I'm Not Sure the Christian Gospel always draws a crowd

I just finished a book last night (I've picked my way through it for a long time) called "The Irresistable Revolution - Living as an Ordinary Radical" by Shain Claiborne. It's been a huge stretch in my life to read this book and I suggest it to you if you want everything that you believe to possibly be challenged in terms of following Jesus literally and not trying to fit the Bible into neat little theological boxes, because there's usually always a puzzle piece missing for every side (except the doctrines worth dying for!!!!). But I think that I've answered a few questions I've had for a while - at least partially such as Why Men Don't like church, which has been a heavily debated topic. Now, again, I don't know all the reasonings everywhere - but I have a hunch at least in Maine why most men stay away... Shain says in his book "I'm not sure the Christian gospel always draws a crowd" - and I believe that he is right, because I see people walk away from the gospel as soon as there are absolutes brought into the mix - and Jesus was an absolute guy (read the Gospels if you don't believe me).....
Anyways... I wanted to share a lengthy part of Shane's book and encourage you to read it.



"I've learned that a lot of good things start small and actually grow smaller. It seems to be the story of the early church. Certainly, thousands were added to their number in the early church - the poor, outcasts, people fed up with the world. They were the scum of the earth. The Scriptures describe the early Jesus movement like this: 'We go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.... We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world'. (1 Cor. 4:11-13) Our context is quite different. We live among the wealthiest people of the world (top 2 percent), a tough mission field. We are preaching a gospel that declares that it's easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom. But look on the bright side. After we preach the crowds down, we will not need such expensive buildings. And of course, in a Christian culture shopping for the cheapest grace, the temptation is always to tone things down a little bit. People will be more comfortable around a domesticated Jesus than the LION OF JUDAH.
And yet whether it's the Prayer of Jabez (I wish you could read his footnote on this book) or the war in Iraq, many Christians seem to be hoping that the kingdom of God will come in triumphal greatness, expanding God's territory and taking over the world with glory and power - shock-and-awing the masses, if you will. But that's the very temptation Jesus faced in the desert, the temptation to do spectacular things like fling himself from the temple or turn stones into bread, to shock the masses with his miracles or awe them with his power. And yet he resists. The church has always faced the same temptation, from the time of Constantine's sword to now. We are tempted to do great things like rappel from the rafters in the newest church gym or throw the best pizza party so that kids might bow before the altar.
But amid all the church-growth tacticians and megachurch models, I want to suggest something a little different: God's kingdom grows smaller and smaller as it takes over the world" - Shain Claiborne, p. 317-319.

What are we doing to help the kingdom grow? How significant does something have to be to be significant? Small things, small acts of love will push people to see what is different; small questions of faith, small gestures of caring - small things, little significant things for the people that Jesus loves and calls us to love.
"We can do not great things, only small things with great love. It is not how much you do but how much love you put into doing it." - Mother Teresa

"Today... small things with great love (or don't open the door)." - The Simple Way motto

Loving Jesus and you - how can I pray for you????
Dwight