I just got back from Cincinnati. I flew in Wednesday morning from Kansas City and met up with a team of guys from work for some meetings and some time together golfing. I'm not a great golfer, not even a good one, but I had a good time - hit a few good drives and drained some long putts, enough to bring me back the next time. I drove back from Cincinnati with two of my co-workers - it's always fun to be in a car with three cell phone conversations happening at the same time over the course of the 5 hour drive.

I started reading a new book: Stories of Emergence: Moving from Absolute to Authentic. It's a collection of stories by a bunch of different people, dealing with the church and the world, I guess. It's written by Mike Yaconelli, a guy whose done youth ministry his whole life, and even at fifty something, still has the same cynical attitude of a twenty-something youth pastor. One of Mike's favorite topics is the church - and he loves to rant against the corporate, efficient, produced, fad-following collections of believers. Here's an interesting quote:
"Today's modern service is orchestrated so nothing disturbing, uncomfortable, controversial, or shocking occurs. The music edited to eliminate mediocre musicians or off-key singers. Solo numbers are assigned to the best. Prayer requests are screened or relegated to the bulletin where they can be carefully worded. Testimonies are screened to guarantee they won't make anyone uncomfortable or go on for too long. The sermon is inviolate. No interruptions are allowed, questions can't be asked, assumptions can't be challenged, disagreements can't be voiced."
He see's the core values of the church these days as being: efficiency, pretending and doing. It's easy to get caught up in some of the rants in this book. Stories speak to my heart so much more so than just reading "smart-stuff". I have such a tendency to be self-righteous about the church, about my church specifically, that it's easy for me to fuel that by reading this book. I believe that my church is one of the most amazing around, but reading through this book, I start to re-think some of what we do and how we do it. Crossroads does so many things right - but what makes our church amazing isn't a an efficient, professional Sunday production - it's the grace centered community that defines who we are. It's a good mental exercise for me to process some of this, and deal with my own self-righteousness.