Beautify

I saw a friend of mine for lunch. He is a vicar in a tough part of London and I asked him about his summer. As you might expect, it involved holiday news and also a catch up on a conference he had been to with his family. He had never been to this event before and so for him it was a time of watching, learning and reflecting. 

The conference involves the opportunity to attend seminars and it was this experience that struck him. One seminar he attended was called 'Reaching out to the poor' and this is a particular concern of my friend and his wife. It was, he noted, in relative terms very badly attended (35 or so) What he then realized was that at the same time his seminar was on there was also a seminar entiltled 'Beautify' given by a well-known Christian celebrity and this had over 400 and standing room only. 

Now my friend's thought was not that it is not right to attend such a seminar but his question was merely to ask what sort of Christianity and what sort of Jesus we think we have if our hearts choose this over concern the poor?

I have been reading over the past couple of months Under the unpredictable plant by Eugene Peterson which is about Jonah. The truth is we would all rather get in a boat to Tarsish than go to Nineveh.  

It seems this conference only confirmed this reality to my friend.