It’s been nearly three weeks since I last posted. That might be a record for me.  I’ve not even been thinking much at all about posting in that period.  I’ve all but withdrawn from the politics going on.  I voted early (last week),  and I’ve not watched The Daily Show much at all.  I just don’t want to be reminded of all the strident , maddening divisiveness.  People are WAY too invested in the 1 vs. 2 political system.  I am not optimistic by either party’s capabilities to do what needs to be done,  and any tough measures taken will only be vilified by the ones who think it’s all political (and what’s worse,  it probably is largely political—- I don’t think either guy (although I much prefer Obama and hope he wins)  is “above” that.

I’ve allowed myself to get consumed with worry about so many things,  and that ends up draining me of creativity and passion about things.  I escape to the TV much more often.  And of course,  I feel like I’m in a period of resignation about the church,  and my finding anything that makes me hope that there are people who think of the church in any way similarly to the way The Church of the Saviour does.  The central thing that they do is to take seriously the call to be a people who are intimately involved in each other’s lives.  There isn’t much sign of any structures in the church that hint that this is what the church is called to be.  The church seems to leave the intimate personal involvement to the happenstance of socializing among the membership. SOME seem to find pockets of such intimacy.  But the only thing the church provides is an avenue to network with folks with whom we would likely hit it off.  Kind of like harmony.com.   We pick churches for their theological and political flavor,  and then we ,  every now and then,  choose to go deeper and start sharing more of ourselves.  But I rarely hear of people regularly and intentionally conversing about their journey. 

Without the intentionality,  we leave the fate of the church up to the whims of society,  and to the shaping (and distorting) it will do to our how or where God is moving and acting.  The big production that mega-churches have developed for their Sunday Services has “production  value” now.  It attracts scores of people,  and helps commoditize the church.