Crazy Faith

Ok, the wait is over.  I can't sit by any longer with the tools we have at our fingertips for communicating to the community and the world and do nothing.  If you are a Christian with access to the Internet, you should be taking advantage of the ability to share Christ on the web instead of using it for porn.  Myself and a crazy group of believers have embarked on a journey with unimaginable possibilities... we started a church.  I have been ashamed to tell people that knew me years ago and some people that know me now.  I didn't go to seminary or even finish college so how can I expect to pastor a church?  The same way Moses did.  The same way Joshua, Peter, James, Paul, John, Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha, Esther, Job, Ruth and many others did.  Be called and equipped by God to do what He called them to do.  How hard is it to tell others how I became a believer and lead them to do the same thing?  How did the best message ever, of love and mercy and forgiveness turn into what it is today?  When did we make it about "church" and not about Jesus?  Who makes the rules for following church politics?  When are people going to understand that we don't need the "church" to have church?  I'm not saying that we drop the gathering of believers all together at all.  Lets be honest with each other, the church as a whole in this country is not affective anymore.  Why is that?  Everybody wants to point the finger at someone else.  Churches are fighting with other churches and with each other and we wonder why this country is the way it is.  We are the way we are because we as a church have failed to present the gospel the way it should be.  We have overrun love with hate and mercy with criticism.  We have become a body of hypocrites and liars.  Stop and think of the last time you had a real encounter with God at "church."  I don't mean "this song made me cry," or "the pastor's sermon really touched me."  I mean the real deal, a true blue, blow your mind crazy encounter with the living God!  I can remember several and none of them were in a church building.  The people of God need to wake up and stand tall.  Stop being push overs, closet drinkers, secret smokers, back biting, weak, quiet, directionless people.  We all have a purpose for our life given to us by Almighty God!  I don't know about you but that shakes me to my core!  I am done caring what "church people" think.  I am done trying to play the church games and keep up with the newest politics and procedures.  I am done being a "church" guy.  I officially quit church and dedicate my life to following Jesus.  I know it sounds harsh and some of you are reading this thinking that I am just an angry youth pastor that never got my way.  I'm sorry if you feel that way.  However if thats how you feel now, just wait.  I'm not angry, I'm MAD!  Mad at what the church has turned into.  We have prostituted ourselves out to a political agenda that has nothing to do with the grace and mercy that we preach from our pulpits.  We don't show, we just say.  We are luke warm and we all know how thats going to turn out.  I am not interested in what the popular kind of church is.  I am interested in changing lives... for real!  I am done trying to convince the convinced.  I'm done dancing to someone else's tune.  God has called me to do a job and I will do that job to the best of my ability.  Jesus is real and alive and I dedicate my life to telling others in a way that will reach them where they are, and I know that to reach certain people I will have do say and do things that will make myself and others around me uncomfortable but I am willing to do that for the sake of the call.  Make no mistake, I am a passionate man in all aspects of life.  That passion comes from the fact that Jesus paid the price for the awful and horrible sins I committed.  I am so grateful that He let me live and gave me a purpose and will one day come for me that I have no choice but to act in a way that shows my passionate gratitude.  Christ doing all that for ME???  Thats crazy!  Crazy passion calls for crazy faith.