Does this look like what Jesus died for?

I've rediscovered qideas.org this week, and I've been doing a lot of reading on their blogs and essays.  There is tons of good stuff there.  And it's got me thinking a lot about the church.

Our job as Christians is be innovating what it means to be a part of the church.  But innovating in line with the biblical mandates from Jesus.  And really, I feel like the shift that needs to occur is a backwards shift.  The church has become a marketing machine, winning people to a way of life that doesn't challenge, but placates.  We want to seem cool.  We are watering down expectation levels to allow people to feel like they belong instead of holding people to higher standard.  When the marketing message a church is a self focused thing, it doesn't matter how many messages a preacher preaches about living for something bigger.  Those two things are diametrically opposed, and the church is shooting itself in the foot.

In the church culture I live in, Pensacola FL, I feel like the church is in a very dangerous limbo.  More people here go to church than any place I've ever been.  But here, I'm having a hard time finding people who are the church. Our job as the church is not to listen to some music, hear a message, drink some coffee and go home.  But honestly that's what I see.  I see a politician in Pensacola, who goes to a large church in town, campaign for a clean race and then steal campaign signs of his opponent, all the while acting like there's nothing wrong with it.  Across our state, there a fanatical preacher who thinks that the best way to show Christ's love to others is to burn the Qu'ran.  That's the danger of isolation that I see in these churches.  When you focus internally so much, and ignore our calling, these things don't seem to far fetched.

Christ calls us to more.  Christ calls us to make disciples.  Christ calls us to love those that don't deserve it.  Christ calls us to forgive when it's the hardest thing in the world to do.  Christ calls us to make the world a better place.  The Kingdom of God, that Jesus preached about, is here.  It's us.  It's the church.  I think Jesus is looking at our clinical, sterilized version of what the church is and is asking where the dirty people are.  He's a guy who chilled with lepers.  He's a guy that love tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners.  Now it's our turn to wake up and do what we're called to do.

We are called to go to the poor and oppressed. To be help to those who need it.

We are supposed to be the living breathing arms and legs, hands and feet, of Jesus.  We are supposed to be going to the hurting.  We are supposed to be thinking of others.  We should be striving to develop relationships with others like us, and those very different than us.  We need to be striving to make the world a better place, every minute of every day.  This isn't easy.  This isn't fun.  But neither was dying on the cross.  We need to step up and live like we believe in grace.  We need to step up and understand that we are losing the Spirit of "The Way."  Let's reclaim the term "church."  Let's reclaim love.  Justice.  Charity.  Compassion.  Hope.

Let's be the church as Jesus called us to be.  Let's live to a high standard.