A Quickie
Posted in Life on 11. Oct, 2007 by Wayland.
I don’t have time to expand on this, but I wanted to point you to an article in the online edition of the USA Today. It’s here. I agree with the article and it’s findings. We had some friends in town this week and much of our conversation was focused on how the church in America has a long way to go in reaching the communities they are a part of.
And I also very rarely refer to myself as a ‘Christian’, for the same reasons the article pointed out. Especially in a Western European context, it does more damage than it does good.
Let me know your thoughts on the article.
Cheers.
Tragic…
“…one of the biggest surprises for researchers was the extent to which respondents — one in four non-Christians — said that modern-day Christianity was no longer like Jesus.”
I must say that I am guilty as well. Am I truly representing Christ in a way that non-believers will understand?
Brandon
When people ask me if I’m “religious” or when I tell them a minister (which, usually they say “really?” which I take as a compliment), I tell people “I follow Jesus” – I never use the term “Christian.”
It’s a shame, Barnabas and Paul lived their lives so closely to the way that Jesus did that their disciples became known as “Little Christs” – now “Christian” means more about what you don’t like than what you do…
Don’t get me wrong, as a Believer, I know more about right and wrong than most folks, and yes, I am opposed to the gay lifestyle, but I do my best to live my life as Christ would in my situation.
Silly Christians that don’t live like Jesus, however, are not an excuse for people to live however they want, or to give them some kind of a pass. Christ would tell them about the Kingdom and offer them salvation. May we never stop doing that, may we be true disciples, always making more disciples…
Read “Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne. It deals with these hard to swallow things….like why “The American Dream” doesn’t work for Christians (buying million dollar houses and $40,000 cars when countries can’t even feed themselves.) I have not read the whole thing yet, but it is interesting so far.