| | GO, therefore, to Sex World
After the weekend trip, we dragged our exhausted bodies to a 7pm service that felt more like a midnight service. As I thought I was attending just another contemporary worship service in a differrent part of town at a different time of just another Sunday, I was culturally and spiritually surprised by what this church had decided to do.
The speaker, at the end of his sermon, sent the 300+ teenagers and young adults in the sanctuary to Sex World and Gay 90's among a few other places "religious" people weren't supposed to even think about. They could choose from a list of places to go hang out at after the service, depending on where they thought their Nineveh was. They were also given a CD to listen to on their way to Nineveh. The CD gave a brief background of the place and a few things to think about while they spent the rest of the evening there.
The point of this activity was not to make a statement about their faith or to convert a sex client. They were supposed to be there just to let God deal with the Jonah in them by forcing them to face their own spiritual and moral pride. It's more about being broken and healed, some important prerequisites to obedience.
I'm not sure if that works for everybody in terms of the effectiveness in identifying Nineveh and healing the Jonah inside, but I suspect that it may work well for the age group that they were working with. It'd be interesting to read their afterthoughts. After all, like biffnips said, nobody can accuse them of not trying!
The Fear Within
I admire the thoughts and efforts the church put into this. Mobilizing two services full of people to do something like this isn't a simple task. I also admire the fear of the church. The fear of disobedience, the fear of not being able to translate all the talk into actions, the fear of dead faith. I envy their flexibility. The flexibility to adapt to and meet the needs. I praise God for their willingness to face their own Nineveh in a very tangible way.
At the very least, it gets me thinking about my own Nineveh. I need no visual aids to help me think of one. Oh, there are so many of them on TV, at work, online, on the missions field, and even at church. No doubt the Jonah in me affects many aspects of my personal ministry. Slowly working on it, but good'ol Jonah will be there for a while and will visit again from time to time.
Well, who says that it's going to be easy to run away from ego, pride and disobedience? After all, they were the ones who got us all into trouble in a far away garden called Eden. Yet, who says that God can't fix it for us so we can obey? Three days and three nights in one big fish belly did it for Jonah. The funny thing is, sometimes we end up feeling a little too comfortable with our quiet time in the fish belly, and would rather stay there for just a little longer until we are just a little more ready to embrace Nineveh. Eww! How can that be possible? Yeah, even a stinky belly is good enough when a different kind of fear from within takes control. Let's leave that for a different post, or not?
Nope, we didn't go hang out at Sex World with the teens. We went to Mandarin Kitchen instead to heal a different part of our tired soul.
|
| | Posted 10/10/2007 12:05 AM - 32 views - 3 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
