transitions and distrust

i'm surprised that you can find so many people at Six Flag when its 35degrees. we went saturday with jeff and had a blast.

mars hill, our family, is currently under another transition. this will make move number 6 in 5 years. we started as a single's ministry. moved to lower greenville and spent a year there. transitioned to the Granada Movie Grill for 6 months. transitioned to the Beagle Bar for another 6 months. both of those locations required us to set up and break down and move our own sound system. following the Beagle we moved closer to Deep Ellum to a building on Hill St., next to Baylor hospital. after a year there, we moved to Richardson (a more centralized location for the people who were gathering together) where we are currently... for now. we'll be moving again in about 4 months. we've realized that, given our current trend of communtiy giving, we'll not last in the place we are at.

we are also re-evaluating our ideas of stewardship. it is becoming hard for us to justify giving more than our monthly "income" to a building and less to biblically mandated areas such as taking care of the poor, the orphan, the widow (see matt 25 and james' idea of "true religion."). there's this sense that one day we'll have to say, "sorry we couldn't feed you or clothe you, but hey, look at the cool buildings we met in." what kind of good is that?
i think this is part of the catalyst for the jaded mindset that has led so many to walk away from any sense of christian community. they have sensed the hypocrisy in building grand memorials to our own achievements while forgetting the "weightier matters" like justice and truth. who can blame a person for not supporting such an institution? kelly and i heard a report on NPR this morning about the general distrust of Americans in non-profit institutions, especially since the 9-11 red cross scandal. approx. 40% of americans said they have little or no confidence in non-prof organizations. no wonder we have a hard time convincing people to plug into an institution that is willing to accrue outstanding amounts of debt just to fit more people into one place. why do we need more people in one place? why not those same people in lots of places... in communities, houses, coffee houses, bars, soup kitchens, Habitat for Humanity? how can you convince a thinking person that it is more beneficial to gather with hundreds you will never talk to when you really only know about 10-15 of them on any real level.

at indie allies we talked of the difference between a community and a family. chew on it. more later.