Poison... 99% Good stuff...

630pm... I slumped back in the upholstered chair situated at the balcony overlooking the stage of a well known bar in Leceister Sqaure... L was taking pictures... I peeked out the glass panels and thought to myself... I don't think I should be here... so much for the classy hotel restaurant I thought it would be where the diners would lean back and sip their champagne... I was wrong...

Downstairs the house band was already starting to warm up... Groovy bass riffs in A minor... I glanced at my watch... an another hour to go... hrmm... nothing new... been in that situation countless times before and anyway, soundcheck would fill up most of that time...

Just before L went to change, she introduced me to G... I put my guitar away and we started chatting on the black angular leather sofas... Talk about God and stuff... Relationships and all that kinda thing... heavy... "Dude, you wanna jam?" "Sure"

I was plonking out chords on the keys when the lead singer of the house band cut us off telling us we didn't look professional and asked us to get off the stage... Ok, we deserve that... G said he wanted to smoke... I didn't join him... I kept staring at the stage, nice set up, good mics, fantastic sound and you can hear yourself in the amps too... It got boring after waiting a while...

Just then, L arrived with some of her friends... Uh-oh... cleavage parade... I was actually more surprised that L was wearing a spagetti strap top... the little voice in my head whispered "keep your eyes in one direction J"... After the usual courtesies L asked if she could talk with me a while... I said ok and we went to the back on a couple of steel stairs...

"Do you want to pray 1st or should I?"
"I don't know, I could pray 1st..."

the voice in my head came back - "pray?!! I'm wondering if we are even glorifying God right now and you want to pray?!?!?!! And look at what you're wearing... I don't think either of us is supposed to be in this sin-saturated place anyway..."

I prayed... She prayed... I couldn't help but feel something was definitely wrong...
Anyway, I went back to the area where G and L's friends were... Come on, start the show already... I want to go back home... NOW...

Long story short... L opened the set and dotted a song with a reference to keeping God 1st in our lives... Judging from the looks on their faces I don't think the audience cared for that... God help us all...

I met H, who told me I was good on the keys and guitar... I thanked him and we started chatting... Oddly it was about church... He said he played in the bands at church and stuff...

Initial reaction: Ok, cool, I guess...

This is where it gets interesting...

H: Hey man, you should play for church man... Some of them pay well...
J: hrmmm, interesting...

voice in my head - um, where is this going exactly?

H: And some churches pay you like £100 per service man, it's good cash...
J: ignores H processing what to say...

voice in my head - ok, not going good...

H: I play for some churches and they pay from a range of £50-£100, the good ones pay you more though...
J: Don't some people say it's wrong to play in church?
H: Yea man... But hey, don't go to the churches that don't pay you... go to the ones that do... they are much cooler... and you can make a lot of money with your kind of talent man...
J: I got my own church man... pretty much there every Sunday... don't think I'll be playing around...
H: Dude, you're missing out on all the money you can make... and some churches got them nice girlies you know what i'm saying? *snickers* anyway... you know I got a couple of gigs coming up, you should go to them...
J: er yea... ok... *ignores the last statement due to shock*

voice in my head - I can't believe we're having this conversation! You go to church to get PAID?!?!?!!!!! since when did the HOUSE of the LIVING GOD get reduced to a MARKETPLACE??!?!!

I think to myself... The music was good, the sound system was great, no ear piercing feedback which hurt your teeth and the people were really friendly and came up to you and said hi... I go to some churches and there's a couple of singers who can't sing in key, the keyboard player can't play in time, the drummer slows down, the sound man keeps complaining about the guitarist who turns his amp on too loud and most people stay in their cliques...

Why is it when it comes to excellence, the world is striving for it? And the church sits back and says, it's all about the heart? ok, accepting people for who they are and what they can do is one thing, but there's a difference between acceptance and laziness... where you're accepted and you're not willing to push on to higher levels God is calling you to be at... I don't know... just thinking out loud here...

And in the 1st place, why on earth are the unsaved ushering people into God's presence? Because our OWN musicians aren't good enough?

And isn't ushering people into the holy of holies a really sacred job? Like the priests in the old testament who had to tie a string with bells to their ankle... so that if they got struck down dead when they displeased God somoneone could pull them out?

The state the world AND the church is coming to scares me...
mixing truth with poison...compromise...
A dangerous thing...
We're long due for a paradigm shift...

Holla back yall and tell me I'm not the only one disturbed by this...
And remind me to check where I'm playing before I actually do gigs...