Serving a Sex Offender

It’s interesting how relationships change when we find out the dirtiest part of someone. I have a customer who comes in everyday at Starbucks. They get the same drink and pastry, we have extensive conversations on the day or our week, and we talk about things we have in common (i.e. music). The other day, somebody told me that this customer was a sex offender. I didn’t write them off, but I did wonder. Am I supposed to treat them differently? As a Christian, I’ve come up with the answer of no.

I look to the thief on the cross and I remember that we don’t know his crime or what he did, and Jesus treated him no differently than the other guy mocking him on the other side. I think that this is a challenge that faces us as Christ followers, is accepting the person (that clich’e of loving the sinner and hating the sin fits well here). Though the crime is utterly repulsive, and they may deserve death in the eyes of society, what are we to do in the eyes of the Kingdom?

Please Hang Up and Order (An Open Letter to the Cell Phone Guy/Lady)

Dear Cell Phone Guy/Lady,

Seriously? What is so important that you have to talk on the phone at full volume while you are in line and then whisper your order to me, only to return to your conversation while looking at me like you are annoyed because I am asking you to pay?

HTD (here’s the deal). If you are on the phone, step aside and finish your conversation so that the person/people behind you can order. Or better yet, hang up. It’s simple really. Otherwise, your cell phone conversation looks like a big middle finger in my face.

So here’s what I’m going to do as this continues: While you are having your conversation after you order, I am going to call your order to the barista (as required of me) only I will do it at a slightly louder volume than usual. I will also tell you how much you owe me, only again I will do this at a slightly louder (but still courteous) volume. Yes, I realize that this will annoy you, but really, isn’t this what you are doing to me and others?

So Mr/Mrs/Ms Cell Phone user, I ask this of you. Please hang up and order, or let others after you order first.

thank you,

Your Barista – The Brown Kid

The Value of the Homeless

Here’s a question: What is the value of the homeless in our church today. If we are to do to the least of these, then what value do we place on the dirtiest of these? I once worked at a church where a pastor said, “maybe we could bus the homeless over to the video venue…they might be more comfortable there, don’t you think?” No joke, I was not happy about it. To give this story context, we were talking about the homeless program at the church bringing people in and how they disrupt the service or make people uncomfortable.

So, I ask again: What value does  the church place on a dirty, no money having, probably still drunk, disrupting the service bum?

Dirty Talk in the Church

This past sunday we had “the talk” at church.  “The talk” was the money talk, and how we don’t have it. We didn’t meet budget, in fact we were several thousand dollars off. It was hard because of course it’s an awkward conversation, but in the end I think that the people walked away encouraged rather than guilt riden. We showed our budget and where the money is going (i.e. staff, insurance, RCC/NCC, bulletins, etc) and explained what we have cut and/or are cutting. The miracle is that last year we were able to give 20% of our budget away to non profs, benevilance funds, and other various people/organizations in need.

We, the church, make this money converstaion such a dirty talk. Have you ever noticed that when we talk about money, usually it is solomon who is quoted and not jesus. I think this is because Jesus’ words are a little harder (sell everything you have…). I’m not going to get into this right now though, because that is a whole other can of worms.

Anyways, after the talk I felt like we walked out encouraged rather than discouraged. We know exactly where money is going and what we do with it. Unfortunately we live in a time of economic crisis and our human nature tells us to keep it.  I saw this cartoon at ASBO Jesus a while ago that showed a pastor asking a person, “Do the birds worry?”  t o which the person replied, “Do the birds have a mortgage?” This is are human nature taking over our faith.

So I wonder this:

1. Who else has had this talk with your church? How did you handle it/HOw did they take it?

2. If you are a church worker (Pastor, director, etc), what changes have you seen in the church staffing and budget?

I Will Not Let You Grow Old (An Open Letter to My Friends)

This was inspired by a lady I saw at Starbucks one day. I wanted to share this letter that I wrote with everybody to let you know what kind of friend I can be. I care too much about all my friends to let this happen to them, as I hope you do also. If you know the kind of person being described here, please pass this on to them. enjoy!

2/27/09

Dear Friend,

I won’t let you grow old with you believing that you are younger than you truly are. Talking and dressing like you are 40 going on 20. Eventually, it might become embarassing.

Low rise jeans with muffin tops or Abercrombie fashion on a JC Penny body. Faux hawks at 50 and puka shell chokers choking out the last bit of sense that you might have.

Front butts playing peekaboo out the bottom of camisols and beer guts in a wife beater are never sexy. Both seem to reveal denial and freshly inked tribal tattoos.

Fake tans and highlighted hair make for an interesting contrast. Not intersting like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but more like Michael Jackson and Priscilla Presley.

So it comes to this: I promise as your friend to inform you rather than embarrass you if this happens to you. I would rather inform you than allow you to become red in the face. I would hope that you do the same for me. Let us grow old and move forward rather than trying to deny the inevitable. Growing old is a rite of passage and it is for you and me.

Sincerely, Your Friend,

The Brown Kid

Bursting Your Christian Bubble

A friend of mine here on the blogosphere and in Tweetsville (twitter) made me think today. His name is Tyler. He is the “Man of Depravity” and he lives in Portland (my third favorite city on the west coast). He posed the idea of the Christian bubble. The Christian bubble is the seperation of the sacred and the secular in our lives. We see it all the time when christians go to christian stores to buy christian albums or christian books of christian artists written specifically for christians. This is the bubble that we live in. We live in it and when we do, we lose touch of the world outside of it.

When I was going to Trinity Western University, I saw this bubble first hand. I would drive on campus and see all of these students who knew each other, took classes together, had bible studies together, went to games together, and went to chapel and church together. The students were all stuck in the trinity bubble together, but had no need or even want to get out.

