I have realized over the past two months that spirituality/ministry/Christianity is a very messy business. Obviously there are some absolutes (Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, our purpose is to love God and love people) but not everything is as black and white as we would like to make it. What I do know is that I don’t want to be a minister who hides away in a comfortable office all day playing minister. I don’t want to play it safe and get wrapped up in minister’s meetings and breakfasts and all the other things we do to make us think we are actually important. I want to actually live ministry. I don’t want to leave this earth without having scars from where I was burned by the fires of hell. If I go out any other way I will know that I did not do “ministry”. I want to be in the thick of it all just like Jesus was. Jesus hung out with prostitutes and thieves and tax collectors. He didn’t hang out with the Pharisees all the time or at all for that matter. He did not schedule meetings and appointments and arrange breakfasts for all the other people who were playing pastor. He spent time with people. Real people. People who were not afraid to tell Jesus how they felt and share their problems of faith with him. It just makes me sad to think of ministers who sit in their offices all week planning and studying and in all honesty not really doing anything of importance at all but because they are busy they feel like they are doing the work of God. What a bunch of crap. Why aren’t you out in your communities spending time with people? When is the last time that you hung out in a bar and just sat down, had a beer and had a conversation with someone? Oh wait, that might make people talk about you or ruin your reputation. You’re right, no one ever said anything bad about Jesus because of where or who he hung out with. It’s time for pastors and churches to start to disturb the world again and shake things up. It has gotten too boring. Churches used to be controversial because of their love and compassion and their willingness to hang out with people whom normal people wouldn’t ever want to hang out with, especially love. But we will probably just play it safe because we don’t want anyone saying anything bad about us. We want to look like the holy, perfect people that we will never come close to being. Let’s just keep putting on masks and pretending we have all the answers and we can die knowing that we may not have done any ministry but at least we stayed away from all those worldly things and protected ourselves from the flames. If I am not burned by the flames then I will know that I have stopped to be an ambassador of God’s love. It’s time to start disturbing the world with love again and forget about our self image.