Not being a Jim

Last weekend I went to church and Jim Froese had the message. Jim is one of the leaders in the church that gives the messages some times to give the pastor a break. Heaven forbid that someone who only works on Sundays has to work every Sunday.

Jim’s message was about fearing men. He opened with a story about the ridiculing that he received when he was new from Mexico. Mennonites spent some time in Mexico as part of our journey and its common for them to move here and look very poor and conservative. Anyways he was made fun of and called a taco until he looked the English part and began to make fun of other Mexican Mennonites the same way he once was made fun of. Fun that Jim’s main point was to encourage the congregation to befriend people who are not like us, people who may need Christ in there lives. The punch line was that we were not meant to be like Jim or Peter (a biblical reference). He sent a dare and looked at us with a very innocent but assertive look as to say that this was our mission and we shouldn’t let him down. He stated that we should befriend people with a brow ring, coloured hair, who dress provocatively or people who’ve had an abortion. And he looks up with the same innocent/assertive glare. With these friends we should bring them to church. “Damn, I knew there was a catch to needed to befriend them”.

Many things about this caught my attention. I have been very critical of religion for a few years now and this seemed to be as good of any to be critical. My sister and I carried on that day mocking his message by asking each other and my mom about scenarios that Jim didn’t mention.
“If I convinced a friend to get his eyebrow pierced does he count towards my list of who to bring to church?”
“If I dress provocatively for church and I sit beside someone can they count me on their list?”
“Do I need to bring them to church? Or can I just befriend them?”
“Do they need to take their brow ring out for church or do they need to leave it in so they can see that I have accomplished the mission of bringing someone who needs Christ to church?”
And we would constantly point to people on the streets or in the restaurant and mockingly asked them if they wanted to go to church. I was comforted with her because I realized I wasn’t the only one who didn’t agree with our mission to bring everyone to church.

My first thought was: who is to say that this person with their eyebrow ring isn’t already a Christian and who am I to judge their faith? To be friends with them is one thing and I feel proud that I have mastered have a wide assortment of friends who by outward appearance aren’t Christian. Joey, one of my best friends has had an assortment of piercings and I feel that is a lame thing to judge him on, Craig also had an earring when I met him but that didn’t change how I looked towards him and I know many people, who by Mt. Salem standards, dress provocatively. It’s this notion that just because I am a Christian I am supposed to be holier then everyone who is not a Christian. It’s like an unwritten rule. Jim seemed to allude to it when he judged the people by their outward appearance and wanted us to bring them to church. We should be packing our own bags for Hell rather then judging on who is all going to hell. And I know about this unwritten rule because I’ve felt it myself. I’ve felt people within my own church giving me the treatment and my own friends who are holier then me actually giving me the ‘my church means more to me then you’ attitude. I was always a Christian and did my time praying, but yet people still thought I needed to be encouraged to know Christ.

And my second thought comes from that. I am supposed to bring people to Mt. Salem??? Please, I would go to a church I didn’t even know with people I was first introducing to church then to go to Mt. Salem. Not everyone there is bad, and it also comes from my shyness and inverted ness that I am a not best friend with the lot of them. But if I were to bring a friend to church I know that they’d be stared at and identified as the non-Christian and no one would say hi to them or acknowledge them. Our mission was to bring them to church because they are different then us, which is exactly what they would be. Different. Mt. Salem thrives on conformity and you can only be part of this clique if you dress like the rest, date within the church, and make Mt. Salem and Christ your whole life. I don’t want to bring people into a church like this and I hope that God forgives me for not saving that person with an eyebrow who is most certainly going to hell for it.

Jim mentioned befriending someone who’s had an abortion because he obviously feels very strongly about abortion being wrong and that person would be the greatest sinner of all. I agree that we need to be friends with everyone including the biggest sinners but bringing them to church the first sign of friendship probably won’t help the cause. To say I love you despite your past is one thing, but I have taken offence to his “I’m going to be your friend on the condition that I can take you to church and turn your life around.” My moms opinion of the service was not entirely positive either and I’m betting it was Jim’s use of the word abortion that might have upset her. “How dare we bring ourselves to their levels,” I can hear her and other overly conservative women saying. I’m not saying anything about my views of abortion but I am noting the inappropriate ness to it. He wanted to make a point, but other then that one, the characteristics we are supposed to be seeking out and befriending were all outer appearances. He could have mentioned gays or divorcees but didn’t. Are they still welcomed in church?

Well Jims a good speaker, he knows how to speak to people on a wide range of levels and has a good mix of humour and seriousness in his conversations, but I wasn’t particularly fond of this message. It’s Mt. Salem after all and I’ve moved on from that church and that way of thinking. I’m still a Mennonite and this is a very Mennonite way of thinking, but I’ll relate with your next message Jim.