Half Full

I would like to give up today. The house is a mess from a week of spring break. The kids have decided to finger paint so they're covered from head to toe. As is the table, the wall and the floor. I've lost track of what's dirty laundry and what's clean. There's puddles of water in the basement and a cemetary of broken electronics in the back porch. I think we have about $8.53 in the bank, plus a coupon for 2 free gallons of milk. And I can't find the words to solve a work-related writer's block that kept me up until 3am last night and is still distracting today.

The windows are open for the first time since last fall and I just put pretty spring sheets on all the beds. My coffee is semi-hot and my daughter is cleaning her room without being asked. And she just scrubbed the paint off of her brother. They're eating goldfish crackers, which is better than chocolate cake, and having an interesting discussion about orange juice. The TV has been off all morning.

I think I will give up today and go outside and play with the neighbors.

Gracias, Arturo

"If you're going to win the world for Christ, you're going to have to sit in the smoking section." - Neil Cole

Jesus Comes To Montana

One of the best, no - THE best - coffeeshop I've ever hung out in happens to be directly across the hall from my design studio (did you know I had a design business? yep, I do...www.playdesignwork.com).

It's called Montana Coffee and it's one of those rare "businesses" that feels so friendly and comfortable that you don't even mind spending twenty bucks everytime you walk in the door. The owners and employees have become friends, the coffee is fantastic, they serve me sourdough toast with loads of butter every morning AND there's an awesome mural of old-time Montana, complete with an angry grizzly bear. It's a gem and the cornerstone of our developing downtown Minneapolis neighborhood.

This week, we found out that the owners had sold Montana Coffee to a church group. The group already conducts two Sunday evening "services" there, the kind with a sermon on TV, soothing acoustic guitars and singers rapping enthusiastically about the awesome love of Jesus. It's pretty low-key and hasn't caused much controversy. But the announcement that this group planned to actually BUY the coffeeshop, add a Weds. night service and possibly stop serving wine and beer has caused total freak-outedness among hard-core patrons and those of us with businesses in the same building. We have much love for Montana.

Now, all of this puts me, fellow crazy Jesus lover + fellow crazy Montana Coffee lover, in a potentially uncomfortable position. As much of a disciple as I try to be, I have to agree with Nairobi Paul's comment that "there are some good things about Christians being in business-but some bad things when they try to Christianize things that maybe shouldn't be." Paul is also a fellow crazy Jesus lover - a missionary in Africa, in fact. We Christians know that this distinction places him WAY high on the Get Into Heaven list and makes him an authority on All Things Holy (major sarcasm intended...a subject for another post!)

But I think his point is that many Christian businesses interpret the call to "meet people where they're at" in ways that contribute to the stereotype of the present day evangelist - ways that put people off and do more to close ears and hearts than to spark a curiousity about Jesus. And ways that don't contribute to the healthy bottom line necessary to run a successful business. So everyone loses.

That's my fear for and of these new coffeeshop owners. I've read their website, which was sent to me by one of my seething studio-mates who is very concerned about working next door to a church. She has her own set of beliefs and does not want to be dealing with a group of people that, in her words, "are basically telling me that I'm going to hell." That is her experience and view of Christianity, and I'm sure many people share it. I did, before my own uninvited but ultimately undeniable personal introduction to Jesus (Also a subject for another post...yah, yah, but I've got to be in the right mood for that one!)

My other studio-mate, who probably speaks well for the Recovering Catholic demographic, responded with, "I don't like to talk about religion. I used to work at a convent and had to bring the nuns juice. They were some of the meanest people I've ever been around. Just cruel in the things they said." Ouch. I hope they appreciated that juice, deep down in their souls.

And then there's Sida, who is Buddhist and the most level-headed person I know. "Church should be a beautiful place of worship. Like the Basilica or the St. Paul Cathedral. So why do these people have to have a big-screen TV and do Karoke?"

All valid concerns, in my opinion.

If these new owners really want to connect with the community, as their website says, I am excited for them. If they want to keep up the comfortable vibe of Montana and remain a pillar of our growing neighborhood, I'd rather have them than another Dunn Brothers any day.

The most fruitful ministry they can provide is good coffee, comfortable furniture, good evening entertainment (Christian and non-Christian), beer and wine and, of course, the sourdough toast.

By not changing much, their "reward" as evangelicals might be to make new friends and possibly to share their lives in Christ with a few people who are curious. I believe "walking the walk" and not judging others is the true call of discipleship. If they do that, using their lives as examples of God's glory, people will take notice. If they serve tracts about abortion or sinfulness along with the coffee, it won't matter if they've got the best scones in town. People won't listen. People won't care. And people will stop coming immediately. There's a small window for success, based on how Christians are perceived in our culture. We've done a good portion of the damage ourselves.

As for me, I've decided I should be part of the solution. Maybe I'm in a unique position to help the new owners transition and also provide some of the services that they're interested in in a way that will attract and not alienate.

I'll send them an email offering my perspective and help. Maybe in exchange, I won't have to spend twenty bucks a day on coffee and toast. See, now that way, everybody wins!

I'll let you know what happens...

Everywhere I Go

This is my favorite thing right now:

http://www.noggin.com/shows/movemusic.php - click on "Everywhere I Go"

Every time this comes on TV when my son is watching Noggin, I just go nuts. I can't help dancing around the living room singing it at the top of my lungs. The other day, I was barely out of the shower, the shades were wide open and there was the mailman. I did have a towel on and decided it would be in bad taste if I waved back at him.

For some weird reason, whenever I hear this happy little song, it reminds me of a friend I had a few years back. We're not friends anymore and I never really figured out why. She is pretty complicated and cursed with a strong sense of justice. I think she thinks I chickened out. I am also pretty complicated and cursed with a strong sense of responsibility. We all have our burdens, I guess, and at some point, most of us do chicken out.

I think she would like the song as much as I do and feel perfectly okay dancing naked in front of the mailman. That is what I miss about her.

Some

Dudes, the world is SO big. So much going on that I long to be a part of, to have a voice in, like I would actually have something worth saying. I might, you never know. But instead, I've got bills to pay and someone has to be somewhere by 9am and someone else has to talk to me and someone else won't talk to me and it's always something else.

Yah, How Come?

"If the gospel is about transformation, how is it that two thousand years of proclamation have had so little effect? How is it that the gospel of Jesus Christ, so far from producing radical change, has instead become a cloak for avarice and arrogance, for a willful deafness to the cry of the poor and of the earth itself?"

- Theodore Jennings, Jr., "Good News For The Poor"