pearl jam thoughts

I went to see Pearl Jam at the gorge this past month. It pretty much rocked. It was 103 degrees and the beauty of the Gorge defined God’s goodness as it always does. As the concert had started and the band played well into their set, I stood sweating amongst the hordes of people throughout the concert wondering what God will say to Pearl Jam’s lead singer, Eddie Vedder, when he dies. As he stood up on stage and performed in front of 20,000 people, he did not say anything about peace or love or joy although he did speak about wine a little. I was not expecting a Christian message by any means, but with the ears of 20,000 fans listening to his every word I had hoped for a mission of some sort for the droves of Pearl Jam allegiance to set out on after the concert.
This is where I began to think to myself, “Do we as Christ followers do this?” Are we using our influence as the church to speak into society? The church used to be the most influential part of society, speaking into what happens and why. Now it seems that the bride of Christ’s arms and legs have been cut off only to lie down and let the river of pop culture dictate where it will go.
Though we as cornwall church do not have the opportunity to speak into the lives of tens of thousands of people in a single night, we do have people around us that we can influence. People consistently look to the Christian life to see what we do or say, but it is up to us to pray that God will give us the words and actions that will properly speak into their lives and help them find what they are looking for. I pray for the Holy Spirit to fill us as worship leaders to reconnect the limbs of Christ’s body and speak into people’s lives leading them to hope and appreciation of the life they have been given and the life that God gave for them.

Ron, what have you been up to this summer?

Well, I have been busy with summer type activities. I have been running the middle school group at Ray of Hope - a camp for socially and financially challenged kids -, working at the church, and playing softball.

This past sunday I realized why I don't play in a church league. We played against a church, and in the midst of having our butts handed to us, they continually mocked and made jokes at my team. Needless to say, I was pissed. I joined a rec league so that I could meet people outside of the church and let them know that God loves them and the people of his church do also, but here we were playing a church team who were doing the exact opposite and all the "progress" (for lack of a better term) I made with my team being taken away. It sucked, because the people on my team don't go to church because most of them don't see God in the christians of this world...and so it continues. Deep inside, I wanted to go tell this team exactly what they were doing, but I didn't because I am a wussy with a p.

crap.