Our Tribe

Really.

I'm trying to be gracious. I'm trying to look for the good in some members of the tribe known as Christians, to which I am unashamedly a part of. But, like any family, when we have our family reunions, we get all kinds.

I get happy when the family member I like and admire shows up at the "reunion."

One family member I like and admire was at our church staff pre-show dinner with the band "Lost and Found." We asked them a question about their next challenges and how long they could keep doing the "band" thing. Michael, the singer/guitarist, answered, "Well, pretty much any band can do a concert and have kids walk away saying,'What a great band.' We play with the house lights up, interact with our audience before, during and after the show, because we want kids to leave our concerts saying,'Wow. I'm a great kid.'" The point was that they wanted to encourage people that God loves them, and those people on the stage loved them, too. They said they could keep doing the "band thing" as long as they were one of the few bands doing that kind of thing.

Then, there's the flip side, like when the obnoxious, cigar-smoking, scotch drinking uncle shows up (c'mon, doesn't every family have one of those?).

In this case, the "obnoxious uncle" church we try to tolerate is going around the neighborhoods in our community putting these door-hanging ads on front doors. You know, those things that usually have carpet-cleaning ads or pizza coupons on them? Those things. Except they aren't coupons of any type...just an ad for their upcoming sermon series. I'm not making this up, and this is it, verbatim:

"Join us for a revealing new series.

Desperate Housewives
(using the desperate housewives logo, hmmm.)

of the Bible

As a culture we are fascinated by other people's dirty laundry. Today one of the most popular programs on television is a show that exposes the foolish actions of desperate housewives. You might be amazed, but the Bible exposes somewomen who were not always squeaky clean.

Join Pastor _____ _____ as he reveals the profound life lessons learned from these desperate housewives and the impact those lessons have for both men and women. Discover what drives us to choose desperate actions to solve our problems."

The flip side of the door-hanger reads:

"Everyone has a little dirty laundry."

It has a picture of laundry on a line outside a ritzy home. And, if I bring back the ad, the church will give me a "free gift." It's a book called "God's Promises for Women."

Lots of questions for my crazy uncle, and I'm tempted to blast away with the obvious "worldly" thinking their using, but, I think it'd be best to just bloggingly roll my eyes at the obnoxious uncle and go into the next room when they go on their rants.

I guess what worries me is that somebody went to a seminar and they really believe this is a good way to go about Kingdom things...and it also worries me that there's reason to believe that their campaign might actually be relatively successful.

Today, I feel very far afield from my fellow tribesmen...except all the people I ate dinner with on Friday.