New 9 AM

Today was the first 9 am service at Ecclesia. It started only 6 minutes after the projected start time! And I was out the door by 10:24. It was actually very good. It was full, but not overly crowded. The message on Psalm 23 was a dialogue and to the point. What was most interesting was the point that I've been realizing more and more. American Christianity is very ego-centric. So often the Bible is interpreted in terms of man, not in terms of God (which seems to be more the case in less affluent societies). To me, that suggests that we, as Americans tend to want to justify the "American Dream" as an example of God's blessing (consider the title of the book by a megachurch author whose name appears in letters that are bigger than the name of his church on the side of the building). And, I'm not sure I agree that prosperity is the only sign of God's blessing--sometimes I think it's a red herring.