This article, from Christianity Today, discusses Richard Dawkins's logical arguments against belief in God and Christianity. The recent tidal wave of books criticizing God and Christians perhaps tells us at least two things:
1. God/Christians are becoming more of a threat...
Christians must be more popular, or more public, or something, because non-Christians are attacking more, and more publicly.
2. We're not giving them good reasons to believe...
The head-focused, logical arguments are not working. Belief in a loving God is improbable. He requires faith, and is not being found through logical explanations.
Therefore, we need to, in this nation, live the submitted, sacrificial, gracious, abundant life, which Jesus prescribes, in order to convince them of the reality of God. Apologetical arguments are not working. We need life-agetics.
I think the problem is that the voice of a select few becomes the voice for all of Christianity. Our spiritual heritage is complex and diverse and should be respected as such. The great danger is fear itself, gross unfounded generalizations about the church and christianity without grace. Jesus certainly understood that there would be people who rejected the faith. We should spend less time on those who choose to reject the faith and more time on bringing the message of the gospel to those who would receive it and discipling those who believe. I wish the church would get to the point where we embrace the idea that Christianity is true because it is and not because we need it to be. It is only at this point that we will be able to truely rest in being christians and not be moved by every blow of the wind. There is a lot of fear in the practice of contempoary christianity that often is used to justify mean spirited attacks wrapped in spiritual words. God did not give us the spirit of fear but of power love and of a sound mind.
Comment by Todd - Oct 29, 2007 @ 04:29 PM
Most churches have made it much more complicated than it needs to be. Its really about the ineffectiveness of the Church to bring meaningful change to lives of the people that live in the community. As a consultant to churches and nonprofits - the nonprofits are winning in this arena. They have the ability to define and meet needs in the community with much more ease than the local church. Interestingly, that ability is not in physical ability, but rather the mental ability. Churches often cannot get their heads around how to do it. They look for programs to implement or ministries to launch. Al this takes too much time and dedicated resources. The Evangelical churches struggle the most, because they fear becoming “liberal” in doing these things. It is really about the members being freed to go find and meet needs and getting support from their church to do so.
Comment by 218Matt - Oct 31, 2007 @ 09:26 AM
Matt’s comments reflect a common misconception about the church. The church’s main mission is a spiritual one. To bring about a spiritual rebirth by helping people establish a life-long relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. No other organization is charged with this responsiblity so I don’t think it’s appropriate to compare the church with non-profits who provide temporal relief. I do agree that the church can and should serve in this area (ministry), but this is not the primary mission of the church. I also don’t know if there is enough data to suggest that believers are not serving in ministry efforts. I believe that tracking and quantifying such efforts are more difficult as many believers are engaged in initiatives led by such organizations as Habitat for Humanity, United Way and Red Cross, hospitals and schools. As to the statements of meaninful change. It’s easy to say that the church is ineffective, but I would disagree. Just this week, I’ve personally ministered to two families who are struggling with trying to have a child after experiencing difficulties. On another occasion I ministered to a man who recently lost his wife of 50 years. On another occasion I am working with a young man and woman who have a child together towards getting married. God is doing great work in our midsts, however I see most of the criticism coming from within. Here is my challenge: Instead of speaking about Her shortcomings, I think it’s high time for us to start focusing on all that She has done. And to work tirelessly with and for Her. It’s only at that point do I believe that we’ll see change.
With Love
Todd
Comment by Todd - Oct 31, 2007 @ 12:02 PM
Hmmm.. Interesting points Todd. I am glad that you have seen how to integrate your faith into action, but I stand by the statement that the church as a whole has not. I believe that the rise in non profits meeting people’s physical needs is the result of the church not doing it. As I interpret the Scriptures and Church history, it is (and has been) the role of the Church to respond to the physical and spiritual needs of those we see.
I have seen way too many Christians that dine regularly at the “Discipleship Buffet” getting fed. They need to get out and exercise their faith (as you are) if they truly want to experience the Kingdom.
I am a huge believer that the Church (and church) are God’s plan to establish his kingdom. While primarily a spiritual venture, it is based in the example of Christ serving those in need.
I also agree with Todd that we need to get beyond finding and complaining about all that is wrong with the Church, and get excited about the very real things that God is doing!
Comment by 218Matt - Nov 01, 2007 @ 08:18 PM
I would be more inclined to agree with your assessment if I knew what methods were used to measure Christian’s response to the gospel message. I would imagine that this would be a very complex undertaking to effectively audit a person’s life. I agree that there is room for improvement, but the Word of God says “and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works” - Hebrews 10:24. I am fed up with Barna studies and other information which says that the church is failing and loosing ground. It seems to me that too many people are using this unfounded evidence to suggest and justify using secular elements in the church in a effort to make the church more “relevant”. The early church used none of the gimmicks and schemes that we use today and it found no shortage of people to give thier life to God.
