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LIQUIDTHINKING IS: Stephen Zedler Jimmy Doyle Andy Mullins Current Sountrack
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Wednesday, April 07, 2004
 The Kingdom of God Does Exist
In contrast to the Passion of the Easter Bunny (see Stephen's post below), Dawson McAllister's Insights (my post below), and the obvious failure of the church™ to even be aware of the values of the Kingdom anymore, it is present in small pockets and colonies in this world. This article in Christianity Today is both encouraging and a call to repentence for the Body of Christ in America. I'm so hungry for such a place...such a community...that I might just move to Texas. Here's an excerpt: "It's a humble bridge," Kucker says. "Today it's going to be sanctified." For Waco's homeless and hard-living people, there may be no safer place than this bridge on Sunday morning—as safe from street crime as from the glares of worshipers in other churches. The interdenominational Church Under the Bridge (CUB) began in 1992 when Baylor professor Jimmy Dorrell, 54, began a Bible study for homeless men who slept under this overpass. The group grew to include more homeless, poor, drug addicts, prostitutes, and bikers. They were later joined by others who had no church experience or felt they didn't fit into area congregations. Now the people who worship under the bridge are a demographic snapshot of this city of 100,000 people and 257 churches. Black, white, Asian, and Latino students from Baylor University, and others from the upper middle class, form the body of Christ with the down-and-out of all colors. CUB's calling is to be a church to the unchurched of all socioeconomic levels and races, and to serve the poor and marginalized. Ex-prisoners and food-stamp recipients worship with the well-heeled and educated. Along with breaking down class barriers, racial reconciliation is one of the church's main pillars. At one service, Dorrell had the assembled break into small groups to talk about any prejudice they harbored, and to pray for forgiveness. "Several times a year," Dorrell says, "we address the issue in a sermon, have a couple of different-race friends or marriage folks share their struggle and victories, and then pass out a list of questions for the racially mixed groups to discuss." The church's core values include a rejection of attractive "holy" buildings; 51 percent of offerings support outreach in Waco, Haiti, and India. Nothing goes to rent and utilities. Should prospective construction work to widen the highway or other events keep worshipers from their usual space, CUB has purchased another piece of land for $3,000. "It is a backup, next to another bridge where the homeless used to sleep, which we can use if we are ever run out from our current spot," Dorrell says. "Even at that vacant lot, we have no intentions of building a facility."
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Jimmy Doyle is a dad, husband,
teacher, friend, and other things. Currently he's just trying to figure out what it means to follow Christ and be in community with others. He enjoys having conversations with fellow pilgrims on the journey.
Stephen Zedler has a wife and three kids who he loves very much. He has been called by God to study and teach history, particularly U.S.
history. He also believes that God has called him to reform the way children are educated in America.