Dan Kimball over here lays out some very good smack on this 'they will hate us" rhetoric.
I think sometimes it seems that for some Christians it is important to make faith so:
- -confusing
- -obnoxiously confrontive
- -idiotically simplistic
- -naively promising
- -methodically 'step by step' dull
- -hypocritcally judgemental
- -religiously conformist
that people can't help but HATE it all.
And instead of becoming (or refining into) something distinct and true. We have become repulsive and stained the beauty of the gospel...
6 comments:
wow. great post Dale. We once had a sermon preached in our church about the "persecution" thing. The main jist of it was that Christians are persecuted for righteousness but at the same time some Christians are persecuted because they're jerks. You know the "leave a tract instead of a tip" ones.
I think Dan Kimball has hit the nail on the head here. I toured with a bunch of non-Christian guys last December and we talked quite a bit about God and faith. It was all very organic and not "witness-y."
One night, I'm sitting in this pub with some of these guys and one of them turns to me and says "Most Christians I know are all hellfire and damnation. About rules and conduct. But you....you're so different...you're cool!"
Seems that Christians are the turnoff, not Jesus.
Last thing....(dang this got long) I really think more people would dig Jesus if we actually did what he said.....e.g. Love our neighbours, love our enemies, care for the least of these etc.
just a thought
yeah thanks Jesse
I mean obviously the goal is not to be cool but if that is one way that people can connect with a revitalized image of the followers of Jesus then...
great!
I also think that Christians often exaggerate how much secular people "hate" Christians. It's almost as if it's an excuse to not spend time with secular people, or to share with them what we believe. I have actually found that most secular people actually respect Christians.
good point trev
I just wanted to clarify the "cool" thing. I have no great desire to be "cool" in the conventional sense of the word (i.e. superficial hipness quotient). His comment was more directed to the fact that he was amazed that I could be a real person who would sit and talk and exist in "their" environment without judging them or talking down to them
Cool is cool!
authentic is what we recognize 'them' actually saying when they say we are cool. Because for far too long we have typically not been 'cool'...
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