Saturday, June 11, 2005

church invitation t-shirt

i absolutely love whoever came up with this t-shirt. it's brilliant.

i can't really think of a better more honest invitation to church. i like it so much i'll probably rip it off ... uhmmm ... i mean borrow it, while giving full credit to the people who deserve it. ;) anyhow, i'll probably use it someday.

posted by robert terrell at 12:07 PM |

6 Comments:

  • "i can't really think of a better more honest invitation to church"
    i hope your church doesn't suck and at least has something to offer because i'd probably rather go to starbucks, have better coffee, and check my email.

    By Blogger sknaB nolA, at Sunday, June 12, 2005 3:03:00 PM  

  • "we suck"

    ... depends upon what your definition of what church or "non-sucking" is. if having the answers, being all together, and being "self actualized" is your definition then yep according to that standard my church would definitely suck. we don't have it all together, have all the answers, and most of us don't even know who abraham maslow was let alone know what he meant by being "self actualized."

    now if you definition of church is a group of "real" people who are passionately in love with CHRIST well ... we pretty much suck by that definition also. most of the time we aren't "real". instead we fail allot.

    finally, if your definition of church is a group of people who are disparately trying to believe in and rely on CHRIST and each other then i guess we do a pretty good job of that. we struggle to love GOD and love each other and it is a part of our body's life every day.

    i guess you have to determine if that's something worth skipping starbucks for or not. not even a fair choice for me because i don't like starbucks - i'd rather support local businesses.

    By Blogger robert terrell, at Sunday, June 12, 2005 3:38:00 PM  

  • "finally, if your definition of church is a group of people who are disparately trying to believe in and rely on CHRIST and each other then i guess we do a pretty good job of that. we struggle to love GOD and love each other and it is a part of our body's life every day."

    those statements are, to me, far more inviting than promising nothing to a group of people who are searching for something.

    being open and honest about the struggles your church faces on a personal level and presenting transparency is an "invitation".

    i would skip any coffeehouse for a chance to struggle through relying on christ with others. not an open door to sit and be with a group of people who have nothing to offer except a mutual feeling, "we suck".

    i don't believe that the church has nothing to offer and doesn't know anything. "we don't have it all together, have all the answers" is a great statement to make to a lost world and even the "fake" people sitting in the pews on a sunday morning.

    it will continue to be interesting as churches struggle how to become transparent in a world where it is so needed to admit what we struggle with.

    i hope that as we all search for this love of christ that is difficult to express we do it in an open and inviting way, with promises of a journey that we know will lead to eternal life.

    i pray that you continue to challenge the youth in your group to be transparent and real as you strive to be as well.

    and i still hope your church doesn't suck. no matter how it's defined.

    By Blogger sknaB nolA, at Monday, June 13, 2005 11:52:00 PM  

  • wow - a long comment.

    first, i would agree that the church definitely has something to offer. it seems to me that the whole statement on the back of the t-shirt is "tongue in cheek" and thus the statement "we have nothing to offer" doesn't really mean "we have nothing to offer". rather it means "we don't have what you would usually expect a church to have (i.e have it all together, etc.)."

    i would say the same thing about the first three lines of the "invitation" - it's tongue in cheek.

    it's supposed to be humorous and thus convey an idea of people who are struggling towards the ONE WHO is the answer. it's a joke that has meaning. i think we've both caught the meaning in that we both seem to believe that it is pointing toward being real, transparent, honest, and genuine.

    the whole point of the t-shirt is "we are just a small group of people in a small room trying to discover more about GOD ... come be confused with us." that's a group i can connect with. of course, to be honest if i had developed the t-shirt i wouldn't have used the word "suck" because my wife is offended by it. yet i still would have tried to convey that we are not what most are expecting form a church because we are struggling through this whole thing.

    so in a "tongue in cheek" manner i hope your church does "suck." i like churches that "suck" like the t-shirt describes.

    By Blogger robert terrell, at Tuesday, June 14, 2005 7:17:00 AM  

  • yeah, long comment, sorry to make you read so much. this is something i feel the church has no good grasp on today and is desperately searching for ways to be relevant. to start to reduce saving grace down to "nothing to offer" is interesting.

    i completely get the tongue in cheek - sarcasm in the statements.

    i just hope that as we share christ's love with the searching we don't let tongue in cheek spill over into that.

    i hope there is enough courage in the church to be "real, transparent, honest, and genuine" and not couch that with tongue in cheek - sarcasm.

    hopefully your nicaraguan mission trip "sucks" or doesn't suck. i'm not sure anymore.

    i am encouraged that there are youth leaders in the church who are looking at what it means to be "real, transparent, honest, and genuine" to a generation who so desperately needs people like that.

    By Blogger sknaB nolA, at Tuesday, June 14, 2005 8:27:00 AM  

  • I'll try to post more stuff like this in the future.

    Pax,
    Insane Zamboni
    aka Mark Bushor
    http://thejourney.typepad.com

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Saturday, June 25, 2005 7:04:00 PM  

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