For my last post, I
pretty much wrote my own Apostles’ Creed. I don’t want to be accused of giving
some cheesy sales pitch for Christianity…I understand that people are free to
post beliefs of all kinds. After all, isn’t that what our nation was founded
on? Freedom of religion, whatever that may be?
I am sad, that we
live in a world that allows radicals (or anyone, for that matter) to be vulgar
and graphic in their “fight” for what they believe in, yet when someone posts
in support of Christianity, they are bullied—yes, I just used that
buzzword. If I present what I have to
say, in love, shouldn’t you be kind enough to do the same?
Yet years of
Christian hypocrisy have turned the waters bitter…People have heard enough of
our “preaching,” without seeing enough in our LIVING. They’re sick of us. So,
we actually probably deserve a lot of the “persecution” that we get, when we
say what we truly believe (I use the term “persecution” VERY loosely. As an
American citizen, the verbal garbage we may put up with is one thing; what the
Christians in other parts of the world are experiencing is TRUE persecution.
Look up the story of Pastor Saeed Abadini.).
The media isn’t kind to us—why are we surprised? We asked for it.
Had we lived the
things we said were right, the world would embrace our theology. People would
be drawn to us—it’s a natural human compulsion to seek love. The world should
have found it in us.
They didn’t.
So they’ve turned
their backs on Christians…
And they’ve turned
their backs on Jesus.
I say all of this,
and yet I am surprised when I learn that a friend of mine renounces their
faith. In the past 6 months, I have had a friend announce that he is an
atheist. Another friend announced that she is a deist. Yet another friend
renounced Jesus as the Son of God. I’m being really candid here when I say that
my heart is so heavy for my friends…I know the extenuating circumstances around
most of these radical shifts. In at least one case, I totally understand. In
another case, questions are still getting asked, and that person has a lot of
sorting out to do. And in the third case (these aren’t in any order), I don’t
know the backstory. I just saw the “news.”
I don’t want to come
across as judgmental. These are people I’ve been to church with, or gone to
school with…these are people I’ve taken Communion with, or read the Bible with.
These are people I love…
Churches are
ignoring key issues for their flocks. We are in an era where it is time to stop
being polite, and to start tackling the issues. Your people want to know where
you stand on relevant, key topics: Homosexuality. The environment. Health.
Stewardship. Families. Racism. Stop preaching to the Christians, and start
talking to the people.
The Church has
become a confusing encampment, an insulated BioDome, for like-minded people.
It’s not what it was supposed to be…we are shutting out people that are looking
for something to fill the emptiness in their hearts. The key issues I referred
to? They are the questions people want answers to. If we’re too afraid, too
concerned with keeping it G-rated, then they’re going to find those answers
somewhere else.
Stop being afraid,
Church, and make the shift!
Tackle these
issues—your children are! What do you think they’re hearing on the radio, or
seeing at school? THEY ARE EXPOSED, yet you want to come together on Sunday
morning and act like we’re all a bunch of innocents? It’s not true—we start the
week in our lily-whiteness, and by Saturday night, we’re like a bunch of dirty
air filters…It’s not that we’re jumping into sin or bad things; it’s that
they’re in the atmosphere.
My
generation—GEN-X—and the following generations are a different breed. The baby
boomers are typically the ones running the church, and the Gen-Xrs (and after)
are the ones running away. My friends
don’t understand the need for Jesus! After studying the Bible! What’s wrong? What happened?!?
We have a
responsibility as a body to teach people, to arm them; more than that, we have
a responsibility to set examples. The
examples are what cause faith to be engrained into hearts. Do you
remember the sermon that was preached 2 weeks ago? Or do you remember the guy
that brought you some soup when you were sick? Which event makes you want to
get to know someone a little bit better? Think about it!
My friends that
decided that they don’t need Jesus? Maybe that’s my fault. Maybe it’s yours.
Maybe we didn’t do a good enough job or set a good enough example.
Maybe it’s not our
fault, and we had nothing to do with it…but if we had set a good example, it
wouldn’t have hurt anything.
I consider
myself to be a “nice” person, so the thought of an open discussion about
something that I know I disagree with, scares me…but it’s what we have to
embrace. The “debate” on gay marriage? I don’t want to talk about it. It makes
me uncomfortable. But if someone asks me about it, I have a responsibility to
state my position with clarity, respect, and with reason. I have to be
definitive, because anything less gives the impression of doubt. Debates about
gun control, terrorism, sexual identity, evolution—all of these topics are
things that can get really uncomfortable, really quickly. Christians in the
church avoid these discussions because they just assume that we’re all on the
same page. That’s not a safe ASSumption…but if we don’t talk about it, we won’t
know.
If we don’t talk
about these things, we have people who will leave, and find the answers for
themselves. Without the respectful and loving guidance of the Church, the
answers these people find may cost them their salvation.
Then again, they may
not even believe in salvation anymore, by the time the find what they were looking
for.
We have a
RESPONSIBILITY to be a resource for people. There is nothing in the earthly
ministry of Jesus Christ that shows Him skipping topics, preaching to the
choir, or working in a bubble. He got out there amongst the “undesirables” of
His community. He ran with the stinky fishermen, the tax collecting crooks, the
prostitutes. He went to the fields, and
He spoke to the children. He talked about EVERYTHING; He did everything He
wasn’t “supposed” to do, and He did it in love.
