Jim & Casper go to church

Originally written Dec. 29, 2007.


My friend loaned me a book called "Jim & Casper Go To Church". Basically it is conversations between a Christian pastor guy (Jim) and an open minded atheist guy (Casper) about their experiences at 12 different churches in America. A good read, and it's provoking some thoughts.
Casper is very unimpressed with churches spending lots of $ on technology. Yes, use the technology that is available, but don't worry about doing a stage show rivaling rock concerts. Casper is also very impressed with churches that actually DO things like serve the poor and make a tangible difference in a poor community. To him it doesn't make much difference what people talk about or "believe" or sing about in songs. He keeps saying "is this what Jesus had in mind?" when he goes to megachurches.
In my own spiritual journey I've felt that too much of my life was about proclaiming beliefs and not enough about actually DOING stuff to impact the world. In my spiritual traditions, so much emphasis is put on "accept Jesus and everything in your life will change". So then the emphasis in evangelism is always upon somehow getting an unbeliever to change their beliefs. But it doesn't seem to work very often.
I find myself nodding in agreement to a lot the Casper says, and wondering if 2008 might not be the year that I actually start to put some hands and feet into what I call "Christianity". The website for the organization run by the author of the book is http://www.offthemap.com/

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