Last night one of the staff from Better Way came up to me and asked:
so do you always never wear your Better Way shirt?
I lifted my pull over to show him I had it on but while laying in the soccer fields I had added a layer because of the wind this afternoon.
After he saw that he moved to my shorts and said,
Take a look at your Better Way handbook, you're suppose to wear jeans. I'd love to wear shorts too but it's the rules.
Then he walked away. This was the only interaction we had. The only time he spoke to me was to tell me everything wrong I was doing according to the Better Way "rules"
I left the place fuming thinking I should e-mail Wanda asking why I have to wear pants or walking back to him and asking where "thou must coverth thy shins while serving thy homeless" is mentioned in the scriptures.
Lately I've been noticing Brian's facebook posts:
Not only that but he's been posting blogs on this site The [D]mergent and he seems to be getting more and more legalistic about being not legalistic.
So I have this one side "The Better Way" where they care about their dress code and their stupid love stifling rules. Then I have this other side the "Disciples of Christ" where on the surface is seems freeing and open but the more I head them talk the more restrictive and confining it seems also.
And here I am. Left with all this stupid religiosity.
Do I stop going to Better Way because I am salty about their theology on dress codes?
Do I stop listening to Brian's theological rants because he doesn't seem to highly value all the bible's contents?
Where is the love in either of these places?
I can't seem to find Jesus in the rules and regulations of The Better Way.
I can't seem to find Jesus in Brian's secret stewing and frustration over strangers' theological conversations at Panera.
Love would wear pants
Love would smile at evangelical Christians at Panera.
I believe Jesus could go into any church and find beauty their. That is what I wish to be. I wish to be able to walk into any church and find some part of the body of Christ.
The close mindedness of the conservative creates a close mindedness within the liberal so that both are unable to love each other fully and wholly.
A judge who gives opposite verdicts on the same person cancels himself out; a family that’s in a constant squabble disintegrates; if Satan banishes Satan, is there any Satan left? If you’re slinging devil mud at me, calling me a devil kicking out devils, doesn’t the same mud stick to your own exorcists?
-Matthew 12
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
We Christians worship the same God but from different angles and because of that we are divided and because of that, we cannot stand.
The last thing we need is more division in the body of Christ.
Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
-1 Corinthians 9
What we need in the body is love and we must all become the servant of all.
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
-1 Corinthians 13
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
so do you always never wear your Better Way shirt?
I lifted my pull over to show him I had it on but while laying in the soccer fields I had added a layer because of the wind this afternoon.
After he saw that he moved to my shorts and said,
Take a look at your Better Way handbook, you're suppose to wear jeans. I'd love to wear shorts too but it's the rules.
Then he walked away. This was the only interaction we had. The only time he spoke to me was to tell me everything wrong I was doing according to the Better Way "rules"
I left the place fuming thinking I should e-mail Wanda asking why I have to wear pants or walking back to him and asking where "thou must coverth thy shins while serving thy homeless" is mentioned in the scriptures.
Lately I've been noticing Brian's facebook posts:
It is definitely interesting to be surrounded by evangelical Christians right now at Panera. Can't say I've agreed with anything they've said theologically so far, but at least they are seriously examining their faith which is always a good thing, right?
Not only that but he's been posting blogs on this site The [D]mergent and he seems to be getting more and more legalistic about being not legalistic.
So I have this one side "The Better Way" where they care about their dress code and their stupid love stifling rules. Then I have this other side the "Disciples of Christ" where on the surface is seems freeing and open but the more I head them talk the more restrictive and confining it seems also.
And here I am. Left with all this stupid religiosity.
Do I stop going to Better Way because I am salty about their theology on dress codes?
Do I stop listening to Brian's theological rants because he doesn't seem to highly value all the bible's contents?
Where is the love in either of these places?
I can't seem to find Jesus in the rules and regulations of The Better Way.
I can't seem to find Jesus in Brian's secret stewing and frustration over strangers' theological conversations at Panera.
Love would wear pants
Love would smile at evangelical Christians at Panera.
I believe Jesus could go into any church and find beauty their. That is what I wish to be. I wish to be able to walk into any church and find some part of the body of Christ.
The close mindedness of the conservative creates a close mindedness within the liberal so that both are unable to love each other fully and wholly.
A judge who gives opposite verdicts on the same person cancels himself out; a family that’s in a constant squabble disintegrates; if Satan banishes Satan, is there any Satan left? If you’re slinging devil mud at me, calling me a devil kicking out devils, doesn’t the same mud stick to your own exorcists?
-Matthew 12
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
We Christians worship the same God but from different angles and because of that we are divided and because of that, we cannot stand.
The last thing we need is more division in the body of Christ.
Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
-1 Corinthians 9
What we need in the body is love and we must all become the servant of all.
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
-1 Corinthians 13
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea