Disinfecting ...

Still reading Radical.  It's still convicting.  Having to read in small chunks to try to digest a bit of what it is saying.  Today David was contrasting the American idea of discipleship which is really more of a "disinfecting" with the New Testament idea of discipleship which is a stark contrast!

Disinfecting =

• 
  
  isloation from the effects of the world in the safety of the church
• 
  
  teaching people to be "good"
• 
  
  putting priority on the safety of the building
• 
  
  equating "good" with what we don't do

Discipleship =

• propelling Christians out into the world
• being willing to risk your very lives for the sake of others
• leaving with building with the gospel message
• being defined more by what we do and who we are than by what we avoid

Not a new concept.  I grew up in the disinfecting church culture where we were concerned with getting people into the church and we build facilities to hold them.  We were taught sooo many things to avoid: rock music (It was the 80's ... there were lots of seminars on the evils of rock n roll), drinking, cussing, dancing (our church had Prom Alternatives ... to keep us from the bad influence of drugs, sex, and rock), smoking, sex ... and nonbelievers!  We were supposed to live very safe, secluded lives, free from the evils of the world.  I went on my first mission trip post college!  Crazy, huh?  We were BIG on choir tours ... that was a chance to go places that were "safe" ... and to spread the gospel with those who were like us.  I can remember an Acteens group being told they didn't need to go to that apartment complex because it was not safe ... and I also remember our youth minister being given a book on AIDS (from our pastor!) before our first Mexico mission trip because we would undoubtedly contract it if we weren't careful there.  I can remember taking our high shcool students to a homeless shelter in Houston and them being afraid to touch the kids the first day because they might get "the ringworm" ... Yep!  Good old 80's and 90's in Arkansas. 

It wasn't until I was in seminary that I fell in love with community ministry, and saw the beauty of the church outside its walls ... and I fell in love with medical missions with all of its risks and rewards. 

I am not bashing the church.  I AM the church.  And I think some of the things we did in the 80's worked.  People came to revivials because you invited them.  We could do visitation because people weren't afraid to let you into their homes.   But, I am seeing the effects of the church of the 80's now.  Because the people who came into the church of the 80's and made a decision to follow Christ weren't really ever discipled ... and I'm not sure they ever really came into a relationship with Christ!  No one walked alongside them as God made changes in their lives.  No one taught them how to get to know this God they heard about.  It was all about just coming to church.  No one taught us how to go out of the church.  SOOOO, now we have a generation of believers (?) who think they are Christians because they got some free pizza one day, heard a sermon, and walked an aisle, and prayed a prayer.  And that was it.  They don't know what it looks like to have a relationship with Christ because we never showed them.  They don't know how to trust God for decisions, hard decisions.  They don't know how to step out in faith.  They don't know how to tell someone how to have a relationship with Christ or how to live with Christ in the real world.  And they no longer look too different from the world around them.  Why would they??

That's one of the things we've not figured out ... why would anyone change their life apart from Christ?  Why not get drunk?  Why not just live together?  Why not use the language you grew up hearing?  Why not watch out for #1?  Why would you serve, give, invest in others?  Why would you give your money to the church?  Why should you?

How do we shift our paradigm to a church that gets together to be trained and to to celebrate the stories of God in our world ... and then goes OUT equipped with a message to share?  How do we teach families to invest in opportunites to serve together?  How do we stop throwing money at causes far to messy to throw our lives into?  How do we decide how to spend our time and money?  How to we learn to walk alongside the people God has dropped into our mission field, truly caring about them and being their friend, not because they are our "project" ... but because they are our friends.  When do we start being known for the amazing things we are FOR ... not just labeled for those things we stand against.  When do we love the people before they are ready for change ... not after they look a little more like us?  When is missions how we spend our lives ... not something we do ... (or even worse) what OTHER people do?? 

Still thinking.