Saliga är de ocoola

Blev rekommenderad den här länken. Mycket läs- och tänkvärt om våra gudstjänster, verksamheter och våra liv. Bloggaren Rachel Held Evans skriver bland annat:

People sometimes assume that because I’m a progressive 30-year-old who enjoys Mumford and Sons and has no children, I must want a super-hip church—you know, the kind that’s called “Thrive” or “Be” and which boasts “an awesome worship experience,” a fair-trade coffee bar, its own iPhone app, and a pastor who looks like a Jonas Brother.


While none of these features are inherently wrong, (and can of course be used by good people to do good things), these days I find myself longing for a church with a cool factor of about 0.

That’s right.

I want a church that includes fussy kids, old liturgy, bad sound, weird congregants, and…brace yourself…painfully amateur “special music” now and then.



Why?

Well, for one thing, when the gospel story is accompanied by a fog machine and light show, I always get this creeped-out feeling like someone’s trying to sell me something. It’s as though we’re all compensating for the fact that Christianity’s not good enough to stand on its own so we’re adding snacks.

But more importantly, I want to be part of an un-cool church because I want to be part of a community that shares the reputation of Jesus, and like it or not, Jesus’ favorite people in the world were not cool. They were mostly sinners, misfits, outcasts, weirdos, poor people, sick people, and crazy people.

Exemplen kan bytas ut till andra, utifrån den "ideala subkulturskyrka" vi ibland frestas att längta efter. Är det inte respektabel medelklass vi vänder oss till så är det kanske en viss generation eller en viss intressegrupp. Men Jesu liv, och skulle jag vilja tillägga pingstens erfarenhet av den helige Ande, för oss ut ur våra snäva och mänskliga "lika-barn-leker-bäst-gemenskaper" och in i Guds inkluderande, utmanande, radikala och mångfaldiga gemenskap. Glöm inte att läsa hela texten via länken ovan!