Interview with a Hardcore kid

this is one of my friends ian who let me know his opinion on the state of the church in america

do you attend a church?

no i do not attend church, anymore at least.

If not why not, and if yes what do you like about it?

well honestly it would be lack of motivation. i was going to bible study pretty regularly, after not going to church for a decent period of time. and i found myself not reading certain books or documents because they might disagree with the bible. so i realized this and decided i shouldn't remain ignorant to something just to maintain the purity of something else in my eyes. originally i was raised catholic and had some differing opinion with the catholic church. that made the church in general lessen some in my eyes.

with your church encounters what would you say the worst part about it was?

the worst part would be hypocrisy and lack of originality/boredom factor. but, taking into consideration that was a catholic church. ive been to some other services but i had trouble taking them seriously, speaking in tongues and what have you.

what was best part?

the best part was a bible study i attended for a while that was made up of hardcore kids because it was a free forum and a group of friends getting together. what would attract you to a church?

this is a tough question, what would attract me to a church. it would certainly take a lot, for a good amount of people this is an uphill battle. i would like to say that activities, movie night, and music events would bring someone but the only thing that would make someone want to go to church in my opinion is an honest belief in the bible.

what is some advice that would you give the american christian church?

my advice in regard to tithes and charity would be to feed, clothe, and find shelter for all those you can (not that there arent substantial figures in this area already). as far as gaining interest i would say focus a little more on your target audience's interests, be accepting.

Ian is the bass player in a hardcore band...

Lion Of Judah (http://www.howsyouredge.com/loj/main.htmlbased)

out of the metro dc metropolitan area.

i am glad that he took the time to answer my questions and i hightlighted the parts that stood out to me. he speaks pretty well for himself...

the ABC's of the Chi-Alphabet

chi-alpha is one of the scariest things to me for a couple of reasons:
1. i don't really know what college life consist of, especially on a university campus. i am not used to the completely secular mindsets of professors, the party lifestyle, an enviroment where you feel like a small fish in a big ocean, where no one really knows who you are. its difficult because here at vfcc its a little world where i am known pretty well, and it would be a harsh transition to go into a new world and have to start again.

2. there are so many people on a campus that it would be really difficult to feel like you have reached all of them. to me planting a church in a town is less intimidating because you have more than just 4 years to make an impact on city, and you have more than just the same age group in a city. with chi-alpha you have 4 years until freshmen become seniors and you feel obligated to minister to them before those 4 years are up or you will lose them. its just hard knowing that every single person that you would walk by, that you encounter, that you see in your everyday coming and going, is who you are called to minister to...

maybe thats the way i should look at my life everyday? or maybe i just need to realize that no one person is going to reach them all you have to be part of a bigger group, and maybe that is what Chi-Alpha is all about...preparing a group of people to reach their entire campus for the Lord.
lets face it, it probably takes alot of prayer for this thing to really work and its not for the faint of heart, and one could say that about all ministery.
i need to shape up

you and i where swindled by an image...

some people just don't like to go to church, because they feel like the image that they have been shown is not real. i feel that i would probably not want to go to a church sometimes if i knew that people were just trying to have outreaches and services just so i could come and except Jesus. after the fact i would feel very used "you mean the only reason you spent all this money, was just so that could buy into your God"

now that sounds a little harsh, but i was kind of pondering this thought after class the other night. its hard because i do feel like we as a church need to be in the community doing as much as we can to put our name out there...but maybe not our name, but the name of Jesus. i think that there are alot of outreaches that are effective in reaching out, yet somehow in everyone we need to show Jesus through them in a realistic way. I know this is the point of most outreaches yet we sometimes just need to be... i guess less blunt with the truth, not just make our friends seem like they are less than us and they need Jesus to be equal to us, but to listen to them and get to know them, Tom said in one class that most of the time when he talks with unbelievers he lets them do most of the talking and he just listens. i think that is a very good and sucessful way to talk with someone, at least give them the courtesy that we are asking for ourselves...

listen to their message, and maybe they will listen to ours.