He shined

This weekend is Crashapalooza, where eXchange does all kinds of outreach to the Wabash Valley to show the love of Jesus in real and practical ways.

My wife, Wendy, decided she wanted her Crash to be cleaning toilets at a couple bars in town (inspired by Vineyard Church’s outreach of cleaning the toilets at the Hustler magazine offices). Radical? You bet. She got a few people to sign up, and we were to meet at Java Haute at 12:15 a.m. (yes, that’s a.m.; I don’t remember the last time I was up this late!) Everyone was there by 12. Omar, Joanne (hope I spelled your name right), Elizabeth, Ezra, Jenny, Rick, Wendy and myself. Mike T., our video guru, was there to capture what video he could as we’ll be showing a montage on Sunday evening of this weekend’s events. I was simply along for the ride. This was my wife’s gig, and I didn’t want to get in the way.

The plan was to go to a couple bars, get in, clean the restrooms, and get out. Turns out the two bars we picked were packed to the gills and, frankly, cleaning busy bathrooms at peak time didn’t make a lot of sense. We were hoping the crowds would be thin enough at our scheduled time (scheduled with the cleaners, not with the bars), but we were wrong. No worries. Mike says, “I know the owner of a place just a few blocks away, let’s try them.”

Pay dirt! The owner of the place we stopped at was thrilled that someone was going to clean his bathrooms for free. It was Karaoke night, so the place was blaring with familiar beats and unfamiliar singers. The smell of smoke and beer was thick. Our crew waded through the crowd, found the bathrooms, and went straight to work.

The entire time they were cleaning, the owner couldn’t stop saying, “I can’t believe you’re doing this.” At one point some of the employees were crowded around the open door to the women’s bathroom in wonder as to why anyone would do what our people were doing. One guy came up and said, “you guys are in trouble, right? This is some kind of community service?” Jenny answered him. “No, we’re just doing it to do it. Jesus wants us to show love to people, so that’s what we’re doing.” He said a curse word and walked off, shaking his head in disbelief, a smile on his face.

At one point, Elizabeth stated (in so many words), “I’m glad I did this. I’m glad I’m here.”

Once those bathrooms were cleaned we decided to try another bar in town. We drove the few minutes there and got approval to head in and clean (”but be quick” they said). Everyone went straight to work, but we wore out our welcome sooner rather than later, so we called it quits and headed out.

While all of this is somewhat radical, it’s not what everyone did that amazes me. It’s how they did it. Everyone involved wanted to clean. Everyone wanted gloves on. I had to go get more gloves out of the car, because everyone wanted to get in there and get busy. Ezra was on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor in the men’s room. Everyone was smiling and laughing. Omar was chatting it up with anyone that walked by, eye to eye, person to person, laughing with them. The patrons in the establishments we visited couldn’t quite grasp the concept, which is okay. I’m not so sure we were doing it for them. The ladies in our crew got to see a girl puke at the second place we went. What’s a trip to a bar if someone doesn’t puke?

My wife and I have spent more than our fair share in bars on Friday and Saturday nights (in our younger, wilder days), and a couple three people from our group did as well. There was a familiarity to it all, and yet, I firmly believe Jesus would be right there in the middle of it all. Scrubbing on his hands and knees, like Ezra did. Just talking to people, enjoying their company, like Omar did. I looked at this group of Jesus followers, and I saw them disappear. In their stead, the visage of Christ emerged. Christ shined as they cleaned dirty, nasty bathrooms and toilets. All with a Thessalonians-style joy in their heart and in their eyes. I saw Christ’s hands and feet tonight. I saw his heart tonight.

We have a saying in eXchange. “Community happens on the way to cause.” This is true. I can’t wait to see the people I hung out with tonight, shake their hands, give them hugs, chat about our experiences together, and look forward to being together again. Community can and does happen on the way to cause.

Scot talks of thin places. You know, those places where it seems heaven and earth move just a little closer to each other for a time. Tonight was one of those moments. I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to bask in it. I wanted to raise my hands to God and worship him in it. It felt like a river washing over me. It was as if we could feel angel’s wings beating just over our heads.

