That, I think is the
challenge of strait up Bible believing Christian faith. The world has reached
the other side of the bell curve. They have seen it all and heard it all. The
most un-evangelized cultures in the world almost all have some opinion of
Christianity. Even so called Bible believing Christians no longer believe
Christianity is worth standing for, let alone dying for. The challenge is not
to remake Christianity to be popular in this generation but to find ways to
make this generation take a new look at the old faith.
How do we do that? Here are
some of ideas:
Get real
The point of the faith is not
to blend in our beat around some spiritual bush so that we do not offend the
lost around us. I believe they see this as hypocritical and disingenuous. Sure,
they may loudly protest about certain aspects of our faith. They may hate those
doctrines and vent that hatred toward us. But avoiding these doctrines in order
to be friendly with them only looks like fakery to them.
Be fervent
Fervency does not have to be
militancy. Fervency is the same thing as sincerity. Fervency is passion.
The modern generation views
itself as passionate. We may argue that view and we probably disagree with what
they are passionate about and how they express their passion, but the way to
engage passion is with passion.
Be faithful
In almost every endeavor of
life consistency is the key to successfulness. I heard a man say the other day,
“Do the right thing until the right thing becomes the normal thing.” To bend
that slightly we might say, “Say the true thing until the true thing becomes
the accepted thing.”
Be different, not judgmental
I recognize that the mere
fact that Christians behave differently is often considered to be behaving
judgmentally. I get that. I can’t change that. But we should not be truly
judgmental.
Christians ought to be
different. I do not believe we have been different enough for a very long time.
But we have been, I think, judgmental. Here is the difference; judgmentalism
expects, maybe even requires others conform to our standards. A genuine
Christian perspective (at least a Baptist perspective) believes that all persons
have a responsibility to act according to the dictates of their own conscience.
We have no right to force our conscience on another. Sure, we ought to engage
others with our ideas but if they choose to disagree that is their right.
Christianity remade is not
Christianity at all. To conform Christianity to the modern culture serves no
good purpose. We want to engage the modern culture in such a way that they take
a fresh look at the solid truths of the age old message of Christ.
Help me come up with ideas...
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields
