Radical Hospitality

His name was Bill. He had wild hair, wore a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and shoes with no socks. This was his wardrobe during four years of college. Though mildly eccentric, he was a brilliant person. He became a Christian while attending college.

Across from the campus was a traditional church. They wanted to develop a ministry to students, but weren't sure how to go about it. One day Bill decided to go worship there. He walked in with his wild hair, T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and shoes with no socks. The service had started. Bill started down the aisle looking for a seat but the church was full.

By now people were looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one said anything. Bill got closer and closer to the front, when he realized there were no seats. He just sat down right on the floor. Although perfectly acceptable behavior at a college fellowship, this had never happened in this church! By now the people were really uptight, and the tension in the air was thick.

A deacon slowly made his way toward Bill. This deacon was in his eighties, a distinguished man with silver-gray hair and a three-piece suit. He walked with a cane. Everyone thought, "You can't blame him for what he's going to do. How could you expect a man of his age and background to understand some college kid, thinking he can worship sitting on the floor?"

It took time for the man to reach the boy. The church became utterly silent, except for the clicking of the man's cane on the tiled floor. All eyes focused on him. When the elderly deacon got next to the boy, he dropped his cane to the floor. With great difficulty he lowered himself and asked Bill, "May I sit with you?" The man sat down next to Bill and worshiped with him, so he wouldn't be alone.

That's what the birth of Jesus means.

• Radical action.
• Radical behavior.
• Radical gospel.
• Radical Savior.
• Radical God.

Dying Church - Living God

Sometime in the early 1970s, the president of AT&T called all his managers
into a large room for an emergency meeting. Attendance was mandatory.
Speculation ran high as to what announcement would be made. Perhaps a
breakthrough in technology. Perhaps a downsizing. Perhaps ...... They could
tell by the grim look on his face that something extremely serious was about
to be revealed. When all were seated, the president went to the podium and
said, "The telephone as you know it no longer exists." Muffled giggles
rippled through the room. What game was this? They all knew he was wrong.
They had used phones that morning. He continued: "Anyone who does not
believe that state-ment can leave this room right now and pick up your final
paycheck on the way out of the building." Sober silence prevailed. No one
left. They all just stared. "Your job today is to invent one."

He broke the group up into small teams and they spent the rest of the time
coming up with a new phone. Some people wanted one with no cord...... in the
car, or to carry around.... to know when another call was coming in.......to
be able to forward calls to another number, to see the person on the other
end, to send other kinds of messages on it. About 60 items that
distinguished the telephone they invented. Many are now the features that we
take for granted, from call-waiting to individual digital phones, and the
list has not yet completed.

In the same manner, at the beginning of the third mil-lennium, we come to
church one morning for the Sunday service and, much to our shocked dismay,
we find a vacant lot with a little note tacked on a piece of tattered
plaster out front. It is written in Hebrew and it is the same note left on
every vacant lot of every former church building in the world, from
cathedral to clapboard. Translated, it says, "The church you have always
known no longer exists; it is gone - walls, pews, altar, and assumptions."
The tomb is empty. "How can this be?" we ask in abject puzzlement. In the
background, we hear God's laughter saying, "Given the world the way it is,
given the devastating problems and the incredible possibilities opening up
for the first time in history, given what you now know to be true in the
world, the real question is, 'How can it NOT be?' " Then God looks us right
in the eye and says, "Make a new one."

[from: Dying Church - Living God, by Chuck Meyers pg. 37-39]