kind of ticked...

i don't know at who (or whom... maybe)

yesterday on the front page of our local newspaper was this big story about a new church being planted in a recently developed part of the town. Had a bit about the pastor coming to Raleigh and his schooling and how Billy Graham's daughter is going there and they're meeting in a movie theatre, etc. I'm all for this church. We're in the same boat. I pray they do really well and reach a lot of people...

this weekend was our 'human trafficking awareness weekend'. we had a benefit show downtown on friday, slept on the capital lawn saturday, and had someone who has given her life to this cause speak on sunday morning. on monday morning, this article on human trafficking appeared in our newspaper, and if you look really carefully there's this line about our weekend: "This past weekend, a Raleigh church encouraged people to sleep on the state Capitol lawn to draw attention to the issue."

please don't misinterpret this... this isn't about me wanting to get press or being jealous that another church plant got a front page story. i'm pretty sure that story's not going to help them accomplish their mission and i would have been happy to remain anonymous in an article about our weekend.

this about me being concerned with what is getting communicated to our culture about the church. the big sunday article communicated that there's a new church starting and talked about how that church is maintaining and growing it's own existence. what could have been communicated in a story about our weekend is that the church is concerned about someone's existence other than their own, and by extension it could have communicated God's heart for the poor, oppressed and marginalized people of our world. i would rather that be the message that is communicated to our culture about the church.

like i said, there's no one to really be ticked at... i just wish things were different and people understood God's heart for our world...