Coming Out ... Pete Greig
 It's time to come out of the closet. At the risk of losing all credibility amongst the Alternative worship shoe gazers and the pomo-pogo arty crowd, can I just say that I think the church is actually really WONDERFUL! I'm tired of being tired of her. I'm bored of being bored. I'm willing to admit that she is me and I am part of the mess and part of the blessing too.
The church is BEAUTIFUL. I mean, where else do you get people behaving with such outrageous generosity, such counter-cultural thoughtfulness, such unstoppable and irresponsible gentleness towards one another on a regular basis?
You can hate the music, flatten the structures, moan about the meetings, disappear into a prophetic black hole but I'll still be one of them - One of those screwed up, down-trodden, out-of-touch, utterly underwhelming bunch of misfits and maniacs known as the church.
Welcome party
A girl in our church became a follower of Jesus a while ago and her parents didn’t like it. She decided to go to University and they refused to drive her to the campus 300 miles away. So a Christian – a girl called Charlotte – drove Julia on a 600 mile round trip. And she then persuaded two car-loads of other Christians to secretly drive up in advance, so that when Julia arrived at University, nervous and uncertain, nine Christians were waiting in her room to welcome her to her new home! Normal people don’t do that.
Downs dancing
A few weeks ago in our Sunday meeting (which was, as usual, more Flashdance than Matrix) a guy with Downs Syndrome danced for us to a beautiful piece of music. As he moved his limbs awkwardly to the easy-flowing music, lost in wonder love and the glow of our praise, I wondered where else in our town that day anything remotely similar was happening.
Aghan peace
The NGO Aid agencies have abandoned Afghanistan, despite all the western promises of reconstruction. Why? Because the big money is now in Iraq. The vast majority of those left behind in Kabul are Christian mission agencies, unable to access NGO funding but with a sense of long-term calling to the Afghan people that outlasts the fads of the media frenzy. Their morals and lifestyle are far more palatable to the Afghan people than the flashy western Aid workers in search of Adventure with an Indiana Jones approach to the local culture. Meanwhile the missionaries quietly live amongst the people. They give all they can to the local people. Lets be honest about it – they really do love the local people.
Pretty in pink
I turned my entire wardrobe pink in a single wash and a guy I vaguely know at church stopped laughing long enough to give me a load of cash to buy new stuff. I was merely grateful but my friends at work were stunned. I mean the guy hardly knew me right?
Right now, the church seems to have a corporate identity crisis. She puts herself down, apologises for herself, laughs at her own peculiarities. A little too loud. If she was a 14 year old girl she’d be starving herself or cutting herself or sleeping around. But the bible says that God loves the church. He believes in her – even when she’s a slut in the gutter (check out Hosea). He is passionate about her. Revelation says she’s his bride to be. Song of Songs describes a divine romance between Christ and his people.
2 or 3
Of course some of the things we label as 'church' just aren't church at all! Sometimes we use the word to describe a structure. A religious club. A historical society - not the community that makes God’s heart race and his spine tingle. But wherever people gather in the name of Jesus, he promises to appear. Not out of some dull duty, some biblical handcuff. He appears because he wants to be there like lovers always do. Like lovers always will. And you can laugh at the furniture, hate her mother’s cooking and her father’s jokes but you still want to be with that girl every time she calls. And sometimes when she doesn’t.
So you can make church a place of smells and bells with free-range monks and polystyrene communion wafers or you can make it a happy clappy bless-me club with facial hair and non-alcoholic wine, you can shout in tongues or chant in Latin, you can read the King James or the Eugene Peterson versions of Scripture. But if the gathering is in the name of Jesus, I know that he’ll be there. I know that love will be there. And yes, I guess I’ll be there as well.
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