It's BACK... "How To Tip A Sacred Cow"!!

Well, if you're joining this conversation for the first time...a little background.

In 2007 I did a series of talks entitled "How To Tip A Sacred Cow". The general idea was that, as a community of faith, we needed to talk about some stuff that was going to be pretty risky. We had come to realize that many people, somewhere along the way, had either rejected the church (as in the "idea" of church or church in general) or become disallusioned by it for a number of reasons. We had also come to believe that some of the perceptions that led them to feel that way had some very real truth to them. For example, some of those perceptions, the reasons for their rejection or disallusionment were things such as: the church being too judgmental; the church being too hypocrital; the church being too political; or the church being anti-homosexual.

We felt like it was time to open up an honest conversation about those statements and acknowledge that we, as Christians, had blown it in numerous ways and needed to own whatever part of those perceptions was true. So, we did. We spent a couple of months walking through those issues, as a community of faith, and encouraging people to offer their thoughts here.

A number of people shared there thoughts, hurts, and disappointments with us - and we were grateful for their honesty and trust. I also believe that it helped us grow - both in our awareness and in our authentic efforts to be more like Jesus. In fact, that's probably the best way to "sum it up". There are lots of people who, if you asked them, would say that they had great respect or even appreciation for Jesus, even if they weren't ready to fully put their faith in him. But those same people, when they looked at us - the church - felt that somehow we'd missed it if our mission was to be like Jesus, to carry his message and model his lifestyle. And they were right. It's not like we ever expect to be perfect, but we had to acknowledge that there were some pretty significant discrepancies between the things we said and did and who Jesus was and how he taught and lived his life. Thus, the conversation.

So.. here we are again. We figured if it was helpful then (even if it was a bit disappointing - kind of like looking in the mirror can be sometimes) that we needed to do it again from time to time... if for no other reason so that we would have to continue to be authentically self-aware in how we're doing in our efforts to be followers of Christ.

So, the conversation starts up again tomorrow. You can join us here, for some thoughts and commentary following my talk or you can join us live to hear it for yourself and, if you're so inclined, to add your thoughts and commentary about it here. Your call.

If you're interested in joining us "live", stop by tomorrow at Newsong Fellowship in Edwardsville, IL. We have two gatherings: 9:15 and 11:00 a.m. We're in the heart of downtown at 201 St. Louis St. Or, just come back later in the week and I'll point you to where you can hear the talk online. Either way, I hope you'll join the conversation. What you have to say matters and we might just need to hear it as much as you need to express it.

"How To Tip A Sacred Cow"... begins Nov. 1st. Hope to see you back here.


Love wins!
Dave