We've all run across them, the ones that hate religion, that believe churches are stuffed with hypocrites, homophobes, right wingers, money grubbers, child molesters, and busybodies. A lot of folks would have us shake the dust off our sandals and move to greener pastures for the Harvest, although just where those pastures are located is somewhat unclear.
But just a moment, let's take a closer look at the noisy crowd. It turns out that many of them don't feel that way about Jesus. It's religion they've got a beef with, to them Jesus seems a nice enough fellow. So how to get past the animosity at religion and focus on their openness to Jesus is the question. Is it worth the effort?
As Theodore Williams said, "We face a humanity that is too precious to neglect. We know a remedy for the ills of the world too wonderful to withhold. We have a Christ too glorious to hide. We have an adventure that is too thrilling to miss" That's what we're selling, not church. We can begin by not engaging these precious souls where their complaints begin. Remember it's church they loathe not Jesus. "You hate church? No problem, grab some coffee, pull up a chair and let's talk about Jesus." I don't personally buy into their complaints, I just don't feel compelled to win a debate that won't affect their salvation one way or another. Besides, there's enough truth in modern day indictments of the way Christians can conduct themselves as a group that nobody wins, worse yet, no one gets saved.
There are many more church bashers out there than Jesus bashers, so why should we treat them all as lost causes instead of fertile fields? But we're going to have to get up out of our pews to reach them. We're going to have to witness outside of our comfort zones, stop going to every fight we're invited to, and focus on what's really important for salvation. Many of them smoke, use profanity carelessly, wear tattoos, and ride Harleys, they're not your typical pew warmers and may never be, but given a chance could some of them become giants of the faith? Yeah.
But just a moment, let's take a closer look at the noisy crowd. It turns out that many of them don't feel that way about Jesus. It's religion they've got a beef with, to them Jesus seems a nice enough fellow. So how to get past the animosity at religion and focus on their openness to Jesus is the question. Is it worth the effort?
As Theodore Williams said, "We face a humanity that is too precious to neglect. We know a remedy for the ills of the world too wonderful to withhold. We have a Christ too glorious to hide. We have an adventure that is too thrilling to miss" That's what we're selling, not church. We can begin by not engaging these precious souls where their complaints begin. Remember it's church they loathe not Jesus. "You hate church? No problem, grab some coffee, pull up a chair and let's talk about Jesus." I don't personally buy into their complaints, I just don't feel compelled to win a debate that won't affect their salvation one way or another. Besides, there's enough truth in modern day indictments of the way Christians can conduct themselves as a group that nobody wins, worse yet, no one gets saved.
There are many more church bashers out there than Jesus bashers, so why should we treat them all as lost causes instead of fertile fields? But we're going to have to get up out of our pews to reach them. We're going to have to witness outside of our comfort zones, stop going to every fight we're invited to, and focus on what's really important for salvation. Many of them smoke, use profanity carelessly, wear tattoos, and ride Harleys, they're not your typical pew warmers and may never be, but given a chance could some of them become giants of the faith? Yeah.
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