I had the chance today to have breakfast with an old friend that I hadn't seen in several years.   Since the last time we saw each other, I have had two children and changed careers, and he had moved from California to Oregon to Colorado and back to California.  It was incredible to re-connect with a kindred spirit.  We had served together in ministry when he was a youth pastor and I was a volunteer in the youth group, and even joined a bowling league with our wives one summer.   When our paths diverged, it was hard.  I really loved him and his wife (and still do), but unfortunately in this world, we tend to live separate lives even when it would probably be better for us to live in close community (we can talk about that in another blog).  What I am really trying to get at is how cool and crazy it is that after several years (4+) and much change, we could pick-up right where we left off.  Intimately, communicating our hearts, our struggles, and our dreams.  It is also amazing how God has brought us down a similar path in discovering more about who Jesus is, what the church's mission is, and how to live out the Gospel.  We both have realized over the last several years that we had grown tired of "playing church", and so we are on a mission to change the way we do church.  We don't want to be a part of a religious social club, but instead want to be a part of a community that is focused on inspiring and equipping its participants to live for Christ out of their one uniqueness and giftedness with a vision to change the community within the church and without the church with a special focus on the marginalized and forgotten of our society. My old friend is a bi-vocational pastor with a shepherd's heart.  He works like everyone else in a part time job and is also a part time pastor.   He doesn't advertise to his co-workers that he is "a pastor", but somehow they know.  Here is an excerpt from an email that I sent him today after we met sharing my thoughts regarding our conversation and an anecdote from work that he shared with me:  

I was thinking about our conversation and a passage from the Bible came to mind.  There is a lot in this passage for us to chew on that directly applies to what we were talking about regarding what so good about the good news, especially for the marginalized and how should we respond to it.  I especially like the end where Jesus summarizes the response to John and then to him by the religious leaders. It is kind of like Jesus is saying, you can't win either way. I think the message to us is to learn to be authentic, to be ourselves.  When your co-worker friend says that you are more like a frat boy than a pastor, I would take that as a compliment.  Based on these verses,  I think Jesus was perceived as a frat boy, too. And I don't think that was just the religious folks' opinion.  His "sinner" friends enjoyed his company.  Who would most people like to hang out with, a religious pastor or a Christ following frat boy?  Perhaps, we need more Christ following frat boys running churches.  Clearly, Jesus figured out how to party and throw a good party without sinning.  Wouldn't it be cool if Church was more like a good frat party (where all sinners are welcome and encouraged to be authentically themselves) and less like a moral religious social club where "sinners" feel very condemned and uncomfortable and will probably leave before the "wine" is served.   Just a few thoughts -- peace out....check out the passage below....

Matthew 11:1-19

Jesus and John the Baptist

    ¹After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.^[a]

    ²When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples ³to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

    ⁴Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: ⁵The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy^[b]are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. ⁶Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

    ⁷As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? ⁸If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings' palaces. ⁹Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. ¹⁰This is the one about whom it is written:
   " 'I will send my messenger ahead of you,
      who will prepare your way before you.'^{[c] 11}I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. ¹²From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. ¹³For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. ¹⁴And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. ¹⁵He who has ears, let him hear.

    ¹⁶"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
    ¹⁷" 'We played the flute for you,
      and you did not dance;
   we sang a dirge
      and you did not mourn.' ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions."