2008 September | haRdLy NOrMal

Archive for September, 2008

My new gay friend

Published by September 16th, 2008 in Change, Character, Church, Life's Lessons

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For the last two months I have been visiting a local store several times a week and made friends with the kid at the front counter. We have openly talked about church, Jesus, his family, my family and life in LA! The first time I walked into the store I felt like I should share my testimony, which I did. I did so as conversation and was not confrontational. We talk about church and ministry every time I am there.

Here is the interesting part. The store is frequented by lots of beautiful women and last week I commented that it must drive him crazy. He looked me right in the eyes and said, “it does not bother me a bit, I’m gay” WHAT? For almost two months now I have been talking about church and he never once judged me. I was shocked. Not that he is gay, but that he was so cool.

We still talk about church, ministry, marketing and life in LA. He is a good kid and fun to talk to. He is also a great salesperson and besides genuinely befriending everyone he does an amazing job of upselling. Just because he is gay I didn’t start treating him any different and just because I am a Christian he never once treated me any different.

I don’t agree with his lifestyle yet I don’t have an agenda to “convert” him either. In fact, that is what is wrong with most Christians today. We point our finger condemning people as “sinners” which only continues to reinforce the tainted view people have of us, or we separate ourselves because we feel uncomfortable around people not exactly like us. Not just gays but homeless, handicapped, gutter punk kids and others.

In reality my new friend taught me a few very important lessons. Mainly to not judge people and allow them to be themselves. Although this sounds simple to most of us, me included, we have to fight past stereotypes and negative predispositions to truly love everyone. Too me, if Christians just started to be friendly instead of weird it would be a huge step in the right direction.

Blogging is work rant.

Published by September 15th, 2008 in Blogs, Change, Learning, Life's Lessons, Marketing

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Don’t let anyone tell you different. Blogging is work. As far as work goes, though, it leans to the more enjoyable side. My issues are 1) I just hate to write 2) finding the time 3) remembering all the cool ideas I had during the week

For those of you that subscribe or stop by often you’ll notice that I have not posted in a few weeks. For those of you that actually enjoy my rants please forgive me. And those of you who have been sending me emails asking for new “stuff” – thanks for giving me a kick.

Part of this is a result of having a life again. Pinch me! I still work in fulltime ministry and my employer makes it a priority that people have a life outside of work. I get to be like normal folks and I now have the time to “do things” – which I am! I started to play drums every week with a cool worship team and I am taking classes. Besides that I am catching up with old friends I have not seen in years. And let’s be real. Los Angeles has so much fun stuff to do I am always going. I am moving so fast just yesterday I had to look at a calendar to schedule laundry days.

I believe Seth once wrote about the hardest part of blogging is trying to figure out what not to post. I completely agree because I do my best to post only what I feel will help others. I know some probably think I am negative but I am the exact opposite. Lots of people go through the same madness and for whatever reason keep quiet. By reading about somebody else going through the same “junk” it helps with understanding and eventually healing. Just read the comments to my post Real Faith Is… to see that in action. One person commented about my blog saying they loved it because it was “insightful and vulnerable”. Their words not mine. Another blogger who I didn’t know linked to me with the comment -learn how to be a good weird and make a difference – THAT IS AWESOME! And still to this date the #1 entry search word is “breathalyzer” that takes people to a post I did about being honest with yourself, which you can read here. If you are searching to beat a breath test you have a problem! It is so cool they land on this post.

Throughout the week I get hit with ideas I want to post. It seems that a new idea pushes out the old ones and so on. I forget lots of great stuff and then when I sit-down to type, like I am now, I end up ranting about something completely different, like I am now.

Blogging takes a lot of discipline, courage and time. The actual time writing is minimal yet the backend energy required to be vulnerable and come up with the “right” posts can be exhausting. In hindsight if I knew what it takes to be a blogger I may have never started. One of the great benefits now is that before I recommend a client blog as a marketing strategy I can be really honest about the logistics. Nonetheless if I can help just one person become self-aware and change it is well worth it.

We can end homelessness. It is doable!

Published by September 1st, 2008 in My Big Mouth

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This thought kind of just happened by accident through two events.

I was working on a marketing strategy for a retreat and conference center on the East Coast in a very rural city and I happened to put the address into google maps and did a search on how many churches there are nearby. The results shocked me!

Then last Thursday Pastor Matthew stated he had heard that if every church took in just 2 homeless people the problem will be solved. Hmm…I started thinking about that I went back to google maps.

Let’s play a little game. Go to google maps and enter your church address. When the box appears click on “Search nearby”. Type in the word “church” and hit enter. Then on the left menu column you’ll see the option to “refine by:” Click on “distance” and look at the number. Now click on “15 miles”. Take that number and multiply by 2. If the churches in your area just helped 2 people each that would be the total amount of people helped and the end of homelessness or poverty is doable. Very doable!

Now I am not talking helping people by leading them into the “sinner’s prayer” and leaving them with toothpaste and a bottle of water. I mean really extending yourself and actually helping just 2 people out of poverty! Every church can help 2 people, can’t they?

As an example I didn’t want to use Los Angeles just because it is a large metropolitan area. The number is so huge it freaks me out! So this example will be more real I used my last physical address in Missouri. Within 15 miles of my old address there are 2,580 churches. Within 45 miles there are 9,243 churches. If each church helped just 2 people (a month? a year?) that would be 18,486 people helped out of poverty in St Louis. I might be wrong here but I believe the number of homeless in the St Louis area is less than 500 on any given night.

So I realized two things here. Solving homelessness is doable and the Body of Christ can actually make a serious impact if we just put our words into action. Also, as is right now, the church is selfish and blind. We believe we are helping people but if we just step back and see the real truth we would be aware of how little effect most churches have on the world.

I sure hope this is a wakeup call for someone!