Picturing the church

My son gets out of jail and into a halfway house in April. When I visited him last weekend, he said he would try to get passes from his parole officer to go to church with me.

My first reaction was unadulterated joy. My second reaction was more adulterated --- a mental ransacking of the state of my local church, attempting the point of view of a 25-year-old ex-con.

Or, turning the prism to yet another facet, from the point of view of horticulture --- what clime best promotes growth of tender shoots just emerging from God's hothouse of converts that is the prison system. Many a man who was desperate for Jesus in his cell is beguiled again by everything from the world's allure to its aloneness once released into the streets.

Would to God a few at the church door will be as friendly as AA meeting folks dependably are. Would to God Linda Woods and Nelson Shane and Tom Becker will be there, no mere pew sitters but filled with the Spirit and always ready in season and out of season to have their lives redirected on short notice to take a stranger to lunch. Would to God the sermon will be anointed and not trifling, ingrown, or provincial.

Funny how when push comes to shove you don't need seminary education to know exactly what the Church should look like.