Welcome to FPC! Smoking or Non-Smoking?

Reggie McNeal's book, Missional Renaissance, is rocking my world and shifting my thinking. Here's what I mean . . .

"He calls it the 'cigar bar church.' Every Sunday night, Chuck gathers a group of guys together around cigars and some drinks. They talk about everything--everything. Including God. 'These guys would never go to church,' he says. 'They'd shock everybody with their questions. Besides,' he adds, 'they don't let us smoke cigars in church.' Chuck is no rabble-rouser; he's an ex-pastor who grew frustrated at not being able to reach men with his church programming. . . . Chuck is providing a connection to the kingdom that doesn't come with all the church trappings that often obscure the primary point. Church is simple at the cigar bar: life is the issue; God is the conversation. Several of the cigar bar participants have become viral Jesus followers, infecting others with their newfound spiritual connections."

When Jesus commissioned his disciples to "Go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations . . . " He didn't anticipate large groups of people huddled together in buildings on Sunday mornings, singing "Christian songs", speaking "Christian language" and fighting for "Christian rights". He never planned for His church to be insulated from the culture. Instead, Jesus expected his followers to use what McNeal calls, "their life assignments as missionary posts to bless people." In our daily lives, in our closest relationships, in our spheres of influence, we are to represent God to people and people to God.

Here's a thought . . . instead of evangelizing people, which has digressed to mean "converting people to our world-view and convincing them to attend our church", try blessing people! In other words, be a priest everywhere you go - at the post office, school cafeteria, classroom, DMV (if that's possible), in the office, at the Y, when your shopping, getting your oil changed, paying bills, doing the laundry, or mowing the grass! Look for opportunities to love people, inspire people, and serve people! And do not allow anyone to tell you that you can't be a priest in a cigar bar - you can - by the way, we "church people" ought to be used to blowing smoke - don't you think?