A new coffee house opened up last night. It’s close to my place so I will be here a lot. Good coffee.

My thing for the past year as been people. I’ve really been people based and focused on how I treat other people. I read through the new testament in the bible and see how Jesus went around treating others and how people based his ministry was. It’s the one thing we as Christians try and strive for (being like Jesus) but the one thing I feel we come most short of.

There was a commercial on tv a couple of months ago where all these different people are sitting in church ( a gay couple, a single mother with a baby, a homeless guy) and slowly, each one these people are ejected out of the church. I don’t remember what denomination of church is was but there slogan at the end of the commercial was We Don’t Exclude Others (or something to that effect).

This commercial made me say WTF? It made no sense. Why would you have a commercial where people are getting kicked out of church and your slogan be all are welcome. It was one of the worst concepts for a commercial I’ve ever seen.

There are times I question the churches desire to really love people. I go to church and it seems the point is to bring people in and get them saved. I don’t feel there’s anything wrong with getting people saved but if the point of every sermon is to get people saved then the people in church will never ever grow.

The most effective I’ve ever been in telling people about Christ has been when I’ve built relationships with them. I’ve shared Jesus with people while drinking beer. How many people get to do that? Not many I’m sure. People can smell a fake.

I’m not trying to hate on the church. People take things the wrong. I like to present things in a different light. I want to be like Jesus. Jesus partied with people. He ate with people. He healed people and he truly cared for others. Jesus had relationships with people. His friends weren’t the ones who went to church. His friends were the ones who needed him.

I’ve completely lost my train of thought. This happens from time to time.

Let’s try to wrap this up.

I’m sitting here in this coffee shop just before noon thinking about my relationships. I want to live like Jesus did, with people in mind. I want to truly care and love for people like he did. I want to have relationships with others because I care about them, not just to get them saved. The biggest impact I can have in this world is if first I love, and then bring people to Christ.

John 3:16