"the conversation"

of all the people Jesus interacted with, he had the harshest criticism for the religious people. in fact, i struggle to think of a "sinner" that he really came down on. there was the woman at the well, the rich young ruler, and even pilate didn't rile Him up. i've been thinking about this a lot lately in light of what i'm starting to call "the conversation" because i've been having it with so many people recently.

d. and i have drawn some harsh criticism ourselves this week. a prominent family in our church sat us down in a formal meeting to address what they called a "lack of moral leadership" in the youth ministry d. directs. the accusation, and the admonition that followed to "step up or step down", centered around a few main issues. number one, the non-christian kids who attend our ministry frequently swear. number two, a christian kid who is a student leader is struggling to quit smoking but has not actually quit smoking yet. number three, during a group discussion about giving to the homeless, d. and i commented that it doesn't matter if a bum buys alcohol with money you gave him - the important thing is that you give when you can.

now, please understand, we are not running a church youth group; we lead an outreach ministry based on a school-district format. when the swearing, smoking kids whose parents would rather die than catch their child reading a bible show up, we cheer.

we stood our ground, and probably started a war. however, since that awful meeting, i keep going over it in my head. is God after better behavior as His greatest end?

i just don't think there's much we can do to add to the blood of Christ.

let "the conversation" continue.