So it begins...

Alright, count me in amongst the masses of bloggers out there, I've given in and joined the club. Before I write this first post, you probably need to know what this blog will be about. Jesus. There, that's it. Him. I know that sounds extremely cheesy and churchy, but if you're reading this you know me well enough to know I don't like cheesiness and much prefer authenticity. And I don't like churchiness, aka, using big fancy words to make myself sound smarter and look Godly. I'm not very smart (2.8 GPA in college) although I did make the Dean's List one semester (Student Teaching) and neither one of my brothers did. What, what! I also won't use words or phrases on here like "Sanctified", "testify", or "Have you been saved by the blood of the lamb?". Yeah, I might wax poetic and tell some stories, but Jesus will be in the center of it all. My hope for this blog is to share how Jesus is working on me (because I fall way short of Him) and how He's working in the world. Maybe in the midst of it somewhere, if I don't bore you too much and you continue reading, you'll bump into Him and good things will happen.

Also, to start this blog off I need to repent of some sin. I have a tendency to be overly cynical, not a good quality. Many times I'll make random statements on Facebook or in conversations simply because I'm an a-hole and being an a-hole comes naturally to me. I appreciate your grace in this area and if you're reading still, please pray, "God, will you please help Aaron to not be such a jerk?"

Now, I'm very transparent and will continue to be. And I'm sure I'll write stuff on here that will piss people off. But that will not be my intention. My intention will once again be to point attention to Jesus, and sometimes that's cool with people, and sometimes it makes them angry. Either way, I hope things written on here spark good, healthy thoughts and conversations about God and Jesus.

Finally, please forgive grammatical and spelling errors. As I stated in the 1st paragraph, "I'm not perfect". In particular, I'll warn you that the rule for "to" and "too" constantly escapes me so get over it and move on.

My first post is a response I wrote to a church when they asked me, "Describe your ideal ministry?" I got a little fired up and wrote a ton of stuff that was basically the equivalent of verbal diarhea. I found this little nugget (get it?) that interested in me because it made me ask myself some tough questions. Check it out...

Maybe this sounds a little cheesy and obvious, but my ideal ministry assignment would be to imitate Jesus’s ministry. He displayed and taught perfect, Godly leadership. One thing I have realized quickly is “I’m not Jesus”, however, my heart beats and breaks for the same things.

My heart beats for the poor, the rejected, the forgotten, and the abused. People like this LOVED Jesus. They followed Him around and flocked to Him hoping they could at least just touch his robe. They would rip open roofs to be in his presence. Unfortunately, we have developed a culture (obviously not Jesus’s fault) that is scared, angry, or disappointed in Jesus. My ideal ministry assignment must be a community that not only serves the judged, the poor, and the rejected, but lives in community with them, i.e., “does life with them”. People who follow Jesus should be spending a disproportionate amount of time with these people, just like Jesus did. I want to create a community that is not only attractive to these people, but a group of people the sick, the judged, the poor, and the forgotten want to be part of. As the leader of this community, I won’t be satisfied unless someone is trying to rip the roof off to get in. Our church’s reputation should strive for the same that Jesus had. People should be clamoring to be with us because we will truly, authentically love and care for people the way Jesus did. We will not stop at “service projects”. Those kinds of things might get us through the front door of people’s hearts, but life change through Jesus will only happen if we are inviting people into a Jesus centered church community like Acts 2. Sending a church bus over to low income housing units on Sunday mornings isn’t going to be good enough. Sending or developing multiple families and couples to live amongst these communities would be the way Jesus would do it and the church in Acts would do it.

After reading this response, it made me first think about my interactions with people. After all, I am supposed to be a "house" of God; welcoming, hospitable, warm. None of those really describe me. Not good. Then it made me think of my home that I live in. Where is it located? Amongst people that Jesus would hang out with? Are they welcome in my home? Would they even want to be in my home? If not, would it be because I have a big screen TV, heat, AC, and food in the fridge? Or because I don't invite them in and break down social barriers? What about my church? Are people willing to find any way in they can, even rip the roof off because they have heard such great things? This question comes from this story 4 dudes ripping the roof off to get to Jesus

I could go on asking lots of questions but I already feel guilty enough. But we can't operate out of guilt. It's not motivating enough. Once again, it comes back to Jesus and what I think and believe about Him. If we operate out of a deep, burning love for Him, then the answers to those questions should start changing. As Trent Renner would say, "Food for thought".