My Crazy Journey: I Was Almost Friends With Jay Bakker

I know it makes me sound even more lame than I really am, but the truth is that I was convinced early on in college that I was going to be a Punk-Rock Pastor! I had the lip ring and other piercings to prove it. I was obsessed with The Ramones and MxPx, and spent my weekend going to punk rock shows. I read my pal Conrad’s website, Decapolis, almost hourly looking for interviews with underground alternative Christian bands. I had made some friend who attended Scum of the Earth Church out in Denver, and there was a season where I ran around in the same circles as none other than Jay Bakker.

I had only met Jay a couple of times, but we knew a number of mutual friends and I regularly saw him at the same venues. He was my role model, even if he didn’t know it. I followed what he was doing with Revolution church in Brooklyn, and I had plans to duplicate it…maybe even in Athens, OH. What I didn’t know was that Jay had been going through a long-term crisis of faith. His beliefs were increasingly not in accord with Scripture. It would have been very easy for me to go that direction. I had good friends who were homosexuals, atheists, and New-Agers. I had experienced first hand just how judgmental and weird Christians can be. It seems, in retrospect, like the natural course of my doctrinal development should have gone towards an all-inclusive view of grace (like that which Jay promotes in his new book). Why didn’t I?

I can’t honestly answer that question. I wish I could, I’d write a book and it would sell four copies (I’d be semi-famous). But the truth is that I can only chalk it up to the grace of God. I can only acknowledge that what I wanted and what God did were not even remotely the same. I ditched the piercings and put on my tie to lead worship with an organ at a small Baptist church. I visited old ladies in the hospital, had dinners and coffee with an elderly couple from my church, and took to even enjoying a little bit of Caedmon’s Call, though I never admitted it.

I’d say I’ve moved back towards the more progressive side of things, I never really was a tie-wearing, organ enjoying, guy. But because of the circumstances that God put me in, and the faithful people he put in my life I cling to an orthodox theology. I love the old gospel and the old grace of Scripture. I love them because they are the truth and the power of their author, Jesus. The truth is that I don’t have any really wild stories. I tried speed once, it wasn’t for me. I got drunk a couple of times as a high schooler. I had fun pretending to actually smoke clove cigarettes too. But I never really got into trouble, I was a pretty good kid…and yet I can’t help but look at my life and see all the crazy things that Jesus has brought me through. In this case he led me from inclusive grace to true grace, and that’s pretty wild to me.