The street preachers of Penn State, especially those that frequent the HUB area, are drawing large crowds this week. It's unusual. Few people paid attention to them last year. Their message sounds basically the same. Why the large crowds? Freshmen? People wanting spiritual guidance? Protest? (though the crowd has been mostly calm) I don't know.

Vacationing at my parents' has included some hilly cycling, hot weather for swimming, good times with family picnicking, a Pirates baseball game, and the reading of this book. I highly recommend all except the Pirates.

I was reading Zechariah this morning, thinking about the Jewish exiles returning to Jerusalem to build their city and temple, and the prophesy God gave them through Zechariah.

In Zechariah, the remnant are the people who remained followers of God during their exile to Babylon. Many of them had never known Jerusalem because they were born in Babylon or taken there at a very young age.

I was thinking about the word remnant--those who remained [followers of God], the remainder, generally considered to be a small minority. And then I thought about a modern day Christian churches and fellowships known as "Remnant," and wondered.

God labeled his remnant appropriately, but is it right for a Christian group to label themselves as such? If you are the remnant, what about all the other Christ-following churches? (Side note: orthodox, meaning true, established and approved, is a similarly dangerous label for a church to apply to itself, for the same reason.) Moreover, to call yourselves the remnant seems to imply exclusivity and inability for others to become part. This should never be true for the Christian church.

(Edit: I am not talking about the Seventh-Day Adventists that call themselves "remnant." They are intentionally exclusive, not to mention strange. I'm talking about Bible-believing, Christ-following churches and fellowships.)