The glass pecking bird

This little animal was tenacious. Trying so hard to get inside. It would peck on the glass outside our meeting room, trying to find a way inside. It was more than a little distraction and irritation. Now this bird was not a woodpecker, it was a glasspecker. Tap tap tap tap, fly a few feet over, tap tap tap tap fly a few feet up tap tap tap tap fly a few feet down and tap tap tap tap.

During our two days of meetings here, this happened during each of our meetings. While Guy was teaching, this glasspecking bird was trying to get inside! Now it was not trying to get it because of all the interesting people and noise going on in the the room there. It was trying to get in because it was convinced that it’s home was in that room. There was a nest in the heating duct there and the bird was just trying to get home.

I thought that very fitting and a great illustration of the world today. They (the world) are not going to want to come in (the church) because of the noise we make or the interesting people that are inside. They will want to come in, when they believe that their home is inside. That is why cafe’s are much more like a church than church is in today’s world. Cafe’s and coffee houses are places of conversation in today’s world . . . places where real relationships can flourish. That is what church is supposed to be like. A place were conversations happen, real communication occurs and listening and sharing happen in equal measure. Those are the places where people are tapping on the windows trying to get in, instead of our churches.

Our churches too many times are places were we talk and then we expect people to listen. Where we make rules and codes of behavior that separate the good guys from the bad (when in reality we are all bad guys). I am tired of church and the church. I think I am going to make cafe’s a part of my daily routine to meet real people and have real conversations. I want to find a home. Tap tap tap.