The concrete floor is filled with plastic folding tables surrounded by metal chairs. A average-looking woman is strumming a guitar as even more average-looking women sing along to an average song written twenty years ago. I look around and find myself surrounded by a large black woman, a white man with prison tattoos, an old lady with a funny smell. I feel out of my element. My inner snob rears his ugly head.

I’ve taken Ester to church nearby our home for some Sunday morning worship. As a family, we don’t attend worship services on a regular basis, so this is a special attempt at connecting to a faith community. I had found this church online and was quite impressed with their work in the community with the poor and their attitude of welcoming others as is. I loved the fact that this people had relocated to a neighborhood that no one wants to be in to do the work of Jesus. But, then there was with my inner snob kicking in.

Honestly, everything in me wanted to get up and leave. I was sweating and not just because the room did not come equipped with air-conditioning. But, I stuck it out and found the gathering to be intimate and honest. The people were amazingly friendly and interested in knowing my daughter and I. In retrospect, it looked a lot like the people of Jesus hanging out together, simply and without pretenses. While there was so much I hated about it, I couldn’t help but feel that I was in the presence of something special, if only I was wise enough to see beyond the drab surrounding and off-key singing.

As Natasha and I wrestle with what sort of faith community our family should connect with in Wichita, we’ve run into some difficulties. We have several friends who are leading “emerging” faith communities in this city. I love each them and connect to what they’re doing. We naturally gravitate towards these groups because of common interests. Objectively, all of them are better looking, better prepared, and more in line with my personal interests than the faith community I attended yesterday. But, is that what matters—finding those who look like me in a place in which I feel most comfortable?

While I love the emerging church conversation, I wonder if in some ways we’re just trying to get all the cool, hip, crunchy, philosophical people in one space. I wonder if more of us (relatively hip, cool, crunchy, and philosophical) folks should join on with the average-looking, un-hip communities just down the block. I know that most of us don’t want to be surrounded by personal clones, and yet somehow many of our communities end up looking predominantly white, middle-class, and highly educated. Could this be evidence of our inner snobs? How can we get beyond these boundaries and thrust ourselves into uncomfortable situations for the good of God’s kingdom come? What do you think?

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks

Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BuddyMarks BUMPzee! CiteULike co.mments Connotea del.icio.us

Digg diigo DotNetKicks DropJack dzone Facebook Fark Faves Feed Me Links Friendsite folkd.com Furl Google

Hugg Jamespot Jeqq Kaboodle kirtsy linkaGoGo LinkedIn LinksMarker Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace MyWeb

Netvouz Newsvine oneview OnlyWire PlugIM Propeller Reddit Rojo Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy Slashdot Sphere

Sphinn Spurl Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Twitter Webride Windows Live Worlds Movies Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

Copy HTML: 

 If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed or Email Feed.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

More »