the Church in the corners

I’ve been reading Alan Hirsch’s book Forgotten Ways and I can’t seem to get passed one point he makes. In Australia 95% of churches compete for 12% of the population- the suburban, middle class, basically good people that pay taxes and take care of their children. These statistics are very similar to what we see in the U.S. as well. These churches are effective at reaching both believers and non-believers in this culture of society but what about the rest of society? It made me think back to High school and how groups seemed so defined- the goodie-goodies, the jocks, the partiers, the druggies, the popular crowd, the geeks, the gangs, the Goths etc… I think that’s so true of life today too. On a normal day in Boulder, I’m around the artsy computer people at Saxy’s (a swanky coffee shop) for some morning caffeine. Lunch may be at the Boulder Co-op, where I sit at community tables with hippies and a guy who reads taro cards and sings into a plastic microphone while I eat my falafel. My day on campus is spent with rich sorority girls, hung-over partiers, saved Christians, and the typical college co-ed. After work, I’m on my way to my yoga class where I sit in a hot room with health fanatics, Buddhists, and Spiritual seekers for an hour and a half. I’m amazed at how sub-cultured our world really is and how easily we step from one culture to another through-out our day! With churches only competing for one slice of culture where does that leave the rest? Many times I feel the urge to only go where I feel like I fit in but when I look at Jesus’s time on earth, He spent time with them all, legalists, prostitutes, minorities, money launderers, insane people, church rulers, fisherman, etc… It wasn’t that Jesus fit in with all these people, He was awkward and out-of-place with many of them; but it was what He brought- His message of salvation and redemption for all- despite someone’s culture, job or ability that transcended the cultural walls. I don’t mean this in the flowery theological book sense but in the reality that the gospel literally changes peoples lives! It changed mine. The more sub cultured and neotribalized our world becomes, the more curious I am of how the redeeming Gospel will play out in the corners of society. We know how it works in the suburban middle class, but what would Church (the body of Christ) look like in communities of saved hippies, partying co-eds, self-disciplined yogis, the homeless, artists, Goths, poets, contemplatives, etc… This is the adventure I want to be a part of….Bringing the literally transforming power of Jesus to the marginalized and outcast not to fit them into some white suburbia mold (which definitely has it’s faults too) but to see Christ redeem and restore their lives and in turn transform their culture.