I want to express my frustration about something. I offer no way of fixing the problem. I only point the problem out.
I am forever obliged to tear down the pre-impressed pictures that people have of Christianity.
I was talking with my supervisor at work last night about how I want to do mission work, or pastoring, or some sort of Christian ministry. Somehow the conversation got around to a church of 4000 people in St. Joseph, MO. Many in his family go to this church. He told me that the pastor wears $1000 suits. I could tell. To him, this is Christianity.
But it isn’t Christianity. That is what frustrates me. Because of the rampant counterfeiting of the church, the name “Christian” does not carry the correct definition in mind of the world. When looked up in the world’s mental dictionary, the authentic description is rarely found.
It isn’t just the pastors who wear $1000 suites. It could also be the country church that is full of elderly people who go to it because everyone else does. There is forever an incorrect picture.
The world doesn’t know what Christianity is. And that isn’t because the name of Christ has never been proclaimed to them. That would not be so frustrating. It is because a counterfeit Christ has been proclaimed to them. That is frustrating.
December 8, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I feel you. I started to feel this deep frustration back in community college. There, I took a class on world cultures– it was a general survey course that looked at art, religion, culture, & history in the major world cultures. I learned about how terrible the church had been throughout the ages, and if that wasn’t bad enough I always sat in the front, so apparently I couldn’t see the people who had turned their chairs around for the discussion of certain religions and I never read the screeds that people turned in for class discussing why Christianity is so great when they had been assigned to write about Islam.
Yikes.
There are a number of counterfeit gospels and counterfeit Christs out there– and while I think apologizing for them can do some good (Don Miller has a great section about trying this in his book), there simply isn’t enough time in the world to decry what other churches (and our own churches, sometimes, by their silence) have done wrong. Most of the time we simply have to do our best to live out what the “real” Gospel is to them. Even that’s a tall order, because if you know another human being around today who can totally live that out consistently I wanna be mentored by them. But the church as a whole must embrace its role to live as a “city within the city”– boldly living out a faithful, repentant witness before the world. Living faithfully to Jesus is going to make us stick out one way or another– the way that we treat the poor, the way that we handle sex, money, and power, the way that we speak and use our time– and when the true Gospel is proclaimed in our actions, the watching world can look at Christ in us and praise our Father in heaven.
December 9, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I have been a Christian for most of my life. I also have lived in St. Joseph, MO most of my life. I know the church that you are referring to. It has always rubbed me the wrong way and there are actual people who refuse to step foot into that massive church because of the way it “looks” to others. The pastor lives in the only gated community in our city, has several Harleys and does indeed dress in higher end fashion.
That is not what following our Lord is about.
January 15, 2009 at 1:52 pm
How ’bout this: 52% of American “Christians” believer there are many paths to heaven!
Brian – I believe there is a great awakening going on today thanks to people like your father.
I believe the true church of Jesus Christ will continue to emerge from the institutionalized religion we call “The Church”.
The “Church”, which is self-destruction for decades due to its doctrine (or abandonment of it).
Example: My church is searching for a new pastor.
Here’s the process: A pastor is interviewed by the committee. If they feel good about him, he is invited to preach Sunday AM and PM with a “get to know him” luncheon in between. He’s vote on the next week………….huh?
Who’s going to ask him about doctrine?
Does he love his wife?
It takes 2 years of “observation” before you can be a deacon in my church.
What is THIS all about? It insane to me…
January 24, 2009 at 12:44 pm
The world doesn’t know what Christianity is because we have failed to show them. “Pure, undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: To visit orphans (born and unborn) and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27.
We are lazy and spotted. The world sees this, and dismisses us. We must be in the world, but we must keep from becoming worldly. Isolating ourselves from the problems and peril of unbelievers is not the answer. We must remember the hymn that tells us exactly how to show Christ to the world: “And they’ll know we are Christians by our LOVE” They will not learn about Christ by being judged, whispered about, or avoided by us. They will meet Christ when we love them. we must remember that “…we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:10) We should ask ourselves daily, “What works has God prepared for me to walk in today?” In our morning devotions,alongside our study and memorization, prayer and supplication, we must add a plea for God to open our eyes to the good works he has for us today. We are the hands and feet of Christ, but if we don’t have his heart, we cannot walk in victory or reach out to anyone in faith.
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2:26