How do we push the envelop?
"If Christians don't continue to share the gospel and push the envelop, the envelop will close in on us. If we maintain a 'silent witness' there will be no witness, and Christianity will die in America." --Ray Thorne
As I've stepped back into youth ministry and have begun to pursue my call I've thought about this. I stumbled accross it a couple days ago and remember when I first found it. I thought it was good and it made me think. It went in my book of quotes. And now I find it again and it makes me think as I begin to develop a dream for my ministry.
I want to work with young girls. That is a no brainer. I've known that since I was 14. But I also want to reach this world. So many are dead men walking, some have heard the truth and rejected but the most frightening thing is that some have not even heard. I have had conversations with friends recentely that opened my eyes to this fact: it is possible today for a person to grow up in America and never hear one drop of Truth.
Faced with this I ask two questions:
1. How do I push the envelop?
2. How do I teach my girls to push the envelop?
Now I'm not going to become so extremist or bonafide nutjob but I wonder, how is this acomplished. What does pushing the envelop look like? Is it having a Christian sponsered beergarden at bumpershoot? Is it befriending a bum and taking church to him? Is it, heaven forbid, finding truth in an R rated movie and using that as a catalyst to talk theology with non-believers? Is it being genuine friends with homosexuals and loving them as Christ does? Or perhaps, and maybe the scariest and hardest: is it just being real?
Not fake Christian real but real real. The kind that King David was. He was real enough to argue with God. Real enough to dance naked before the people in praise of God. Real enough to admit when he was wrong. Real enough to weep and lament to the Lord. Real enough to fight for what was right and true. Real enough to love the Lord and obey.
Perhaps a heavy dose of reality is what the church in America really needs. Not more programs and theme and trend churches but just honest, open, true faced, vulnerable individuals. Because I think a dead man walking would rather talk to someone who's honest about themselves, their life and their God than to someone who descends from their hilltop castle in forgein garments trying to relate.
As I've stepped back into youth ministry and have begun to pursue my call I've thought about this. I stumbled accross it a couple days ago and remember when I first found it. I thought it was good and it made me think. It went in my book of quotes. And now I find it again and it makes me think as I begin to develop a dream for my ministry.
I want to work with young girls. That is a no brainer. I've known that since I was 14. But I also want to reach this world. So many are dead men walking, some have heard the truth and rejected but the most frightening thing is that some have not even heard. I have had conversations with friends recentely that opened my eyes to this fact: it is possible today for a person to grow up in America and never hear one drop of Truth.
Faced with this I ask two questions:
1. How do I push the envelop?
2. How do I teach my girls to push the envelop?
Now I'm not going to become so extremist or bonafide nutjob but I wonder, how is this acomplished. What does pushing the envelop look like? Is it having a Christian sponsered beergarden at bumpershoot? Is it befriending a bum and taking church to him? Is it, heaven forbid, finding truth in an R rated movie and using that as a catalyst to talk theology with non-believers? Is it being genuine friends with homosexuals and loving them as Christ does? Or perhaps, and maybe the scariest and hardest: is it just being real?
Not fake Christian real but real real. The kind that King David was. He was real enough to argue with God. Real enough to dance naked before the people in praise of God. Real enough to admit when he was wrong. Real enough to weep and lament to the Lord. Real enough to fight for what was right and true. Real enough to love the Lord and obey.
Perhaps a heavy dose of reality is what the church in America really needs. Not more programs and theme and trend churches but just honest, open, true faced, vulnerable individuals. Because I think a dead man walking would rather talk to someone who's honest about themselves, their life and their God than to someone who descends from their hilltop castle in forgein garments trying to relate.
posted by KJ at
3:08 PM
2 Comments
