In my scripture reading last night, I came across Ephesians 2. It really is the key to this whole thing. I need to read it every day--a reminder of who I am and why I am here.

"Ephesians 2 is such a powerful passage. Ephesians 2:8-9 was drummed into me growing up, but, like so much of the theology that I was exposed to, it only tells part of the story--a very small part. We have to back up and look at the big picture. In 4-7, Paul imagines us "alive together with Christ...and raised...up with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace toward us in Christ Jesus" Wow! Good stuff! And why? Why did God do this for us? V.10 "For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life." Shazam! Bang! Here it is! So incredibly simple. Seven verses that explain the whole thing. Jason is a glorious child of God, seated with Christ, created to do good works. Let's get on with it boy!"

We had a great meetup last night. 5 people were there--all of on similar, if not the same, wavelengths. For me it was definitely a nourishing conversation. The group decided that we would tackle Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christian for the next couple of meetings.

My Bible reading this morning included Matthew 9:10-13 (from The Message):

 Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riff-raff?”

Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”

All of the sudden it became real to me. Or more real. I think I get it, I tell people I get it, I get frustrated at our church folks that I assume don't get it. But do I really get it? When I dream about what our church could be, I envision this spiritual utopia, where we worship and work together. Where all of us insiders gather to enjoy mutual coddling. The problem is that ain't it, according to Jesus. The "spiritual" don't need help. The healthy don't need a doctor. The insiders don't need to be coddled.

Am I doing everything I can to engage the outsider, the unchurched, the "unspiritual." And it matters to a much lesser extent I believe, but when I do reach out to the outsider, is my intention to focus on them for them the way Jesus did, or am I looking to grow "my" church and impress the spiritual insiders?

What would my ministry look like, what would the church's ministry look like if we really were directed toward the outsider, the one that Jesus loved?

I spent a few hours yesterday going door to door in the neighborhood surrounding the church. It's always a fantastic experience. It is so easy to spend so much time inside the church and with church people that I forget the people who reside just a few hundred feet from us--young people, old people, african americans, hispanics, islanders, white folks, gay, straight. Since I was offering an invitation to breakfast, many were receptive. I couldn't help but thinking--what if a church could love its community to Jesus?

This weekend we had the annual meeting of the state setting of our denomination, the United Church of Christ. We vote on the annual budget and pass resolutions and other generally innocuous stuff.

However, our conference minister, Kent Siladi's address was fantastic. It drew us out of and above the level of discourse that is usually heard in denominational (not just ours, but any!) gatherings. He spoke about the core values of our conference, which are solid. And he spoke of our calling as churches, to be transformational communites:


I believe that the Florida Conference exists not to encourage maintenance and survival but rather to be a witness to transformation and common ministry and outreach. To be a Christian means to have a life transforming encounter with the Gospel. Transformation allows us to connect our faith to our daily lives and to work for God’s vision of justice and peace. The early Christian church was filled with the stories of God’s transforming power. People became disciples not because of what they read in the Bible, but because of what they experienced in Christian community. I believe Kirk Hadaway has it right when he observes that a church is called to be an “incarnational community”. Hadaway says, “The Church as incarnational community seeks to embody Christ’s mission by proclaiming the realm of God is here – and by
living in it. To do this we must grow disciples, and in order to grow we must be open to change, to transformation.” (C. Kirk Hadaway, Behold I Do a New Thing, Pilgrim Press, 2001)