Granger Community Church is not the spawn of Satan.

My friends up north at Granger Community Church seem to have a target on their backs these days. Just typing in GCC on Google brings up a good sampling of what i'm talking about:

Undeniable Proof that GCC is Producing False Converts
Pop goes the Hype! Granger Community "Church" fesses up
Granger Community Church: Where Van Halen leads worship [this one makes me mad, because i know a lot of the worship leaders at GCC through Bethel, and to say that they're blaspheming God in their actions is a bunch of BS]

Tim Stevens just posted a picture on Twitpic of a page in a new pamphlet manifesto being handed out in Michiana, called "What God thinks about Granger Community Church." It attempts to use scripture to discredit the work Granger Community Church has been doing for the last 20 or so years. According to the pamphlet, you can't find crosses at GCC, and that's BAD NEWS. I don't know if you can find crosses or not, but I know you can find Jesus, and that's what's important.

Now, I get confused when all these arguments and claims come up, because I know Jesus. We're tight. In fact, I gave up everything because I thought He was such a cool guy. And what I know about Jesus is that He has a heart for the people who aren't hung up on religion. His whole ministry was for the oppressed, the poor, the outcasts, the people who didn't think God was for them because their lives didn't fit into the box of religion. In Luke 4, Jesus even says,

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

I've been to Granger; I've been there a lot, actually, for leadership conferences and weekend services, and more than any other church I've seen, Granger gets the message of Jesus. They get that not everyone fits into the mold of religion, and they also get that everyone does fit into the gospel of Christ. Like David with the Psalms, they use the arts to communicate the message of Christ, and that rubs people the wrong way.

I feel like the argument stems back to the old "i am not of this world," which is something we throw around to justify a Christian subculture and crucify anyone who relates to anything cultural. Some Church leaders don't like Granger because they use the language of culture to present the truths of Jesus. It's like if I were a missionary, and I went to Japan with Bibles written in French. That wouldn't do anything, because no one would understand it. Granger knows the language of the community, and they use it to present the truths of the Bible, and they do a great job of it.

When Granger admitted that around half of their guests didn't believe in Jesus [see the articles above], everyone rejoiced and said HA! GRANGER'S WRONG! But think about it: if everyone in your church believed in Jesus, who would you be ministering to? Jesus didn't come for the people who already knew; he came for those who needed healing, who needed love, who needed support. And that's what Granger does: it's not a social club, it's not a closed door ministry. It's a viable community resource, where spiritual needs are met alongside basic human needs. I'd love for all of the people out there who think Granger isn't making a difference in the name of Jesus to watch this video.