It might have been midnight but He shined. There was no darkness. Only light. And it was good.

jesus, service, outreach, crash, exchangemcc, vineyard, hustler

Funky love

Occasionally my brain becomes consumed with what it means to be a finite being on a finite planet. No, I’m not trying to be deep or philosophical, but it seems like I’ll get on this kick where I can’t stop thinking about how we only have a few years on this blue marble and what we need to do to make that time worthwhile, not only for ourselves but for those we love. Heck, even for those we don’t know.

It’s usually a “funk” I get in for a few weeks, then I’ll move out of it and won’t hit it again for another few months, maybe years. Maybe funk isn’t the right word, because I don’t really get depressed or upset during this time. I simply become more contemplative on life in general.

I consider myself a follower of Christ. However, nothing is sacred when I get in this funk. I start to wonder, “what if all of this is for naught? What if God is dead, like that one philosopher said, or He realized millennia ago that we’re just too messed up to deal with anymore and took off for greener pastures?”

I look at the Old Testament and am in awe at how often God spoke directly to people. Then, I look at the time when Jesus came to earth, and even though God didn’t talk to people at that time, Jesus was in a very corporeal form, and talked to alot of people. People were profoundly affected by his coming to earth, even for the brief 33 years he stayed here. It makes me wonder why I don’t “hear God talk” today.

I can think of the wondrous things I’ve seen in eXchange, and realize (in my mind, anyway) that these things wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t a community of people following Christ and earnestly chasing him, and if Jesus wasn’t really inside those who’ve accepted Him. The community that happens is far and above anything I’ve ever been a part of. I know I’m not alone when I say that, when I talk to Tim Miller on the phone, and we get ready to hang up, he tells me he loves me. I love him, too. It’s a brotherly, reverent respect and kinship for him that I’ve never known until I became part of the eXchange community. There’s lots of people there that I feel this way about. Tim just leaks love. It pours out of him so naturally and freely that it’s infectious. There’s literally a couple dozen people that I could walk right up to there and tell them anything, and not only would they not reject me, if I needed it, they’d grab me and do for me whatever it took to help.

Perhaps my funk comes from my thoughts that there are other people not experiencing this awesome sense of belonging, and I believe people were created to be social, connected beings. Sure, you have your occasional person who really does prefer to be a loner (and God knows when I was younger I went through my phases where people just irritated the snot out of me to the point that I was done with them) but even then I think this might come from someone just “giving up” because (to quote U2) they still haven’t found what they’re looking for.

Ultimately, to me, it comes down to this. If you don’t feel that sense of connected community, please visit eXchange. If you’re part of eXchange, and still don’t feel that, please come find me. I’m usually there early on Sundays, and stay awhile afterwards as well. Or, click Contact at the top of this page and e-mail me. I honestly and dearly want to meet you and talk to you. If you can’t find me, find Jack or Scot, or any other number of people who consider themselves the leadership of eXchange (we sometimes wear bright yellow badges) and say hi.

If you do feel that sense of connectedness, and you know of people who don’t feel that, or aren’t part of our community, don’t delay. Stop wasting time. Go find them, and wrap your arms around them, and pull them in so they can have what we have.

I remember a message Scot gave just after we started attending eXchange. He said, “if something terrible happened to you at 3 a.m., how many people would be at your door step within 30 minutes?” We need to ask ourselves that question, but reverse it. How many friends do you have that, if they were in need, you’d be there without hesitation? If you reach out, I guarantee those people will (eventually, if not sooner rather than later) reach back.

We’ve got plenty of room in that sanctuary. It’s time to love, folks. Let’s stop wasting time.

New forums at exchangemcc.org

Be sure and take a peek at the new forums that just went live over at the main eXchange site, www.exchangemcc.org/talk. They’re a bit different than what we had before (we were using the limited WebWizGuide forums before and now we’re using the swanky Vanilla forums by Lussumo), but I think everyone will like them once they start using them.

If you run into any issues or problems with them, feel free to post a comment here and I’ll be happy to assist!