"hey come to my church"

I remember Brad Lide wearing homemade shirts like that in high school. That's what we were encouraged to do; invite people to youth group. At youth group there were cool college-aged kids who play guitar (/guys who could grow facial hair--they shone like stars against the petty high school boys), fun people to hang out with who didn't drink, music, games, trips, and other fun events to keep you entertained, what high schooler wouldn't want to be a part of that community? It wasn't like we hid the message of the gospel though. I remember we used to say our mission statement every week during announcements it went something like, "At Valley Bible we like to have a lot of fun and laughs, but our central purpose for being here is to spread the gospel of Christ with those in the valley and beyond." Even though the gospel was preached every time we met; there was something missing. I kinda felt like there was a pressure to make this church thing so cool that my non-saved friends would forget that they were at church (I wasn't very successful). It wasn't so much that I was ashamed of the gospel or of Jesus; in some ways I was ashamed of the church.

Southeast has turned my view of church on its face. It's a raw, honest parable of the gospel. It's not a very cool church, but it's good. Instead of being mentored primarily by attractive twenty-somethings, its the crazy lady with the walker, the old guy who's always getting on your case, and the energetic woman who loves to lead the chidren in songs containing theologically sound lyrical expressions like "God's not dead" and "Heaven, I want to there uh-huh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah" who teach me what it means to be the church and what it means to be faithful. Now my favorite songs are not accompanied by a shredding guitar part or a catchy baseline, they're found in the middle of Sunday morning prayer. These days, I love to invite my friends to church. I'm so honored to be a part of Southeast. I feel like as I am accepted there, I'm fitting a camel through the eye of a needle; I am accepted into the kingdom. I like that at Southeast we don't need to present a mission statement every time we get together for an event because the gospel of Christ is there, its happening, and its powerful. So if you haven't been before, come check out my church.

question: is there a difference between an "unnecessary" burden that we carry and our cross? how do we know? and for that matter, if Jesus' yoke is easy and burden is light, why does he tell us to carry our cross daily? surely our cross is not easy and light?