where life is meant to be lived
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 12:53 PM
these are exerpts from "the gutter" by craig gross. [eww gross!] you really just have to read it.
[talking about when he went to a park filled with homeless people with his youth group]
"Growing up, I was protected from this enviornment; I didnt even know this other world existed. But now as a youth pastor, I not only wanted to experience it, but I also wanted others to see it too. I didnt want the kids in my group to be as sheltered as I was."
"When I accepted Christ as my savior, I was lifted out of the gutter, but I was not made better than those who remained."
[talking about going to a Christian middle school and high school]
"See, even though Christians surrounded me, it had no effect on me because none of them reached into my gutter and showed me an active, Christlike love.They were all words and no action. They modeled the clean, vague, remote Jesus of my youth, not the Jesus I dsicovered later on."
[talking about going to a Christian college]
"It was still a safe, world-free enviornment, and it simultaneously outraged me and broke my heart. There was so much potential there, but it all stayed bottled up on campus and rarely spilled out into the world."
[talking about him and his partner going to big porn convetions and helping people learn Christ's love and forgiveness.]
"It's simple- we're honest about our profession, about our faith, and about our humanness. The gutter-and not just the porn industry, but the gutter at large, the real world- has embraed us, and they'll embrace the Christian message too. They just dont tend to embrace "the Church," because they're looking for people who are willing to be real with them, not preach to them. Not that everyone gives us big high-fives everytime they see us, but on the whole, we've encountreed astonishingly little resistance from the industry because deep down, they're all just sinners, desperatley looking for someone to love them. And that's what we do."
"Too many Christians get scared of the world, but when you look at Jesus and the things He did, the way he brought light into darkness, you can plainly see that we have nothing to be scared of."
[talking about when he went to a park filled with homeless people with his youth group]
"Growing up, I was protected from this enviornment; I didnt even know this other world existed. But now as a youth pastor, I not only wanted to experience it, but I also wanted others to see it too. I didnt want the kids in my group to be as sheltered as I was."
"When I accepted Christ as my savior, I was lifted out of the gutter, but I was not made better than those who remained."
[talking about going to a Christian middle school and high school]
"See, even though Christians surrounded me, it had no effect on me because none of them reached into my gutter and showed me an active, Christlike love.They were all words and no action. They modeled the clean, vague, remote Jesus of my youth, not the Jesus I dsicovered later on."
[talking about going to a Christian college]
"It was still a safe, world-free enviornment, and it simultaneously outraged me and broke my heart. There was so much potential there, but it all stayed bottled up on campus and rarely spilled out into the world."
[talking about him and his partner going to big porn convetions and helping people learn Christ's love and forgiveness.]
"It's simple- we're honest about our profession, about our faith, and about our humanness. The gutter-and not just the porn industry, but the gutter at large, the real world- has embraed us, and they'll embrace the Christian message too. They just dont tend to embrace "the Church," because they're looking for people who are willing to be real with them, not preach to them. Not that everyone gives us big high-fives everytime they see us, but on the whole, we've encountreed astonishingly little resistance from the industry because deep down, they're all just sinners, desperatley looking for someone to love them. And that's what we do."
"Too many Christians get scared of the world, but when you look at Jesus and the things He did, the way he brought light into darkness, you can plainly see that we have nothing to be scared of."