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The 'Following Jesus' Manifesto

January 7, 2007
[rhymes with kerouac]

1. Stop talking about Jesus. Just stop. If we loved the people around us half as much as we say we love Jesus the rest of this manifesto would be entirely redundant.
   
2. Live a secret life. Invest the time, effort and vulnerability necessary to delve deeply into the scripture and prayer. Spend long periods of time in stillness. There is no shortcut to this, there is no other way. Without a deep and secret life we soon find ourselves talking about Jesus instead of being like Jesus.
   
3. Stop pretending. I'm a Christian, and I suck. So do you. Let's get that out of the way, shall we?
   
4. Give more than you get. There will always be more than enough.
   
5. Be present for those around you. Following Jesus has nothing to do with your work, your resume or your income. In fact, nothing that matters does.
6. Treasure broken-ness. Our broken places are sacred spaces in our heart. Honour them. Value them. In doing so you love the unlovely, publicly declaring the beauty of God's image in everyone. Greet the broken with comfort and cool water.
7. Throw a party.
   
8. Know Jesus well enough to recognize him on the street. This is rather important, because he can always be found on the street - and he usually looks more like a pan-handler than a preacher.
9. Accept ingratitude and abuse as a fixed cost. Embrace them, and then go the extra mile.
10. If you follow Jesus, you will anger religious people. This is how you will know.
    

Article originally appeared on Daily Life in a Homeless Shelter (http://mission.squarespace.com/).

...there's a new class of people in this world....it's probably been around for a long time, but it has become more obvious to me because i'm part of it now....they are the broken, jaded, cynical, hurting 'former church goers'.....but, they are still followers of christ......the problem with this group is that they don't know where they belong......they feel either abandoned by their churches, or betrayed by their churches, or just disgusted by their churches.....um, former churches......over the past year or so, i've meet probably close to one hundred of these people...many who come to us with questions.....all still wanting to let their lights shine for christ......what is going on?.....with churches i mean?.....how in the world are we supposed to draw those who don't know christ toward HIM, when we are so concerned with church politics, or pleasing the big givers, or even not facing embarrassing sin issues......the problems that plague the church, aren't in the 'world', they are in the church....god help us