A CBGB Gospel

Last weekend marked a sad day for struggling musicians everywhere. After much conflict with it's landlord, the owners of CBGB in Manhattan's East Village closed its doors for good. It its heyday in the 1970s, CBGB was THE launching pad for out-of-the-mainstream bands including Blondie, the Talking Heads, and four remarkably ugly guys from Queens, the Ramones. That's right, when the rest of the world was going Disco, CBGB was punk, a musical destination for those who took issue with the status quo.

My guess is, if ground level real estate trends mean anything these days, it will become a Dunkin' Donuts before long and what was once a symbol of non-conformity will become something common and mainstream.

Why do I mention this stuff on a website designed to inform its readers of the Gospel movement in Forest Hills, Queens in the form of Ascension Presbyterian Church. Stay with me on this one, I have a point.

Like CBGB, the Gospel is against the grain of society. The whole world sends one message and goes one way, and the Jesus shows us that there's a different way. Like the struggling garage band, believers take their lumps for standing for God's Kingdom in the midst of a less-than welcoming culture. Yet, we are inspired, encouraged, and strengthened in God's grace and mercy. In a sense, it's a CBGB Gospel.

Yet, many people have replaced the CBGB Gospel with a Dunkin' Donuts Gospel... one that's cheap, sweet, lacking in nutritional value and makes you fat and lazy. Believers often turn their faith into something barely distinguished from the culture around it. We think the Gospel is something that should shake you up and get you on your feet and not something that clogs your arteries and lulls you to sleep.