Saved?

I'm feeling a little contriversal this morning watching the movie Saved!, a great favorite of mine.

Back in middle school/high school, I grew up in the bible belt capital of the world -- Dallas, Texas. Ironically, it is also the most populated city of homosexuals and home to the largest homosexual/transgender Christian church. Tells you a little something about the Dallas area. ;)

I'm Catholic, so it made for an interesting time, I suppose. Any given year I had about four or five people try and "save" me. I never really understood that because, um, I believed in Jesus and went to church every Sunday. Of course there is more to being a Christian then that, but you get my drift.

The point is, everyone is a little different in how they worship, pray, follow, etc. There is no one set way, there never will be. But so many people/Christians try to fit that into one category, the right category. It's more than one can handle sometimes.

And to make it worse, the establishment of church itself sucks. Take a trip up my work elevator and you'll get the drift... This large church in Austin has a commercial on during a news station break. Apparently, if you have digital cable, you can go to their own channel!

Okay, maybe I'm not the prime example of how to run a church, considering I don't have a church. But still -- I feel like the most important thing for churches right now is not to spread the word of God, but to get new members, becuase that means more $$$.

It's like a friend of mine's church in Houston. She found out they spent more than $700k on advertising in a given year. Missionary work? A measely $5k.

Churches have become a business/money making opportunity, a chance to "get new members" isn't necessarily to save -- but almost to steal others from other churches so more cash can be received. Argh! It makes no sense!

Everyday, people still accept the Lord into their hearts, and I'm happy for them. These churches help them, and that's great. But I still feel like there is this shift, to get as many people going to church, instead of focusing on something more important than a building. It's weird. And frustrating. I guess because it is hard to find people that feel this way, and the fact that I'm still struggling to find a church that isn't focused on just these things.

Take for example this church Justin and I frequented on ocassion. Our last visit, they sang a Cher song -- or rather one person sang the Cher song while we all watched with our mouths open. Say wha? The song was in no way related to Jesus, and I'm pretty sure that Cher isn't religious, or not outwardly so. The sole point was to put on a "concert" and entertain, not to spread the word. That was the last time we went to that church.

Anyways, don't take this e-mail as knocking you, your church, more me saying I'm not into Jesus anymore. I'm just trying to get this off my chest :)