He took on uncomfortable
topics, and He angered the leadership. He asked questions, and He answered
questions; not once, was He arrogant or judgmental in His responses. He
embraced the unembraceable…He talked to the ones the church had thumbed their
noses to.
THAT is why He was
sought…it still is. He loves.
So should we.
I do not understand
why my friends have had their radical shifts in theology. But I take
responsibility for a fraction of it, because I am someone they interacted with,
even on a platonic level. So, what’s next?
Do I spend my
lifetime, attempting to coerce them to believe like I believe?
Do I preach at them
until they unfriend me on Facebook?
Do I chase them with
my Bible, or tell them if they don’t revert their thinking, they’re going
straight to Hell?
Tell me how far you
think that’s going to get me.
I’m sure they don’t
want my prayers, but they’re getting them, even though I probably won’t tell
them about it. I know they don’t want me to try to “convert” them.
So I’m not going to.
They’re adults;
they’ve made their decisions, and they are happy with them. Nothing I say is
going to impact them, at this point, if it’s said in a way that makes them
think I’m trying to change them.
It’s not my job to sell them on what I
believe.
The Holy Spirit is
the One Who draws us in to the Father…He’s the One Who woos us, Who gently
calls us.
As a Christian,
these people know where I stand. They know that if they ever want to talk about
it, I’m here. They should also know that I’m never going to hit them over the
head with the Bible. I hope they know that I love them, and that they’ve taught
me so much more than they’ll ever know. My hope is that by keeping an open
mind, and a gentle heart, that my example will make some kind of a lasting
impact on how they view Christianity.
I want to change the
way people see us…for them to stop seeing us as a bunch of judgmental jerks,
and to start seeing us as a people of love. It’s not a blatant proselytizing. It’s a subtle embrace that just might
cause people to want what we have.
Right now, the
secular world isn’t seeing that.
We live in a society
that has rejected God, that has no foundation, and that has no moral absolutes.
As a church, we’ve been tainted by the prevalent narcissism that affects our
communities and our children; we are an arrogant, judgmental bunch of cronies
that are sorely out of touch with our environment. The only messages that are
getting out to the public are the ones we preach when we fall. We are
blowing our possibilities for impact because we are too selfish to see past the
doors of the church.
The Church has to
embrace a radical shift in theology, just like my friends did. We have got to
ask questions, and provide answers to the tough subjects. We have to stop
taking it for granted that everyone in that building believes in the same
thing; we have to banish “Christianese,” and we have to GET REAL.
Get dirty, folks: we may be a family, but we
ought to be a little more Duck Dynasty and a lot less Von Trapp.
I’m tired of being
“pretty” at church. I want to get honest, to get genuine. I want to hear a
dialogue, not one guy getting his thoughts out for an hour. I want to feel
woven together, not like I’m in an audience. Maybe if we could create this
sense of community, we would foster a place where people feel free to ask the
hard questions without any sense of shame…
I want the
unembraceables to come to my church.
I don’t want them to
feel like we have nothing to offer them or that our God is some pie-in-the-sky
judge with a Smite button.
I want them to see
and feel love…like it’s a place they want to be, and a God they want to know
more about.
I want my friends to
remember why they were ever drawn to Christianity in the first place, and to
ask the questions that they couldn’t get answered, and that made them change
their minds…
I currently attend a
church where nearly every Sunday, the pastor asks what has to be the scariest
question he asks all week: “So, what’d you guys get out of this?” It’s got to
be terrifying for him, but he asks, anyways. I love it; I look forward to it.
He lets us respond back to him. Not only does it tell him that he got his point
across (or not); it allows us to interact as a body, in what feels like a very
organic, family-minded way. It’s my favorite part of the “sermon” (it doesn’t
really feel like a sermon—yet another thing that I like). Being able to
comment, or ask questions, shouldn’t feel like a rare thing on a Sunday
morning!!!!!! It should be NORMAL!
I’m quoting myself
here: “This is a family...there should
always be a healthy amount of vulnerability and respect in a family. It's where
love breeds freedom.” Freedom breeds honesty. Honesty breeds respect. Respect
eventually breeds love.
We’re called to
love…and if we truly did, we wouldn’t have any “former” faithful.
We all have the same
calling—not to get our opinions out there—not to make someone feel condemned
for who they are—not to feel like we’re the ones who are right all of the
time—We are called to love. Love by example, love by words. When we’re together
as a body of believers, don’t lock the doors and isolate yourselves. Don’t sit
in the same chairs, don’t sit by the same people. Be uncomfortable. Look for
someone you don’t know, and make them
feel comfortable.
Ask the questions
you really want answers to, of your leadership, and of your Christian friends.
If you’re confused about an uncomfortable subject, send it a text or an e-mail
(or both, just to make sure it’s received). Don’t feel like you have nowhere to
turn; the Church should feel like the FIRST place to turn.
I don’t want to hear
that any more of my friends have walked away from a personal, intimate God.
Their radical shifts in theology have made me take stock, and have made me
formulate my own radical shift; for that, I am thankful. I hope that I live in
such a way that they are reminded that He loves them…and that when I fail, that
they forgive me, and not hold it against Him. I want to be real with them. I
don’t want to paint a picture of “perfection.” Just love.
And that’s it.
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