Jesus

What’s your life… in a six word story?

Smith Magazine has “Six-Word Memoir” series and is asking:

“Everyone has a story. Can you tell yours in six words?”

Here’s mine:

I’m asking, seeking. knocking these days.

What’s your six-word story?

I’m going to say this upfront. I haven’t seen the new Christian movie “To Save a Life.” And I’m probably not going to. I’m biased, and jaded towards Christian media. But for those of you who have seen it, I’d love to have your reviews here.

My only request: be honest. Don’t handicap your review because it’s a Christian film. Be honest.

Here’s a video response to Billy Graham Association’s “I Believe.com” campaign. It’s all over the net and Facebook (and being pushed by Christianity.com). They’re calling for us to “take a stand!”

Really? Do we need to take yet another stand?

Up for another round up of great Christian signs?

Here are 5 keys to making a great Christian sign:

1) Try to be clever, but make sure to reference death or sin

[HT: Brian Buchanan]

2) It doesn’t matter if you make any sense as long as you mention Jesus

3) Try to be culturally relevant, but you error, make sure you end up being pervy and creepy

[HT: SaintSimeon]

4) Try to make sure you miss the point entirely

[HT: Lifesigns]

5) If all else fails, ruin your attempted wit by misspelling key words

[HT: CrummyChurchSigns]

[HT: YS]

I think that Craig is on to something here.

Think of this. How much of your youth ministry is “fun and games” and how much of it is discipling teenagers in their faith? Are we just entertaining in the hopes of slipping the Gospel in? Is this the “bait and switch” Gospel? Or simply put… is your youth ministry contributing to the stupidity of teenagers?

I noticed this a few years back. We’d promo a trip by saying it was a snowboarding weekend, but fail to mention that our real [subversive] purpose was to share Christ. Once I realized how we were packaging our faith (90% fun and 10% Jesus) I repented and changed my ways. Do we still have fun? Absolutely. But am I clear about the focus of what we do? You bettcha.

Ministry for us has changed to something more about pursuing life change and less about events and entertainment. Is it an easy switch? No. Are we still refining the process with? Uh huh. Is it a necessary one? Yes it completely is.

What are your thoughts?

“Christianity suddenly became a much more intellectual enterprise after the Protestant Reformation, when churches split into different denominations over theological ideas. Preachers and teachers tried to attract followers with compelling insights and ideas. The focus of the faith shifted from the heart to the head, leaving the stomach behind.

Today, congregations are trying to provide more than intellectual nourishment by putting restaurants and coffee bars in their buildings. In our polarized and fractured society, people of different backgrounds are invited to come together in these houses of God to have conversation over a meal or a drink — in spite of their differences.” USA Today

There’s nothing wrong with reaching out to people in different ways. But why does the church have to be the restaurant… or the coffee house? Why do we have to lure people inside the church to have a conversation? Couldn’t we just go to, you know a real restaurant or an actual coffee house? Is it because those places seem less safe? What if someone heard me talking about Jesus in Starbucks? The horror.

I don’t know how many times I’ve head people say that they need to bring someone to church so that they can “hear the Gospel.” Then I typically reply, “Are you a Christian? Don’t you know what the Gospel is?” And at that point, the conversation ends, with that person giving me a weird look, like I’m crazy.

As Christians, we get into this four wall mentality like somehow our faith only takes place inside the church. We make the building the focal point, but the majority of ministry as Christians, should happen outside the church, not in it.

So if this is true, then why are we doing our best to make sure that never happens?

This Kids in the Hall sketch is a good reminder to us all. Two guys going door-to-door sharing the Lord, but they’re so consumed by their own agenda, they’re unable to see the needs in front of them.

Sometimes we can let evangelism (sharing Christ with others) become either a scripted cardboard pitch or a steamroller shove-it-down-your-throat assault.  Either way these approaches become all about us. It becomes a missions for “us” to save “them.” The key element we forget about in evangelism is the purpose of evangelism. We’re not spreading religion. We’re not out to prove a point. We’re offering help and healing to those in need. Jesus wasn’t about a speech or a forced system or conformity. He offered hope, healing and change. If we don’t offer that, then we’re missing the point and might as well be selling Amway.