Missing the Point

The following is by Brian McClaren and Tony Campolo from their book Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel.

I'm in Home Depot. A series of consumer canyons tower menacingly overhead. All I need is a thingamajig. Where is it and who cares? My eyes quickly scan the horizon of stuff looking for a little just-in-time customer service.
I want to scream at those apron-clad folks: Take your eyes of those boxes! Get down off that stupid ladder! Quit visiting with your coworkers! Don't pick up that phone! Pay attention to me!
But it's pointless, and I finally get it: I'm an interruption. An irritation. They'd prefer I wasn't in their building.
They've forgotten why they went into business. It wasn't to count boxes. Or visit each other. Or ignore the customer. They went into business to pay attention to the customer.

The Home Depot story reminds me of the modern church. We sometimes forget why we are in business. We forget that the "Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Jesus was and still is all about people. Not buildings or programs or meetings or any of the other things we spend our time on.