Zombies in Asheville!

     Hello Friends. We had a really good officers councils which had two main speakers who definitely challenged my thinking, my actions and lack of creativity presenting our faith. Dr. Leonard Sweet (www.sermons.com) showed us that our precious, well behaved Jesus was actually quite scandelous and shocking to the well behaved of his day. Dr. James Emery White of Mecklenberg Community Church (www.mecklenburg.org) challenged us to engage the culture where we live, learn their "language" in order to be able to meet them where they are.
     So I started thinking, how could I be shocking and relevant to (not necessarily corps) the neighborhood around the corps in Asheville, NC. We are currently in a series from the book of Micah (chapter 3) which sounds a lot like "Zombies". Look it up. So I renamed the Sermon "Surving Zombie Attacks" and posted the title on our marquis sign out side. I had some zombie related pictures for the projector, you know nothing too graphic (baby steps). I figured if Jesus was scandelous and offensive to some, why shouldn't we be? Our founder William Booth, if he was anything, was offensive to many, but boy did they flock to see him talk!
     So it's Sunday morning and the zombie sermon goes out. The three Points? #1 Zombies in ancient times (the priest and prophets who led the Children of Israel astray). #2 Zombies in Modern Times (any person or system which denies rights and propogates injustice and poverty). #3 Zombies in the Church (Those which come only to consume and to be "fed"-Never bringing, helping or feeding others....Zombies!)
     The sremon and teaching was well received and there were some at the altar (praise God). What was truly interesting was that later after the Salvation Meeting a complete stranger came in and joined us in our prayer circle. He wanted to study the Bible with us on Wednesday nights. I told him that we were currently studying Micah. He lit up and said that he had "just" started reading the Bible for the first time and happend to start it in Micah and wanted to know what it all meant....Philip....Ethiopian eunich....(Acts chapter eight)...connect the dots. After church, there was a couple in front of our sign taking a picture of it. I went out and struck up a conversation with them. The lady asked me "Was this really the sermon, or was this something metaphorical?" I assured her that the sermon was literally about zombies and then gave then the two minute version of it. They were satisfied and said their good byes and walked off. So I met three strangers today simply because of a risky sign announcing how to survive a zombie attack.

Lord, forgive me for doubting that you can use anything to continue your work. Give me fresh ideas and help me to engage this culture with acceptance and love. Show me your ways that I may be scandelous to some and offensive to others so that by all means we may win a few. Amen