One HUGE problem that has yet to be addressed is the rampant pimping of the gospel that these consultants and survey experts seem to come up with. Name one study of significance that was free and available to the public. We are willing to pay to hear how bad the church is and we are believing this stuff without question. With all due respect to these organizations I have never been asked to participate in these studies nor has anyone I know been asked. I sincerly believe that if we spent less time trying to get rich off the gospel and everyone took up their own cross we would be much futher along with much better credibility.
On another note, the idea of Jesus serving those in need is a interesting one. While He did wash the disciple’s feet and feed the poor, there are many examples of Jesus choosing to provide a spiritual blessing rather than provide for one’s needs. Consider the story of the Samaritan women with 5 husbands, or the woman caught in the act of adultery. In both instances, Jesus provided for the spiritual needs of the hearer. He is also TRUTH and TRUTH sets us free. All that I’m trying to prove is that Jesus is bigger than our stuff and our physical needs and it’s in this space that the church reigns supreme. It is the primary reason why so many miss the spiritual kingdom in search for a physical one.
Comment by Todd - Nov 05, 2007 @ 02:20 PM
Pulling back to a bigger picture, my general concern is with the lack of impact that the church is having on the world. As I see the role of the Cchurch and of Christians, both are called to live a life of genuine faith and genuine service. I agree that the message of the Gospel is one of a spiritual freedom and spiritual redemption, but the result of this freedom is to go and bring the same to others. The world’s primary issue with the Cchurch is that we are not extending the grace and compassion that we received from Christ.
I don’t need Barna or Gallup or anyone else to point out that the church has not made as significant of an impact as it should. I see it reflected in our society. The core issue comes back to people not living out the grace and mercy they were extended. Jesus was very clear on that point - by your love they will know you , and all of the one-anothers.
In both the examples that you brought up, Jesus met physical needs too. (Safety for the adulteress and water for the woman.) It is a “both-and” kind of thing. We have to live our faith so that others can know that it is real. When we do that, people’s spiritual needs and physical needs are both taken care of. And when that happens on a large scale- this world will be different. BTW - I appreciate your thoughts. As a consultant, I am not sure if I like the “pimping” reference!
Comment by 218Matt - Nov 05, 2007 @ 06:34 PM
OK Matt, I got carried away on the pimping reference, I apologize to you and all the readers for my bad choice of words. Please forgive me.
Comment by Todd - Nov 08, 2007 @ 12:07 PM
Matt,
I appreciate your thoughts as well. There are two or three thoughts that I think may be of interest to you in understanding my perspective.
1. I have a background in Quality Improvement (Six Sigma), so when we begin to discuss how to improve the church. I believe the old adage you can’t improve what you can’t measure. In the church world, I take that a little further, in that I also ask the question “Should we measure?”. Can we measure someone else’s faith? Can we quantify someone else’s works? Should we? And by who’s measure? Our own? OK and then what?
2. What I think you are wanting to see is a massive expression of unity which is a complex issue. There are very few examples in the New Testament where there is a consistent and massive expression of unity centralized in one location. I’ve heard many church leaders lament over this before, yet many are unwilling to do what it takes in order to make it happen. Unity REQUIRES humility and humility is in short supply in the church. Around the corner from where I live there are two churches. Both are Methodists, they are right across the street from each other. They use the same Hymnals and recite the same affirmation of faith. One is a white church and the other is a black church. They don’t talk, they don’t serve the community together, and both are just paying the bills. They instead occupy themselves by comparing themselves to one another so that they so busy looking across the street they forget to look up or out into their community. While they are pre-occupied, I am able to lead a small team of evangelist and reap a huge harvest from their own backyard. This is one reason why people don’t like the megachurch (I believe), because megachurches are able to create large marketing campaigns using demographic studies and other tools which uncover unreached people.
To make a transition, churches MUST make the transition from ownership to stewardship of God’s church and the great commission. Most churches are only capable of doing this when there is distance between them. Which incidently is the precise reason I believe behind the popularity of missions. Somehow we would rather travel to the other side of the world than to help someone across the street from us.
3. On another note, this may strike you as very odd, but I believe that there are people who will reject the gospel no matter what you do. I have childhood friends who are like this and in short they will tell me flat out “I like sinning!” It’s sad I know, but believe that it is God who calls the individual to Him. But because of my drive and because of my skills as a leader, I know that I COULD create an environment for them and could create messages that don’t offend them at the expense of the kingdom. This is the dividing line between a pastor/teacher and a salesman. My personal experience working with churches is that for the sake of reaching more we are sacrificing key tenents of the gospel message resulting in churches having the form of godliness, but lacking the power thereof.
So Matt and others. What are the top 10 things that we must do better or differently to see positive change?
Comment by Todd - Nov 08, 2007 @ 01:25 PM