VIEWER DISCRETION
ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY
This foreword is a postscript.
The past three days and nights
of penning this posting
have been painful.
Reading it will be too.
This is not cozy comfy.
It's condemnation of
faux, fraud church.
It's call to clear,
clean church.
Countries, currencies,
cultures, crumble.
Truth based societies collapse.
We need
Jesus Christ Shared
Real Church
This is a challenge to be
as Jesus invites,
not nominally, partially, but
ALL IN
The church in its present manner
is way too often not at all
ALL IN
We need to be.
That will take spiritual guts and grit
GRACED STAMINA
The challenge in Revelations
isn't just a some sometime one.
IT'S
HERE AND NOW
"So because you are lukewarm,
and neither hot nor cold,
I will spit you out of my mouth...
He who has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches."
(Revelation 3:16 7 22)
******
Dear All of Us,
It's Sunday morning.
I'm slowed soulful mellow.
I'm not going to church.
Just can't work up the
accommodation needed
for another episode of
Sunday Morning
Show Time
cutesy, content laden
children's sermons that
completely bypasses the kids
and aim to entertain adults,
trys at entertaining with
performance music
and snappy media,
routine ruined ritual,
sometimes
slick sales talk
sermons,
sometimes
pastor's persuasion
and
preference sermons,
too many times
what's the point
sermons,
sharing of the peace
that's neither a sharing
nor about peace,
a gathering that doesn't unite,
a crowd not a community,
a less than persuaded presence,
a spiritually shallow hour of
too much more of less,
fluffy glad handing at the door.
Sunday Morning
Show Time
I just want to be truly together
in a genuine community of love,
imperfect for sure, but sweaty real,
sincerely share, deeply pray,
truly hear The Word
enliven everyday living,
feed on some for real soul food,
warmly fellowship, commit to care
within and beyond.
Where do I go?
Like lots of others,
not to church this Sunday.
Hey, I'd better be careful here or
headquarters may put a hold on
my humble church pension.
As now a retired pastor
on the other side of the alter
I get why so many don't go.
We crave, we long for substance
and get show and tell that
not at all shows and tells to soul.
Suday Morning
Show Time
is a picture not so perfect
of what passes for church.
Way too many "churches" aren't.
Of course there are some churches
that really and actually are
beautifully real church.
Just not too many
where many/most of us are.
In this chaotic, crisis time
that's a crying shame.
We spiritually starved are
LONGING
for
REAL and TRUE
COMMUNITY
for
REAL JESUS Christ
REALLY LIVED
and
REALLY SHARED
HONEST TO GOD
CHURCH
We would embrace
the real deal.
Instead, scandalously often
we are delt churchy jokers.
I'm not giving up,
but I can't stomach
religious junk food,
served up in faux church.
Neither have to be fancy,
just real.
So Here's A
Real Deal
For Instance.
It was pure gift
from heaven for me
to serve a small, poor, rural
southern, black church.
They took me in and to heart,
white and all.
Those folks didn't have much,
but did they ever have each other
and did they ever know
that Jesus had them.
Sure, they'd squabble and mess up,
sometimes big time.
Even more surely, though,
they had each other's backs
and a heart for each other.
They were really giving a go
at living
"kin-dom"
life together,
at really living Jesus Christ
"the way, the truth and the life."
They made sure that
members short on cash
had food on the table,
that the kids were covered
when parent(s) had to work,
that the disabled and elderly
were in the mix and cared for.
When we prayed the place rocked.
When we sang the place rolled.
We had lots of dinners together.
The food was plentiful
and so southern good.
There were games and music,
sometimes even dancing.
We mixed and met!
We made a lot of noise
at funerals.
We celebrated long and real
on Sundays.
It took lots of time and
meant lots of good.
Somehow, we covered rents
when folks were out of work.
The rectory didn't have
a lock on the door,
but it did have a large screen TV
and lots of food in the kitchen.
The teens would often
be right at home there
when we'd get home.
We had a little cemetery.
No charge for a plot
and the men and boys
dug the graves and
tended the grounds,
no money involved.
The teens did study mentoring
for the little kids on Saturdays
in our small rectory.
There's lots more, but I trust
we all get the good there
and that can be in our here.
So, what do we do,
where do we go?
Well, to our knees and
The Holy Spirit.
In The Holy Spirit
we check out
what's around,
real and open
in our area
or online.
I have found
a touch of community
in two weekly small group
Zoom gatherings here in DC:
a Bible Study and
an Evening Prayer.
Were it not for COVID
I would be inviting
a small group to gather
in our home,
taking Jesus, each other,
and the needs of others
to heart and practice.
Church
I can't do that just now.
Perhaps you can.
In any case,
please let me share
a new, fresh help and blessing
as we try to sort ourselves out
and find a way forward.
It takes time, lots of it,
to slowly and expansively
pray through with others
"Do I Stay Christian"
Brian Mc Claren,
2022,
St. Martin's
Publishing Group.
Brian is bright, perceptive,
informed, clear and candid.
He is a retired college professor
and pastor, a church life consultant,
and spiritual writer.
He sees straight.
He talks straight.
He nails the peril and
shines the promise.
He maps a way clear and clean.
If you need to move off
dead and deadening center,
PLEASE
let Brian be your moving man.
He offers ten sections showing
the miss and mess of Christianity.
It details and documents
reasons to check out.
He then does exactly the same
the other way round,
ten sections showing
the good and real
of Christianity/church.
It details and documents
reason to stay and recommit.
For those who do stay,
he then offers wonderful,
if challenging, ways to do so,
to refresh, re-presence, reform.
The way forward
is not travel along
Leisure Lane.
It takes lots
to tackle together,
to take to heart,
to transition
to truly being and
living together
The Body of Christ
Church
For those of us stranded
in a church nowhere
because of COVID
or because of faux church,
please consider an online connection
with a real and robust community
and excellent pastor.
There are many.
One I can personally vouch for:
(Just Google)
St. Paul's Lutheran Church
Lititz, PA
Pastor Rob Myallis
Church at 717-626-4709
Excellent pastor and parish.
(This coming Sunday.
July 24th.
they are not online)
Look, all this is raw rough.
Society is imploding.
Churches are too.
We need Real!
Too many (frankly most)
"churches" aren't.
They are local franchises
of denominational corporations.
I know this is hard on you.
Know that it is hard on me.
We'd better face up to it
while we can.
We'd better give more than
two hoots for the sakes of
children, youth, young adults,
and as Brian McClaren says,
"...the doubters, the disappointed,
and the disillusioned", indeed the
Kin-dom"
It's not over unless we quit.
It's a good and holy thing
to be
Longing
for shared right and real.
Jesus did and we can
in and with him
and each other.
Let's do it!
Hopeful,
John Frank
******
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spirituality for the street
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******
Tough go this week.
Thanks for going
the distance!
Looking forward
to being together
and giving it
another go
next week.
******