So Tyler had two questions:

1. Does this apply to you?
2. How can Christians avoid this happening (practical ways)?

I saw this happening in my life. It’s hard not to when you work in a church. I wanted to get away from the bubble. I wanted to have “normal” conversations. I say normal because christianity is such a sub culture that we speak a whole different language. I wanted to converse with my friends who spoke with a native tongue that I once spoke before I met Jesus.

I got a part time job outside of the church. I did this for two reasons. 1) we needed money and 2) if I taught guitar lessons part time instead, my only clients were going to be references from churches. and so I donned the green apron and began pushing caramel machiatos to the masses. This is the idea of the bi vocational pastor. Though I do not hold the title pastor, I do work inside of a church and am therefore thrusted into the bubble.

I think the bubble is a sad place to be at times. Non Christians (NC) are uncomfortable being there and Christians try to be hospitable but their language and culture is so foreign that the NC’s feel even more awkward. Another thing is I feel that the Christians sometimes feel that their job is to make sure that the NC’s must leave having made some sort of progress toward becoming a Christ follower. This is just wrong. Now they are a project not a friend.

But if the Christian has lived in the bubble for so long, they may have nothing to talk about. They have seperated themselves from the culture. They couldn’t talk about things that may matter to modern day culture. again, awkward conversation. The bubble must be popped.

Now I am not saying to join the culture and abandon all that matters to you. What I am saying is that if we are to pop the bubble, we must no what matters outside of the bubble. Have an opinion but don’t think that it is the only one that matters because God is on your side (this drives me bonkers when Xtians pull this one out).

thoughts on the bubble?

Snow Day(s) and the Church

Baron and I were talking about snow days before service yesterday. Here in bellingham, if you go out on a sunday and there is a foot of snow on the ground then the gas stations are still open, grocery stores and starbucks still tread on, and even little ceasars pizza still open there doors. Usually, the first people to close their doors on a sunday are the churches. Wierd, huh?

At the church I used to work for and attend, if there was even over 6 inches on the ground, they would shut down services. I wonder if maybe it was because they worry about the congregants coming in from all over the county. I began to wonder also if this is another example of the disadvantages of the “Come and See” attractional church. Not many of the congregants of that church live within a mile or two of the church.

Maybe it’s just cabin fever I am getting being holed up with Loa and Cynthia, but I wonder if you have any thoughts on this?

St. Arbucks Jumps on Board

…two years too late.

Starbucks announced that they will give money this holiday season to the (red) campaign. Seriously, didn’t this happen already? Isn’t everybody done with the (red) campaign? Of course, it’s a good thing, as St. Arbucks will donate .05 cents from every holiday trio sold (Gingersnap Latte, Peppermint Twist Mocha, and the Eggnog Latte), but what if instead they said they will donate all procedes from the holiday trio sold on one day? I am sure more people would be on board for this. Maybe Uncle Howie should have been on board two years ago when the (red) campaign was relevant.

My After Election Hangover

I feel hungover. I can’t believe what happened last night – I keep wondering if it really did happen. A lot of people on my facebook status updates are angry – more are angry than happy. But overall, I am glad for what happened last night. I am excited for the future of America. I feel that for once my vote counted. But I still feel hungover.

I voted for Obama because I am a democrat at heart. I always tell this story about when my mom taught me about voting when I was a kid: “Remember when you vote”, she told me, “to mark everyone with a ‘D’ next to their name”. Now obviously I don’t vote this way, and all kidding aside, the reason I feel hungover is because I feel as if I did something awful last night. I feel as if people look down on me because of my choice. As if I am less of a Christian because of my vote and my political stance as a democrat?

A lot of my friends are angry and sad, and then they threaten to leave the country, and then they say that they are putting it in God’s hands. I wonder why we as Christians say things like, “we have to put it in God’s hands” when the situation is bad in our opinion, but if it turned out the way we planned, then it suddenly “God is good”. This is where the seperation of Church and State was a good thing.

Maybe then, we shouldn’t vote as christians, but instead as Americans. When religion creeps in then all hell breaks loose. Maybe the mistakes we make are when we mistake our faith with our morals. Hmmm. this is complicated to explain. Maybe what we think are Christian values that we vote on are really things that we do simply because we have believed that all along. Maybe they are things that we believe because we were told they are good or bad.

Either way, we witnessed history. I feel more proud of America than I ever have been in teh past. I am one of the millions who have witnessed what has happened, and truely believes more than ever that anything is possible.

So Much to Talk About!!!

I am getting into a really bad habit of not being here on my blog…I apologize.

-Since I’ve been gone, the economy has gone to the birds and now we wait to see which presidential candidate will lead us back. I know who I am voting for.

-I’ve found out what self chosen pain feels like. I started a “boot camp” class to shed a few pounds before baby pai gets here. My body is so sore that it hurts to try to even sit in a chair. I can feel my lats while I type, and also it takes a deep breath to muster up the strength to stand up again.

-I’ve been trying to find out what “sabbath” looks like. This idea of resting is interesting to me, because is it simply laziness or a requirement of living. To all my church friends out there reading this, I challenge all of us to take a lot of this as the “busy” season is coming for us that are the holidays.

-I’ve been listening to a lot of music lately. Some of my favorites are:

Sean Hayes, Otis Redding, Vampire Weekend, Kelly Joe Phelps, David Bazzan, Bill Withers, and Amos Lee.

-Baby Pai is coming along nicely. She likes to do somersaults in Cynthia’s belly and really seems to react to spicy food. Cynthia’s ankles are getting big and she seems to be grumpy and tired. Can you blame her though? She’s married to me and she’s pregnant. I’d be grumpy also.

Life is getting kind of crazy around the Pai household. Work, Baby, and Remodeling house stuff. That is my life. How is your life?