Party On!

The Kingdom of God is a Party!

I was newly ordained as a pastor and was attending a small conference for Sunday School teachers in the Bay Area.  It was my introduction to Tony Campolo who had been brought in from Philly to speak.  To state the obvious, Tony is one of those speakers that is not easily forgotten.

Tony is an Italian on steroids!  His arms were flailing, his feet were prancing, and his mouth was moving a mile a minute.  After spending 45 minutes reminding us that we weren't just teaching lessons to disinterested kids, but we were introducing them to the Kingdom of God; he concluded by telling us about a sleepless night in Honolulu were he threw a birthday party for a prostitute.  

Now he did not do this as a means of organized evangelistic outreach with the intent of getting all those women and their pimps into a church to save their souls.  His sole purpose was to spread the joy, to do something outrageous because that is the nature of this God we worship.  It was only when the guest of honor asked to take the cake to show her mom and there was a lull in the party that Tony took off the mask and cape and revealed himself as a follower of Jesus.  In that moment of awkwardness waiting for the birthday hooker to return, Tony said, 'Let's pray.'  It was a simple prayer asking God to shower his love upon everyone in that room and to keep them safe.

After the prayer, the cook confronted Tony, 'I didn't know you was a preacher.  What kind of church do you lead?'

Tony responded by saying, 'One that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 2 am in the morning.'

The cook responded back by saying, 'No way!  If there was a church like that I'd be there!'

You see, I had a similar conversation with my son just recently.  Not quite exactly, but with much the same sentiment he expressed that short order cook's words.  Like many of his generation, he longs for a church that truly cares about those who are hurting.  Like many of his generation, he is put off by a church of rules and regulations, favored and unfavored.  Like many he has little room for God if God is anything like what he all too frequently sees and hears from the church.

So, what shall we be?  Shall we be the church of Jesus?  Shall we be the church that throws parties for prostitutes?  Or will we be the church that continues to exclude more and more people because they don't fit into our expectation of what a Christian should be?