Magnets or Viruses?

DISCLAIMER: As you know, I've been wrestling with some parts of my faith lately. So if you get offended by something I write, at least I warned you....

What kind of Christianity infected the Roman world 2000 years ago? What kind of Christianity produced martyrs? What kind of Christianity was it that spread like wildfire?

I start with those questions because recently I've realized that the kind of Christianity I've been around for 25+ years hasn't changed a city, much less overtaken an empire. I'm not throwing stones, I'm just trying to figure out how I can be more like the Christians that were seen as radical in their faith and love.

I think I've found something that may point to a problem....As I observe today's church, we seem to think that we are called to be magnets, attracting sinners to us. I heard a pastor a week ago state that if we would just open the doors to the church, people will come to hear the "Word" preached. Another situation: A friend of mine's church isn't growing, but is spending millions on a bigger building-thinking that lots of people will start coming to their church to see a bigger building. Others believe if their music would change styles, or if their dress code were a bit different, then more people would come. The root problem isn't the gimmick or trick, it's the idea that if we do something different and wait, then we will magically attract more people who don't have God, but now are suddenly attracted to Him.

This is a mindset that has infected the western Church in a deadly way. Not with words, but through our actions we show that we believe the world should come to us. And we don't really think that we should be out in the world as salt and light (unless our jobs force us to interact with the unbelievers).

If you disagree with my previous statement, then I may offend you with the next one. We now have modern day Christians pulling their kids out of public schools and putting them in Christian schools. And then we pull Christian teachers out of the public schools to teach them. Why are we so shocked when the public school system goes downhill and is full of problems and violence? The ones who were called to be salt and light in the world have abandoned them to learn behind walls together with those who think just like them. Instead of 20-30 kids in a public school, learning to be salt and light, we take them all out and stick them in a room with other salty lights. Neither salt nor light does anything to preserve or reveal when it's around other salt and light. I'm not vilifying Christian education, I'm just using it as an example of us forgetting the commandment to be IN the world. Not away from the world with a bunch of others who are just like us, but IN it and not of it. INfecting it.

The reason I'm frustrated by some of these things is because I'm finding these things in me. I expect just to attend church weekly, read my bible, pray, and probably vote Republican…..and most of my church will think that I am a model Christian. But I'm discovering that this kind of Christianity isn't what Jesus preached or practiced….and this kind of faith certainly wouldn't change the world.

The faith I read about is dangerous and infecting. Jesus uses words like "go out" and "send forth". IT seems to be more like a virus than a magnet. The world isn't necessarily attracted to our version of Christianity in the west. We aren't really magnetizing very many….that's why many churches aren't growing, but shrinking. And why some of them are doing more sheep trading than anything else.

We have, like the movie "Gladiator", decided that the action and the battle is for the few, and the rest of us are bound to be observers in the faith, destined to come each week to the auditoriums of our churches, sitting and watching that one man in the front fight the good fight.. As long as we come faithfully and give some money, things seem to be fine. But deep down inside you and I both long for so much more than this. Jesus didn't die for this type of faith. This isn't anything radical, and doesn't seem to be the abundant life that He spoke of.

But the life Jesus often spoke of, we gloss over or ignore. Yes it is abundant. But it's also full of sacrifice and suffering. Bringing justice to those who have been wronged, and hope to the hopeless. But we don't have any true aspect of sacrifice or suffering in our faith, and instead of discovering what it means to pick up a cross or die daily, we make our faith as safe as possible. But the irony is that those we look up to, those who we see as icons, usually are the ones who didn't play it safe. The Hudson Taylors, Mother Teresas, Billy Grahams, etc.

What if Mother Teresa was a magnet instead of a virus-what would Calcutta, India look like today? Do you think you would have ever heard of a nun who stayed in her hometown and opened up another church? She was dangerous because she wasn't afraid to infect the world with her love, the love of Christ. She chose to be out in the world, as a virus infects other cells. Once people came in contact with her, they too were infected. And millions of lives were affected by her love for others.

It's time we as a body asked ourselves some difficult questions. Will we play it safe and become magnets? Will we hang out the rest of our life with others just like us, or will we go out and infect the world with the love of Jesus? Will we invade or will we wait?