I have spent a lot of time wondering what the Kingdom of God looks like. Most of this has been from my (or our) perspective as a Christian. Many times we wonder how we are presenting ourselves to the outside world, or more importantly how we are presenting Christ?
In the midst of all this chaos, questioning what we are supposed to look like I find that our viewpoint is wrong. We wonder what we look like to others, from our own perspective. But what does our culture think of us? Also, should we strive to be so seeker sensitive in the first place?
When I look at John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul, Stephen, Peter, John, etc. I see people who lost themselves in loving others. These were Godly men (one of them a manly God?) who were focused on evangelizing to the lost and discipling the found, picking up the broken and leading them to wholeness and victory in Jesus Christ.
Yet these men were not seeker sensitive. They were prophetic. They spoke the truth in love in all situations. The unmasked the powers that were behind social problems, religious tyranny, and governmental corruption. Simply put, these men did not mess around. They had wonderful relationship with everyone they came into contact with, yet they also preached to those who hated them.
To what extent are our Sunday services to be seeker sensitive? Should we be more concerned about making sure we are not offending outsiders to the point we do not edify the insiders? Need our speaking in heavenly tongues cease so that we do not step on toes? Are we seeking to witness to man rather than glorify God (though they should flow out of each other, is that what is happening?)
I do not know if the world will even accept our message as we would like it to. There is a sense that our message is so natural to the human heart that none would reject it, yet look what they did to the Cornerstone of our faith!
Here is my understanding. The world cannot understand Christ until our orthopraxis (right action) reflects our orthodoxy (right doctrine). From the world’s perspective, the Kingdom of God is foolishness. The problem is simple: it is illogical to follow God. Why should we place total trust in the hands of something we cannot see? Why are the wealthy made low and the poor exalted? Why must I die to myself in order to live? Why does less of myself mean more of what I was intended to be? In the world’s eyes, the Kingdom of God is backwards. It does not make sense to follow someone who died 2000 years ago and fall in love with the broken and poor of this world when we may become like them.
I am convinced that the world will not accept Christ until we start living out this alternative reality that Christ preached.
2 comments:
great post.
where do you think we draw the line of engaging the culture and ostracizing ourselves from the culture?
It's very hard. I'm taking a whole class on it.
We use this invisible line to justify many of the things we do. We say we must watch these movies, shows, etc in order to understand culture, for a monk cannot engage the culture he is not a part of "effectively".
We must first be honest with ourselves. Entertainment is good (though I've been told it's Satan's cheap substitute for joy). Are we truly watching such things in order to know culture better? I think this is pretty crucial for youth pastors, especially really, really ridiculously good-looking ones like my friend Jim Ellis. Or are we watching them for entertainment? If so are we becoming influenced to be like culture? Too much leads to conformity, not enough leads to ostracizing. We must pray for discernment.
What do you think?
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