We need a gang

"Christians are the only ones that kick their wounded when they are down."-Unknown.

I found out recently that there is a kid who attends Wall Highway who was (or maybe still is) a member of a Huntsville gang. Like most that are in a gang, he had (has) a poor home life and sought refuge in the loyalty and love that gangs show their members. This kid, after joining the gang, started attending a church and was appalled by the lack of connection and community displayed by it's members. SOOOOOO, he left that church. He later started attending Wall Highway where (thankfully) he found a little bit more community.

Acts 4:32 "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had" (emphasis mine).

Do we see that today? DO WE REALLY? Community is nearly non-existent within the church. We show up on Sundays and listen to great music and great preaching and Chit-Chat with the same people over and over and never bother to get to know the ripped-jeans wearing kid sitting by himself in the back. Then we go and talk to our self-righteous friends about how so-and-so needs Jesus. I'm guilty of doing it as well! We can't understand why teens (well actually, ALL age groups, but mostly teens) won't come to church and accept Jesus. It's because they don't see a point! People want love.

1 John 4:7
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

This kid said his gang friends would take bullets for each other. Would Christians do that for each other? We talk all the time about whether or not we would take a bullet for Christ, but rarely do we ask ourselves if we would take a bullet for a Christian brother, whether we know them personally or not, but ESPECIALLY if we know them personally. Most (including myself), I believe, would not. Instead, we would step back out of the way, let our brother get shot, then kick him.

Now obviously this is a dramatization in the most extreme sense, but you get my point. We need community. Where does community come from? Unity. Go back up to the top and read Acts 4:32 again. That's EXACTLY what we need. Theories about how to accomplish it are plentiful, but one thing is for sure: Unity won't happen unless we love Christ. Dean Lusk's post "The Freak List" is, I believe, a very accurate opinion about what needs to happen before unity among the believers can be achieved.

We've started several teams within Student Leadership, one of which is a "Cookie Team" for lack of a better term (or is it the best term? you decide.) Several students go out after our Wednesday night service and deliver cookies and a free meal card to our first time visitors. This is so simple, yet so Effective! It's the kind of thing that makes the visitor think, "Wow! these guys probably have tons of homework to finish up, but they chose to drive all the way to my house just to deliver cookies. I need what they have!" Now what if the entire church did that? What if there was a group of families who take turns taking first time visitors out to lunch after the service (possibly *gasp* even paying for it) and getting to know them? Not shoving Jesus in their face (unless the chance presents itself), but just genuinely getting to know them. Their stories, their backgrounds, their beliefs. That's the kind of thing that will make people want to accept Christ. But before we can do that, we must love each other.

John 13:35
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

I apologize for my incoherent ramblings. I will get better at organizing my thoughts as time goes on. =)