Living in Chaos

The problem with christians is...

In the book UnChristian, studies show that the top 5 ways christians are viewed are hypocritical, too focused on getting converts, homophobic, sheltered, and too political. It's pretty sad that this is the way most people view the those who claim the christian faith. Let's break these down and figure out why this is the way we're perceived.

1.Hypocritical-I don't think any of us set out to be hypocrites, in fact I think the opposite is true. I feel like sometimes we(myself included) will see someone messing up, and because of the compassion we have to make sure they don't stumble in their faith, we instantly blurt out everything they're doing wrong. Obviously we should take a more tactful approach in letting others know when they mess up, but we shouldn't even consider doing this until we have our own stuff together. No matter how much we want to help, we have no right to advise others in problem areas in their life, when we are going through the same thing, end of story.

2.Too focused on getting converts-We get so fired up, to save everybody from hell(no pun intended) that instead of truly introducing people to a Savior who loves them, we sort of give them a get out of hell free card. Now I'm not saying that God can't work in any situation, and I know there are times when someone can simply here about Jesus for the very first time, and He speaks to their heart in such a profound and awesome way that they can't do anything but immediately surrender their life to Him. However, I do not think this happens in most cases. We get so focused on getting people "saved" that I wonder how much good we're actually doing. "To know God, is to love God." The Bible says that when we enter into a relationship with God, we are his bride. Would you marry someone you just met? The answer is no. So why do we expect people to instantly commit their lives to a God they just met? More importantly, how CAN they commit their life to somebody they don't know? It seems to me, in most cases, they don't. They just have this novel Idea of a guy that let's them into heaven. We should be more focused on showing people who God truly is, through our actions, and through His word, and less focused on trying to get them to say a prayer of salvation. So that they can know Jesus for the amazing person He is, and therefore desire to have an eternal relationship with Him.

3.Homophobic-I don't really want to take a whole lot of time for this one because in my eyes it's very simple. The bible is extremely clear that homosexuality is a sin, but to see some of the hurtful and crude things that so called "christians" say about people dealing with this, makes me strongly question their faith entirely. Yes, it's a sin, but to say that homosexuality is the unforgivable sin that God cannot redeem is just ignorant. We serve a God who is bigger than anything we can imagine. He is a God who restores and redeems. A God who constantly takes broken parts of our lives, and fixes them. That's who He is.

Regardless of sin(in whatever form) we are called to Love. To Love as Christ first loved us. I don't see any love in the way most churches deal with this sin, and neither does the world.

4.Sheltered-This one definitely hits me the most. I have amazing friends. Most of them I met in sunday school. We all grew up in the church and did our best to follow God. We kept each other accountable and encouraged one another. If we were hanging out on a friday night it was probably a church activity. I am so grateful for this group of friends that God gave me to keep me on track, but what did I do with this foundation? I'll tell you. Monday was church softball, Tuesday was Youth Group, Wednesday was choir, Thursday was bible study, Friday and Saturday I was hanging out at my friend's house, and Sunday was church. I never tried to build relationships outside the church! I just stayed in my holy huddle, as content as I could be. Even though God gave me everything I needed to go out and show Christ to the world, I locked myself in church. How many people never saw Christ because I wasn't willing to take even the tiniest step out of my comfort zone(church)?

Of course we are viewed as sheltered. Not only we will not go out into the world, but we won't let the world into the church. Most churches still deem any song without a CCLI # as devil music. We need to be willing to do anything except sin to reach people. We need to leverage the culture, and use anything we can to show people Christ.

5. Too Political-I have never really cared much about politics at all, but this past year I have never been more sick of them. Especially when some believers begin to question other believers faith, based on who they are voting for. Last time I checked, being a Christian doesn't really make you anymore qualified to run a country. The other issue, is the fact that churches and their pastors are taking time too sound off with their political views from the pulpit. What if while they're advancing their political agenda, someone who needed to hear about Christ didn't. It's an incredible disservice to the Church. What would happen if we spent less time arguing over political parties, or predestination vs free will, and actually focused on introducing people to Christ. Some of the greatest monuments of worship ever constructed for our God, were built under the ruling of pagan kings. God can work in any situation. "No matter who is in the white house, God is on the throne."

Get out of Your Church(part 5)...

We're called to be "in the world, and not of it." We put to much emphasis on the "not of this world" and forget that we are called to be IN the world. We're not called to stay in the church with our christian friends all the time. Having christian friends is great! They keep you accountable, and you can help each other grow spiritually, but if all you are doing is building each other up, then you are missing point. Once you have this firm foundation and accountability, you should be out in the world, building relationships with people who don't know Christ. So many churches completely overlook this aspect of our faith. For example, how many of you know of, or attend a church that has some event going on almost every night of the week? Whether it be women's ministry, men's fellowship, care ministry, mid-week service, bible study, corporate worship services, and so on. It's not these things are bad, but they are adding to the problem we have already created. We spend way too much time in the church! We need to be out in the world putting our faith into action. We need to go where people need us, where they need Christ. To the workplace, the streets, the bars, wherever we see people in need of love. Not this crappy, watered down, hollow, interpritation of love that the world offers, but true God given love.This isn't a new idea, John 1:14 says "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us" or as another translation puts it, "He became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood." This is a picture perfect representation of what we should do. If Christ were here(physically), He would immerse Himself in the culture and look for any opportunity to relate to people through something they understood. Do you think the church is doing a good job at relating to the cultures of today?

