Congeniality

Was reading a book by Michael Card, and one thing he quoted stuck with me. He was mentioning that the new evangelical challenge is not geographical distance, but cultural distance. And I guess he could not have been more succinct that that.

We keep talking about this world being a global village, and how technology is bringing everyone closer together – planes fly faster, and we’ve progressed from emails to Facebook and now Twitter… Blackberries enable us to be reachable even in unmentionable places…

So am I the only one who feels people are drawing further and further away from each other?

Evagelism aside… even being friends is getting harder. At 30 yrs old, it really is getting harder and harder to make and keep friends, isn’t it? At 16, there weren’t much differences that mattered enough to divide you from the mob, and so everyone’s your best friend and worth dying for.

Slowly, as idealogical differences become more entrenched in ourselves, we find it harder to accept why some of our friends could actually believe what they do. We get offended, we find it awkward to express our disagreements, and many times the way we disagree quickly becomes a sore spot that evntually turns into a wall. Friends who achieve much more than you becomes either iritating or intimidating, subconsciously driving you away from them, unfairly leaving them more stranded and perhaps even angry.

If the church is God’s tool for changing the world and improving it, maybe it needs to spend more time emphasizing Community rather than Commission. I know that there are those who will burn me at the stake for saying this… but we really should take some time to think about what we’re inviting non-believers into when invite them to church.

I’m not talking about core doctrinal truths that need to be adhered to, of course. If Jesus says He’s the ONLY way, we should definitely stand up and give an apologia whenever someone says something to the contrary. BUT, do we really need to do so with all that vindictiveness that we often show? Are we able to recognize that salvation is something fundamentally important to us, but still be gracious in offering our beliefs in the face of opposition? Many times our Christian persecution in a culture like Singapore comes not in the form of physical persecution, but emotional rejection and derision.

“I’ve had the gospel preached to me before. And because of that person, I’m definitely not interested in hearing about the gospel anymore.” I’ve heard this statement way too often already. Many times, this occurs not because we’re zealous for the gospel, but because we’re zealous for OUR POINT to be accepted.

I really like what our church is doing for Billy right now. No overtly over-the-top attempts at sharing the gospel. Just lots of concern and prayer. That’s what church should be like! "Don’t like what we have to say? Fine – then judge us by what we do, and let us know if you like what you see." When we are imitators of Christ in this world – which is to say, when we lift Him up – He will draw all men to Himself.

Try it for yourself. Its awesome to watch Him in action.

Don’t think it works? Hey, Billy’s wife accepted Christ!

Eat that!