I May Be the Reason Christianity's Not Growing in North America

Many who study our movement offer both theories and data which help explain why Christianity struggles in North America, while it grows and thrives in many places on the continents of Africa, Asia, and South America.  While exercise-walking and listening to some music of our faith yesterday morning, I experienced some conviction about this.  The Holy Spirit invited me to take a look at my life as a Jesus-follower.  Specifically, I thought about how much time I have spent defending causes, taking positions on push-button issues, arguing for this position or that position, and pointing out the flaws in someone else' position.  I felt compelled to compare this with the amount of time I have taken to choose to love someone first, to let God's grace come first, and to let my first concern be introducing someone to the living, saving presence of Jesus.  The rest of the walk was humbling.  I'm afraid there may be other church folks in North America like me; more issue-driven than mission-driven.

Jesus-followers of all stripes fill up social media with saber-rattling over the placement of the Ten Commandments in courthouses, same-gender marriage, whether the Confederate battle flag is heritage or racism, and who knows what else.  I'm not saying it's not important to know where we've been called to stand and to stand there faithfully.  But what if all the energy we've spent on these and other battlefields had been put into loving the least and the last, and humbly evangelizing all the lost?

I don't know the answer.  All I know is the lyrics of the song that convicted me yesterday morning:

"Jesus, Friend of Sinners"  (Casting Crowns)

Jesus, friend of sinners, we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name, but the sword was never ours to swing.
Jesus, friend of sinners, the truth's become so hard to see.
The world is on their way to you, but they're tripping over me;
Always looking around but never looking up, I'm so double-minded,
A plank-eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided.

(Chorus)  Oh, Jesus, friend of sinners,
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointed fingers.
Let our hearts be led by mercy,
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors.
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our heart for what breaks yours.

Jesus, friend of sinners, the who's writing in the sand
Made the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands.
Help us to remember we are all the least of these.
Let the memory of your mercy bring your people to their knees.
Nobody knows what we're for only what we're against when we judge the wounded.
What if we put down our signs, crossed over the lines and loved like you did...

You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast,
For the leper and the lame; they're the reason that you came.
Lord, I was that lost cause and I was the outcast,
But you died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at your feet....

Again, we are a unique people; not better than the world, but not defined by the values and structures of the world.  Yes, there are stands that will be taken.   But Jesus didn't suffer and die on the cross to promote causes.  He did so to love, embrace, heal, and transform human beings - all human beings.  The Body of Christ's mission of loving like Jesus did and making disciples is greater than any one issue at a specific point in history.  At our church, our lead pastor, Aaron Brown, talks about us being a mission-driven church, not an issue-driven church.  That's the kind of movement of which I want to be a part.  And I think the Holy Spirit reminded me of that yesterday morning.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.  (Be careful - lots of rain this week, and the rivers are up!)

The Charleston Shooting - A Disturbing Undercurrent

First and foremost, we who claim Jesus as Savior and Lord must stand in solidarity with the people of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC.  Wherever the Body of Christ is in pain and grieving, the whole body of Christ is hurting.

There are so many questions an event like this raises, both from within the Body and from those observing the Body.  Is there ever going to be an end to the cancer that is racism in our land?  Are we a culture disproportionately prone to firearm violence, or is this about personal choices and behavior, apart from methods and weapons?   Are people born evil, or is venomous hatred something taught or learned?  Is a horrid occurrence like this a part of some detailed matrix of determined events, or does God really step back and allow such horrific decisions?  How do lonely and pained persons on the margins of society's attention gravitate to groups fueled by hate, and who all are responsible for that gravitation?   Should churches now become as secure as schools and government buildings, and how far should security measures go?  (Tomorrow morning I will give my last message at a church that has an awesome in-church safety team.  They approach it as a ministry, and I'm grateful for that.)   And how do family and friends of nine innocent victims find the capability to pray for and seek forgiveness for someone who ended a loved one's life?

I don't pretend to be any kind of an expert on the inquiries above, except possibly the last one.  However, there's an additional issue related to the shooting on which I'm compelled to offer comment.  It's a subtle and indirection matter, and it seems to be oozing within the ranks of Jesus-followers.  On social media and in other conversations I hear intimations that this tragic event is the reason that churches should be wary of strangers.  The hint is that this is the problem with churches that focus more on the needs of new people than they do on the needs of those already in the "fold."  It's the reason everyone in the church needs to know everyone else, some say.  The Emanuel A.M.E. shooting shows why we should look warily at "those people" who are "not like everyone else" in our churches.

I don't have enough ways to say an emphatic "NO!" to this response to the Charleston shooting.  Those who gathered last Wednesday night at Emanuel's facility welcomed Dylann Roof because that's what followers of Jesus do.  The radical hospitality (thank you, Bishop Robert Schnase) of Christ's love is our trademark.  Jesus welcomed the least, the last, and the lost; "those people" who spend their lives as the objects of suspicion.  He did that at great risk; a risk that eventually got him pinned to a cross.

Hospitality is a risk.  Claiming Jesus is a risk.  In many places throughout the globe just gathering to worship Jesus is a risk.  Why would we think anything else?!?  To the best of our knowledge all of the first group of apostles except one paid for following Jesus with their lives.  The movement has largely grown most powerfully throughout history as it is watered by the blood of martyrs.  John Wesley was thrown of the churches of his own denomination because of his passion for reaching the "lower class" of England for Jesus.   We simply must abandon this pointless North American myth that Church is all about safety and security for those who are already in.  It is, always has been, and always will be about stepping out in faith, way beyond our boundaries of comfort, trusting in God alone (no matter the outcome), on the chance of bringing one more person into the arms of God.

If I was a betting man, which I'm not (subject for another post), I'd bet my last dollar that a Bible study, a time of worship, a season of prayer, or something will happen at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston this Wednesday night.  And I'll bet if a stranger shows up, that stranger will be welcomed. Because they're followers of Jesus.  It's a risk worth taking.  It's what we do.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.