Same old thing(part 4)...

Read the previous posts under culture before reading this one...

#3-Learn the customs-Most of the churches I've been in, have been the same since they began. There is no desire to change things up, or to integrate the surrounding culture. It's a set order just as it has been forever. First is an opening song, then the welcome, followed by praise and worship(usually songs that are at least 10 years old, Example: Heart of Worship, Days of Elijah, Here I Am to Worship etc.), then a choir song, then preaching, then a song while the offering is collected, and then the benediction. The God we worship is a God of creativity. The Church should be the ones advancing technology, music, and things of that nature. Not staying in a rut. We should be embracing the cultural customs in whatever form to relate to people. Whether it be through "secular songs" or "movie-themed sermons," as long as the gospel is not being watered down in any way. It's all about contextualizing it, or putting it a way others(who didn't grow up in church) can understand. A friend of mine showed me a quote that sums it up perfectly..."If you want to reach people no one else is reaching, you have to do things no one else is doing."

Christians aren't the only ones who worship(part 3)...

#2-Learn The Values-A lot of times as christians we know that are God is the one and only TRUE God, so therefore we have this tunnel vision and feel like we don't need to know anything about other religions. However, if we really want to reach people who are following false gods, we need to know where they're coming from. Not  everyone has a statue, or being that they worship. Some worship an Idea, while others worship money. It's our responsibility to actually care about people enough to take the time and learn about there values, whatever the idol may be. Now I'm not saying to go devote yourself to the study of some middle-eastern religion, but it wouldn't hurt to have at least a basic understanding of other's beliefs. If you feel like you may want to do this, you can get a podcast by a guy named Ergun Caner on Itunes called "Sects and Cults." Caner is the dean at Liberty Seminary, and what he does is simply invite leaders of other religions to come and share their beliefs in a very non- threatening, but detailed interview. I encourage all of you to at the very least take a look, and broaden your horizons...

What did you say?(Part 2)

If we want to reach people in our own community, for Christ, we need to take these principles and apply them where we are...

#1-Learn The Language-So many times as Christians we have our own "church lingo" that seems completely normal to us, but to someone who didn't grow up in the church, they're are clueless. One time I was talking to someone about God and I asked them if they were saved, and they said "saved from what?" This blew my mind that they had no idea what I was talking about. The first week I taught this, a guy in my class said that he went on a mission trip to a certain part of Russia, and when he was there he was not allowed to call himself a baptist because over there, baptist means you eat babies. Crazy huh? Another example of the church having it's own language is in church music. Let's say there's a man who has hit rock bottom, whether he's an addict, his family left him, he lost his job, whatever the reason he says "God, I'm gonna give you a chance." So he decides to walk into a church on Sunday morning for the first time, and when he goes in, all he sees is 300 plus people standing with their hands in the air singing the words on the screen that talk about washing in the blood of some guy named Jesus. Now if you were in this situation under any other circumstance other than having a cross above your head you would think you were in some kind of crazy cult, and would get out of there before they asked you to drink the kool-aid. Now I'm not saying that this old hymn doesn't have powerful words, because it does, and those words are completely biblical, and straight from The Word in most cases. I'm just saying that we are so focused on ministering to "church people" that we miss everyone else. The Church(Big "C" Church, The body of Christ, His followers) is doing great with church people. It's the unchurched, those that have never been in church or even heard about God, and the de-churched, those that were in church, but for whatever reason left. Whether it was a misunderstanding, or a split, whatever the reason they got burned out on church. These are the people the Church is missing. We'll talk more about this later...

How to EFFECTIVLEY reach today's culture (part 1)...

This was the subject I taught on 3 times a week throughout the summer. I hope it encourages you to truly LOVE people to Christ...

So, we are talking about how we can reach today's culture. The first step is knowing what culture is. In Webster's Dictionary, culture is defined as the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a particular group of people. Basically, it's what people do, and believe. I believe, if we truly want to reach people outside the walls of our churches, then we have to LEARN the culture around us.

Ok, let's change gears for a second. Let's say a year from now you are called to be a missionary to a foreign country, let's say it's China. I don't mean that you are pondering the idea, or that you are gonna pray about it. I mean God himself in an audible voice tells you that in 364 days, 23 hours, and 54 minutes you will be in China, as a missionary. So what do you do to prepare? You'll need to do 3 basic things, and the first is....

#1-Learn The Language

If you can't communicate with them, you'll never reach them. How many people do you really expect to reach with such a large language barrier? You can't just go to China and expect to impact lives for Christ if you can't even start a simple conversation.

#2-Learn The Values

If you don't know what they put the highest emphasis on, or what they believe, than you may unintentionally offend them, and ruin any chance you had at reaching them.

#3-Learn the customs

If your goal is to reach people where they are, than you need to know as much as possible about them. Don't expect everyone to understand your own culture.

So we've talked about what we need to do to reach people in a different culture, specifically China. My question is, "why should this be any different than reaching the people/culture right outside the church?" The answer is....it shouldn't.