Okay, so perhaps I should have actually READ that last post before actually POSTING it

Thank God for spellcheck ; ) Hold on, here we go, verbatim from about 30 minutes of longhand, black ink scrawled across three entire pages (1 sided) in my three-ring binder at work that I lovingly call my brain. Wait for it.....wait for it.....yep, hold any comments on my brain until after you return from this scheduled test of the emergency broadcast system.....

...ahem...I will now perform my very first post entitled
"I'm taking Purpose back from Rick Warren" Man, I hope it's a title quirk-ily strange enough to "fit in" in this neighborhood?

We're not living in a vacuum, so why would God want his Word to exist in one either? This is the perfect illustration of why this site {sic www.churchmarketingsucks.com} exists in the first place. I've read through to the very last post, three years people. A simple thought evolved to a fully developed, well thought out and certainly God purposed website. Each and every one of us who've posted our personal responses here stumbled blindly through the netherworld of ethernets and cyberspace to discover something as inconsequential as ONE WEBSITE. Once we each discovered it and got cleverly hooked into reading just ONE PAGE of this site, we all managed to find the exact same thing.

It wasn't a good debate, it wasn't a polarizing theological world view or even at times a stunningly amazing discourse on language that would've put the ancient Greeks to shame. What each and every single INDIVIDUAL person found at this site is God.

Now, don't get caught up in trying to prove or disprove my theory through the semantics of the improper grammar in that last sentence. What I'm trying to express and convey isn't an apology or a a bid for your approval of me as a Christian, or to win some interdenominational pissing contest. Don't miss the fact that regardless of what we all believe or do not believe, God is here. You encountered him right here on this computer, surfing the web for whatever reason. Right now. At this moment in time. Because He loves you.

I promise this is not a sales pitch from some over-zealous prosetelyzing nutcase of some indeterminable denominational affilliation. I'm not trying to save your eternal soul by getting you to buy into what I'm selling. That's another point, I'm not selling anything. I just want you: whoever, whatever, wherever you are to just think for a moment.

Not about who's the rightest or who's the wrongest, but about the amazing set of circumstances that led to this discussion floating our in the vast sea of technology we now live in. A discussion, I might add, that began in 2005! Our culture is not just submerged, it's completely saturated by technology. What if you took a moment to reflect upon how you. Individually. Ended up here. I'm not trying to get all existential on you or super holy-roller, or by extention even post-modern or blue haired!

What if the ultimate underlying purpose of it all was simply to meet God here. Sort of an informal meet & greet session where God's the only one wearing that annoying little "Hello, My Name is _____" nametag, which doesn't even stay stuck to His shirt either (His, not denoting gender, but out of the relative ease of use and deference to biblical wording).

Come on, you know, sort of like an irreverent cocktail party where the usual social roles are played out in real time. You've got the elitist group hanging out over there monopolizing the best spot in the room by the punch bowl. You've got the charmingly innocent group over there secretly plotting a way to spike the punch over here. Then you've got the obligatory group of socially awkward misfits smoking, without shame, huddled together on the tine little patio just outside the door.

Maybe the point is that we're ALL someone at that party. We all immediately identified with one of those groups, or we did not, as the case may be. So perhaps you decided to blow off this lame excuse for a cocktail party, because the guy who hosted it didn't even bother to show up! What a jerk!

Maybe even then, the point somehow remains the same. God IS there. Not was there, once upon a delusion or even once upon an illusion that we constructed by some DNA leftover remains of our neanderthal cousins. But IS there.

You see, according to the laws of grammar handed down to us all by some well-intentioned educational professional, that sentence cannot be true. In fact, if using the criteria handed down from time immemorial to us all, using the immutable laws of english grammar dictate that the sentence, "God IS there." is so wrong on so many levels. Which results in the following reasoning of the sentence is wrong, therefore it cannot or perhaps more importantly, should not exist.

Yet He does. You can now tell everyone you know with grammatical surety that God made an appearance on this website today. I imagine for a moment hearing the one-sided overheard phone conversation of one of you today.

"Hey...uh...I like....um...met God today."

"um-hmmm...yeah....no really!"

"Yeah, at this random website called.....something strange like 'churchmarketingsucks.com' or something....ha, ha, ha.....yeah that probably wasn't even the actual name of the site...."

