Starbucks
(Warning: ridiculously long rant coming up and it's geared towards me. This is an exhale of thoughts and criticisms of my faith and supposed Jesus I've followed for a very long time.)
It has become my morning office and as I'm sitting here I'm evesdropping on a manager training a new barista. She is going over the values and conduct of barristas. I'm telling you that she is getting me fired up about starbucks. Heck, I've already had a coffee but now I want another one! She is talking about their values being Passion, Integrity, Respect and a few other ones. She is definitely passionate and if I was ever to get a job in the marketplace it would be at Starbucks (if they would let me have Sundays off)
Here's the million dollar question: Why is it so hard for us to be as contagious as this manager is about Starbucks when it comes to Jesus. If there was ever someting for us to get amped up about it's him. This is just a stinkin coffee shop and yet people would rather be here than encountering Jesus in a life altering way. Most people walk into church and want to fall asleep. It's become a tradition; just something we do cause we've always done it. Then they encounter us and there is nothing contagious about us. They are basically doing what we do (minus church) so why do they need God. They give more blood, help the needy more, take care of the environment better and the list goes on. We've got so consumed with what music we are singing and how everyone is dressed that there is nothing to offer anyone except a Jesus that sits in the pew next to them and snoozes as the pastor preaches way too long about something that doesn't make sense. (the preacher is me)
I think I have misinterpreted Jesus for far too long as a long haired sensitive man that holds sheep and carries children on his back all day long. I'm sure he did hid fair share of this but there is so much more. The longer I've been a Christian, the more I lose sight of the Kingdom of God and it turns into the kingdom of Dan. I lose sight of the militant nature of the kingdom of God. I lose sight of the revolution. Of how Jesus walks into a culture and turns it on it's head. The religiuos leaders go nuts! He never once yells at a "sinner" like we see so often on street corners or in front of abortion clinics. Yet he flips on the religious people. On me. And tells me I've got it all wrong. Wow.
So now what? I have GOT to live a contagious life that provokes people to ask quesions about Jesus. I have got to follow the Jesus of the bible that sparks a revolution - an epidemic - and not the JEsus of my Christian ghetto that tells me I'm okay and that it's fine to sit and wait for the "sinners" to come to me.
So where are the Christ followes that are going to purge themselves of the tired religion that puts people to sleep, put on a Starbucks apron as it were and start the spread of something in this region that people have never seen before? I'm in...are you
(Rant over)
