great. I love those girls so much.
Last night we went to a concert in Cleveland - Casting Crowns with Nichole Nordeman. It was a really great concert. Some of the lyrics to the Casting Crowns songs were really great and multiple times throughout the night I was like, man these guys really get it. They really get how to love people and they sing about how the church needs to be loving people better and deeper.

Then it happened.

After intermission this guy stood up and did a gospel presentation for about 20-30 minutes. He was extremely clear in the process of salvation and at the end of it a lot of people "signed the consent form for a new heart" and stood up to show for it, BUT it was SO hard for me to stomach the whole thing. The guy had a bracelet on that looked like a medical bracelet, which he was using to describe Christ and he was like, look, now non Christians will ask me if I'm ok, because of this bracelet, and I will tell them how I was just in for a heart transplant. The bracelet has the acronym L.I.F.T. on it. When people ask about the bracelet, you can go through the acronym with them. L means you had a Life changing event - you realized something was missing. Then you found out you had a terminal Infection in your heart. Then a Famous person came and gave you their heart so you could have a Transplant for a new heart. So by "signing the release form" in theory to have this crazy operation, you were committing your life to Christ. Then they had people raise their hand if they wanted to do that, and then stand up and they had them sign up to get a free devotional in the mail so that they could help you with follow up.

Now, more than once the guys talked about getting involved in your local church, they were VERY supportive of local churches being involved in the people's lives who were at the concert. So I definitely give them props for that, but seriously during the whole presentation thing I was sick to my stomach. I will admit that I have more times than one explained the gospel in a manner similar to the LIFT acronym. But lately I just hate the thought of explaining Jesus like that. He is SO much more than that and there is so much more to us than agreeing to sign a release paper. I give props for these guys for being so bold. I give props for these guys for trying to reach the masses and using oppurtunities like last night's concert for doing that. But I have come to the realization that I hate ministry like that. Jesus was relational. He talked to people individually. He knew their hearts. He went to where they were. He was on their turf. He wanted to know about them. I just think we put him into such a box and make a relationship with him look so cheesy when we present him in a way like was presented last night.
I really struggled with writing about this on the blog. I struggle with writing a lot of stuff because of my motives, but I just couldn't stop thinking about it. There was a time when I was all about living in a Christian subculture - Living with my safe Christian friends, in my comfortable Christian house and listening to my nice Christian music and saying and doing all the "right" things. But last night I was really struggling. I LOVED that I was with those girls and Im so glad that we got to go to that concert, but I kept thinking about all the hurt people that were out last night celebrating St. Patrick's day and I felt a little weird. I found myself wanting to be out there with them. I want my life to be messy. I don't want to be safe. I want to go into the battle without my little LIFT bracelet and really love people - love them because Jesus loves me like that. I want to be there in the midst of their pain and struggles, and joys and tears and love them.
I feel SO judgmental right now - I'm sure the people that spoke last night had great intentions and I am sure that some people actually began relationships with Christ last night that will last for the rest of their lives - praise God for that. I just feel like God's bigger than our formulas and our simple explanations about how to enter into a relationship with him. Life with Jesus is easy, but it's not. It's great but it can be really hard. I just don't feel like LIFT bracelets are the answers to everyone's problems - I think loving them the way Christ does may be a start though...