Urban Houston on a motorcycle. Not as bad as you might think. In fact, I see more. As anyone knows who rides, you tend to notice more of the world around you on a bike than when you are in an air conditioned cage with the radio tuned to the local classic rock station.
Urban Houston. The guy in the status car next to me a couple of days ago was snorting coke at the stoplight. The Unitarian marquee next door reads, "A God Even Atheists Can Accept." Reflections of clouds dance across San Felipe Plaza just outside my window. All these buildings and mountains.
Urban Houston. Different kind of ministry than anything I have ever done before, and a kind of ministry I have always dreamed of engaging. This is not a mission setting where everyone's car has a Jesus bumper sticker and every business has a TV blaring Fox News as you walk through the door. It is filled with people who either do not know the transformative power of the gospel, or who have heard more about church than Jesus. How can today's church in America deconstruct the cult of program-driven marketing campaigns and bear witness as simple gatherings of found sheep? Tear down the billboards. Let the megachurches do their thing. Christians in America are quickly finding more meaning in not-so-structured times of fellowship and dwelling in the word. Younger Christians are no longer attracted to locations; they are looking for authenticity. Seems like old burned out Christians aren't looking for anything other than to be left alone. Maybe a better approach to evangelism is needed. Instead of "Come to our building and meet our cool new preacher" we might should try something like, "We are a small group of Christians being shaped in the image and likeness of Christ."
Urban Houston. Each week one of our ministers has a Bible study in a pub close to downtown. This morning a friend of mine and I read John 2 together at IHOP. We said "thank you" to our waitress and treated her with respect, especially when I found out she had been waiting tables since midnight. She was not originally from an English-speaking country. But I hope her experience with us two anglophile Jesus followers was one that ultimately shone light in the darkness.
Urban Houston on a motorcycle. Not as bad as you might think. In fact, I see more. I see people, and more people. They go to work in some high rise, and vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico. And here we are as a small group of Christians in the midst of all these people, all these buildings and mountains. Seems mission one is fairly clear: Just keep it real.
