Church

Are Boomers Really the Worst?: Who Sold the Sheep?

Check out my latest post over at Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/ellenegee/p/are-boomers-really-the-worst-355?r=10rg49&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Are Boomers Really the Worst?: Looking for Loopholes

Jump over to Substack for my latest post.

https://open.substack.com/pub/ellenegee/p/are-boomers-really-the-worst-looking?r=10rg49&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Are Boomers Really the Worst?: We’re All Gonna Die

Head over to Substack for my latest post:

https://open.substack.com/pub/ellenegee/p/are-boomers-really-the-worst-were?r=10rg49&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Please Pass the Bullhorn

Lately, I’ve been thinking about an old Rob Bell video called “Bullhorn.” Maybe you remember it. For about 12 minutes, Rob berates a man with a bullhorn he saw standing outside an entertainment venue. Mr. Bell says the guy is yelling things like, sin, and hell, and death. And then to Rob Bells horror, the guy has the audacity to say, “Jesus.” 

As Mr. Bell leans in closer to the camera, he says he wants to talk to the man. To tell the “Bullhorn Guy” that nobody is listening. And that his message isn’t working. And that he, Rob Bell, doesn’t understand what all the condemning and the converting, (that’s right, he says “converting”) has to do with Jesus. 

Which then leads me to think about our country. About the overall decay of our once great Christian nation. Especially about the dramatic decline we’ve seen over the last 12-15 years since Rob Bell made that video. And that leads me to want to ask Rob Bell a question. So here I go, Mr. Bell, where’s the fruit of the passive gospel message you and your peers have been preaching?

Because, I don’t think your message is working. You see, our kids are really hurting. All the depression, drug addiction, and pornography are destroying them. At an earlier and earlier age, more and more predators are pounding on their tender hearts. And the amount of evil they face daily is inescapable. 

Which leads me back to the bible and the God I find there. How all the way back to Genesis, when a nation went down a path like ours, God kind of sent a bullhorn guy. And they had names like Jonah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John. And for the most part, those men stood alone on a street corner shouting the same message as Rob Bell’s, “bullhorn guy.” Repent, for judgement draws near.

And in all those stories, shortly following the bullhorn guys message, many a nation fell. Only a few repented and drew near to God. But when they did, God kept His promise and He healed their land. 

My heart longs for sermons about the table turning Jesus. The Jesus who will not tolerate abuse. And I long to fight against this evil like the early Christians who brought down the Roman Empire. Which then makes me wonder if maybe more of us need to pick up a bullhorn and love folks enough to tell them to repent, for judgement draws near. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m so tired of watching young people get destroyed by evil men and women seeking their own sinful desires. Especially when Jesus really is the only answer. 

So, pass me the bullhorn because the message hasn’t changed in thousands of years. There is a hell, and God has a lot of wrath, and judgement is coming. So repent and turn from your wicked ways. Then follow Jesus, so GOD can heal our land.  

Before You Pour that Glass of Whine

It was a catchy title, so of course I clicked over to see why this writer was saying it sucked to be a Christian these days.

And in the article, did he tell stories of persecution, or his family being imprisoned, or perhaps, his house burned to the ground?

No.

Let me attempt to sum up his problem – he doesn’t seem to fit in at his local church.

IMG_3450 I can’t help but contrast him with my Aunt Jeanne Marie and Uncle Eugene, who, at 89, are living out the last of their years with the same positive outlook I’ve witnessed all my life.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard either one of them complain. About aging, money, the church – well, maybe a little politics here and there, but that’s it.

Having spent most of their youth on the mission field with the Presbyterian Church, Uncle Eugene never felt led to be a pastor. So when they came back to the states, they settled in Daly City, California and Uncle Eugene entered the business world.

They didn’t spend a lot of time looking for a church to meet their needs. They did what they’d always done; they became members of the Presbyterian Church closest to their home. Aunt Jeanne Marie joined a women’s circle. She took courses in how to minister to those facing death. She served in hospitality, and visited folks in the hospital.

On my many trips to their home, I was often taken back at how my conservative aunt and uncle functioned so well within such a liberal church. But it didn’t take me long to realize, they went to serve, and not be served.

12734164_10153894649633864_11092912052327412_nI love my church. And I’d be the first to admit, it’s flawed. And if I look in the corners, I can see the hypocrisy, the fakes, and the insincere. But then, if I look in the corners of my own heart, I see those very same things in myself.

But when I focus on serving, I see my church differently. Or maybe I don’t have the time to check all those dirty corners.

So maybe the advice my friend Vonda Skelton gave me would work for this lost writer – offer grace, grace, grace.

Then shake the dust off your feet and go serve.

We’re all getting older. And at my age, I would have thought my corners would be cleaner than they are. But they’re not. So if you see them, let’s make a deal, I’ll offer you grace, grace, grace, if you’ll do the same for me.

Then we’ll all have a better perspective on the church.