say say say

if you haven't done so already, please read the post below first.

excellent. so, peter copied my post on his blog, and it's been getting comments over there. here are a few thoughts of mine.

this one time, i made a promise that included the line, "i will be faithful to the purposes for which God raised up the salvation army, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, endeavouring to win others to Him, and in His name caring for the needy and the disadvantaged."

i think that means my hands are supposed to get dirty, too. it's individualistic to think division of labour applies to the church the way it does to a factory. there are some basic functions every cell performs. (btw, i think this applies to all Christians, and not just us. but it especially applies to us because we sign pieces of paper that talk about how it SO applies to us.)

this other time, i realized that worship must always be on God's terms, not mine. i doubt a lot of israelites were begging to be sprinkled with blood as part of worship . . . God still asked it. few non-Christians have begged me to tell them about Jesus . . . i still think i'm probably supposed to.

even if you don't think it's an imperative, God is certainly inviting us all into communion and baptism. why we would refuse - as individuals, let alone as a community! - is beyond me. every other denomination of Christians has sought Christ in the mysteries. why are we resisting?

p.s. i think there is something uniquely powerful about parish-based ministry because it's a real concerted effort to effect spiritual growth and change in a given community. and i think the church is more like family than like friends: you don't get to pick them.