Respond to the statements on page 184 “those inside and outside the church are questioning our motives as Christians. They say Christians are more interested in proving we are right than that God is right. They say Christians are more focused on condemning people than helping people become more like Jesus. Are we more concerned with the unrighteousness of others than our own self-righteousness?”
“Our research with Christians confirms that often we miss the point of reflecting Jesus to outsiders because we are too busy catering to the expectations of other believers.” Ouch! ! ! Is that true in your setting? Your comments?
Unchristian: What A New Generation Really Thinks About Chrstianity . . . And Why It Matters by David Kinnaman addresses the increasingly negative reputation of Christians, especially among young Americans. It is the church's task to be effective agents of spiritual transformation. In this blog, I hope we can respond to the book and to each other to help accomplish this task.
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3 comments:
my experience is that this is completely on track. it seems that we have reduced faith down to an intellectual argument. therefore, if we win the argument we convert someone (or maybe we reconfirm our conversion) to faith. if this is what so many in the church believe then it makes sense that we would view winning the argument as the goal.
it's so far from what i see of JESUS in the new testament.
my setting is a little different right now because we have just started. there isn't much of a temptation to cater to the insiders because there are no insiders at the moment. i know it's something we are going to have to be on the watch for. that's part of why i convinced the leadership team to commit to the idea of "renting an atheist" every six months to check out if we are just focusing on those in the know or not.
1 Corinthians 1:17-31 tells us:
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
In my opinion... This isn't about conforming to the world (Romans 12:1-2) to win them for Christ. This is about being holy before our God and relying upon His word for our source for judgement and truth.
I know that lost people and those outside the church (redundant?) can sometimes see this as mean or judgemental... self-righteous, etc. And I agree, sometimes it can be true of us. However I think we must understand that the word of the cross is FOOLISHNESS (1 Cor. 1:18) to those who are going to Hell.
That being said, we are not told to judge outsiders (1 Cor. 5:12) but those who claim to be followers of Christ.
In the New Testament we do see Jesus pushing aside the pride of the so called scholars, and engaging in arguments with them to reveal their heresy and hypocrisy.
To the lost sinner, He was a Savior, but to the unrepentant self-righteous , He was a stumbling block.
Brothers, let us preach Christ crucified! Yes this is foolishness to the world, but it is power to those of us who are called and being saved.
pastor bob - i completely agree that we should continue to preach the foolishness of the cross but i think the point of this passage from the book is that we are being viewed as more concerned with the "speck" in other people's eyes than we are with the "plank" in our own. my fear is that this perception may be true. preaching repentance is about calling people to turn to CHRIST. pointing out sin can be a part of the message of repentance but grace is always the largest component. preaching condemnation is about just pointing out that other people are evil (and that we are thereby better than them). i fear that we are often more concerned with the later than with the former. i would actually say that if this suggestion in the book is correct (and i fear it may be) then we have rejected the message of the cross.
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