While at the church planting conference last week i was listening to an innovative church planter (who denies being a church planter at all) say the following:
"We treat our people (visitors, guests, friends, neighbors, strangers) like they are Christians until they realize they are not."
Help me unpack the wisdom (or folly) in this statement, will you?
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2 comments:
i think sometimes we over complicate things. remember what Jesus said "love God,love your neighbor." i think with that perspective that statement makes alot of sense.
I think the scary truth of it is that we judge non-christians like we do Christians. We expect everyone to have the same standards and same beliefs about everything, and whent hey don't we aren't comfortable. Because of that, we start pointing out their weaknesses or what they need to "get right" BEFORE they can come to Christ. But the problem is that most of them don't feel the same as we do at the moment, and it just makes them feel inadequate.
Take for instance the single mother/teen who is scared and comes to the church for guidance, shelter, help, wisdom, and a fresh start. But instead of encouragement, she is greeted with disdain and a bunch of questions like, "where's the father?" Or statements as bold as "Well this wouldn't have happened if you wouldn't have sinned."
Maybe it wasn't the best thing to do. But our responsibility is to make everyone feel loved and accepted until THEY decide to make the decision to follow Christ. It is the Holy Spirit's responsibility to move hearts and bring people to Christ. Our responsibility is solely to show God's love. If we don't, and we judge instead, this single mother/teen will begin to confuse this judgmental attitude of believers as the attitude of Christ, and she will walk away from them both. Scary though, isn't it?
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