"No, of course he did not manifest himself through signs and wonders or clanging brass and sounding cymbals or anything. *rolling eyes at the phone* What, are you crazy or somethin?"

"Look man, all I know for sho' is some chick said she heard about it at some cocktail party..."

And what remains at the end of the day, at the end of the story is that GOd, in all probably actuality, could not care less about the name of a website, or the fact that in it's name there lies a ONE SINGLE WORD with the propensity to provoke someone to sin.

Nope.

I choose to presume that at the end of the day, at the end of the story, God is just pretty stoked that you dropped by his cocktail party today. I'd even be so bold and go so far as to wager that regardless of your personal reaction to his presence at the party (or to be fair to those who missed Him, the lack thereof). He's probably still thinking to himself after overhearing your last phone conversation, you know, just your one side of it, being polite, choosing to only eavesdrop on your end of the conversation.

"You know, it sho' was great seein' all those party-goers today. I'm still glad they came by, even the ones who looked right at me when I was talking to them, but got all pissed off and stormed out the door!"

"I'm still glad I got to spend some time with those crazy kids always tryin' to spike the punch bowl. *chuckling* I just love them, bless their mischievous 'lil hearts! You know, I'm still here, always have been and always will be, but Lord, those kids can still surprise me."

"Well, okay, mebbe not totally surprise me, but goodness knows I still love 'em, just the same. Uh-huh, you know how it is with kids these days..."

"I mean, I hate that it appears that I wasn't able to get through to that particular kid today. But, oh well, you know, they say I'm the eternal optimist, so mebbe they'll come on back tomorrow and they'll catch a glimpse of me at the cocktail party this time 'round."

"*another low rumbling chuckle*Yes, I know that they're not all my children, and the truth be told, I know they're adults and can damn well do whatever they please."

"He, he, he....yep...I know...I'm God Almighty and I totally just cracked a joke about free will, can you believe that? *chuckle*"

"Hey, I know another 'un! How does God define irony?"

"I created the Heavens and the earth, but I just used the word damn in a socially inappropriate, exaggeratedly Southern drawl, possibly even Cajun in origin, without batting an eye! *raucous laughter*"

"Well now, what'cha gon do, you know? Kids do say the darndest things."

"*chuckle* Yep, well, did I ever tell you the one about this one time by kid Paul............

"The Word commands us to be separate...ARGUEMENT FLAWED

Okay, gimme a few minutes, would ya? I've got to type in three entire pages of handwritten and manage not to edit myself and never get this thing online! I'll post it as soon as I get it all typed in, I promise.

Okay, obviously if it's November by the time the next post arrives, then I lied and I'm really, really sorry. But the fact remains that I am going to do my very best to get up today. Scouts honor. Really.

Okay, technically this is a repost, but I'm proud of it!

...The Word commands us to be separate...that particular phrase out of all these swirling debates jumped out at me for some reason and actually spawned what I am going to officially dub as my "Inaugural Blog". I've always wanted to be a journal-er, you know, those antiquated people with outdated vernacular that have subtly morphed into those people called bloggers by the purveyors of all things post-modern. I'll spare all of you the entire contents of three entire handwritten, college ruled notebook paper that arose as a result the spark of creativity reading this thread in it's entirety caused. But in case I've now made you curious, look for my new blog I'm literally about to create titled "churchmarketingsucks" at blogspot, if that name isn't already taken. Sigh, I mean I guess I will be okay if I have to be "churchmarketingsucks1977" for you to find it out here in cyberspace. Ironically, I promise not to try to take advantage of the situation and whisk you away from this site in a desperate attempt to sell you billboard real estate. Nor am I trying to usurp whatever real-life official "churchmarketingsucks.com" blog that may or may not exist. You're simply officially invited to visit, stay awhile and chat even, if you're so inclined. Hell, my little sister was a blogger before some nameless entity created the term "blogger". I mean, I'm even a born and bred good Southern Belle from Alabama! I just realized that I just said hell. Oh crap! Seriously! I even used the proper entire full name of the website, not once but twice without physically cringing! Wait, what was the point of this conversation, again? I got sidetracked ; )

Okay, hold on a sec. Just went and created my new blog at blogspot. Come on over if you're interested in reading the very first blog I've ever written in my entire 30 years of existence ; )