less like "christians," more like Jesus

Occasionally I find my self in a position where as to have quite an interesting perspective on life, “god,” and the like. My father is not a Christian, though he vaguely considers himself one. He is quite intelligent and possesses a very comprehensive secular understanding of Christianity. Yesterday, I drove five hours to my dad’s house for my little sister’s birthday party; I got to his house at a little after ten. Interestingly enough, there happened to be a birthday party for one of his neighbors which he had been at prior to my arrival. As soon as I walked into the house he wanted to go introduce me to his neighbors, consequently we went to the party. This came as bit of a surprise, but not all that much; I’ve become quite the novelty as being in school to be a “minister” and all. So, down the street to the party we go, and such being a worldly secular party there was a tad bit of alcohol present, a good amount of which my dad had already consumed, and continued to consume. As a side note let me point out that I don’t drink alcohol, not that I’m a prohibitionist, though non-medicinal intoxication is a sin, it’s just that there’s something about incoherency and impairment that just turns me off. Anyways, so here I am at this party being introduced to a bunch of tipsy lost people; to really grasp this in context one would have to actually know my dad, but it would be pretty safe to say that He didn’t receive the “most likely to father a preacher” superlative in high school. The response as my dad told each person what I was in school for is really rather humorous. Generally, the first response is “seriously? Your son?” followed by “wow,” then usually they wish me luck and commend me. Oh, but that is but the tip of the ice berg; when went over to party so I could meet people, maybe fifteen minutes tops right? Oh no; we stayed about three hours, definitely not my idea but sure, whatever. From this experiment of sorts I have come to an interesting conclusion: people that have been drinking like to bring up basic philosophical and theological issues with the weird minister kid and so I learned a few things. An older man I talked to believed that people were basically good and even more so that each person is “perfect” in their own way, as well as that god is all about love. A middle aged woman expressed a bit of a Taoist/Buddhist thought process, though was noticeably disturbed by talk about Jesus; she also was adamant against hypocrisy in the church. A younger woman was an interested seeker, not so much in Christianity, but instead toward eastern religious thought and Islam. For the most part, the general consensus was that they knew about churches in their area (namely a large Southern Baptist church,) but would most likely never attend. One person even told of how they had just been to the state fair and were approached by someone who asked “if they were to die tonight if they’d go to heaven;” the question just turned that person off even more so. Taking all this in, how are we as the evangelical church, the body of Christ to deal with this people? Do we shun them for their drunkard ways? Do we reach out to them by having Bible studies at hooters? Do we shrug them off as lost causes impossible to reach and destined for hell? No. No. No! I for one refuse to shun, refuse to conform, refuse to shrug; God loves them too, God died for them too, and they can be reached. But how do you reach out to someone who doesn’t think their in need to be reached out to? How do you try to help someone who’s drowning when they can’t even see the water? To be honest, I don’t for sure know; I do know that it’s not going to be easy, but hey, easy is just boring. Well for starters, in my personal opinion, I highly doubt that our conventional roman road, knock on your door, come up to you at the fair, fire and brimstone scare tactic evangelism is going to work. What then can we do but resort to engaging in intentional relational evangelism? Sure it will work a bit better than telling them that their going to hell, but are your opinions and lifestyle going to sway them? Let’s not forget that God is still in the equation; He alone is convictor and draws each to salvation. So we now find ourselves before an unfinished task fresh out of methods and strategy; “well if they don’t want Jesus they can just go to hell.” Ahh! Come on! The audacity of that thought process; what makes any of use any better. If it weren’t for grace and grace alone we’d be hell bound just like them; the moment we become so prideful thinking we deserve the salvation we have or anything for that matter is spitting in the eye of Christ upon the cross and still, even then He has grace. So what are we to do? In Acts 17:18 to the end of the chapter we find Paul facing a similar type of people. For starters these people were curious about what Paul had to say, but they already had a basic knowledge that he was connected with the “Jesus movement.” People today aren’t much different; when it comes down to it they want to what some future minister believes and in our western culture they have preconceived thoughts concerning who “Christians” are, just turn on the television. As a side note I think too often evangelicals get all up in arms over poor portrayals of Christianity on TV, but why is this? Is the world making fun of Christianity or does the world portray Christianity as they see it? If Christians would learn to act like Jesus instead of like “Christians” maybe the world will see us in a different light. But back to Acts, Paul reached out the people in their arena; he went to where they hung out. In order to reach people we have to go where they are instead of sitting back and waiting for them to come to us, but still living above reproach, not flirting with sin in any attempt to reach out. In explaining his beliefs, Paul started by making a connection between himself and those he was disusing with in that both Paul and the people of Athens were rather religious. After showing that Christians aren’t all that different from non-Christians, Paul explained to them who God is and what God does using logic and even sneaking in a refutation of evolution while all the while connecting further with their thought process and culture by quoting secular philosophers they were highly familiar with. Paul explained Christianity and the plan of salvation in terms the Athenians would understand; we must use the same concept today. If we walk around picketed with signs the world sees us as wacko, fundamentalist, judgmental, hypocrites, if we walk around covered in “artwork” and full of holes the world sees us as hypocrites, no different from them; believe it or not but the world expects a difference from Christianity and you know, they ought to, we ought to. We have to show the world that we are the same, there is not Jew or gentile, no first class and second class person, all people are equal in worth; there is only those who know the truth and have accepted grace and those yet to do so. We are not better than the world, we don’t disserve anything anymore than anyone else; all we have is a result of grace and we can never let that slip from our minds. When the world sees that were similar they will listen to what we have to say but we have to say it in a way they will understand; there is nothing wrong with quoting the secular in reaching the lost, there is nothing wrong with using contemporary, but holy language. Still, in the end, like Paul there will still be those who sneer, those who want to hear more, and those who come to know the truth. God wants everyone to come to know the truth, not everyone will, but we can never give up, never loose hope, never stop trying. Let’s be different… let’s be holy.. let’s be: less like “christians,” more like Jesus.