To most people (including Christians), the words Adventurous & Christianity just don’t go together – like Meatball Sundaes.
This is absolutely bananas though, because Jesus was a bold, courageous, adventurous, risk taker and the Bible, from Genesis to Revelations, is FULL of men and women who lived life beyond the edge of reason as they regularly put everything on the line to do the work of God. Not only that, but the clear call of God from the Bible is not just for us to believe that THEY took great risks, but the call of God in the Bible is for US to take those same risks and even greater ones!
I am so absolutely concerned that the religion we are practicing today as “Christians” in America is so unlike what is prescribed (and displayed) in the Bible that we’re not really Christians at all.
Fans? Maybe. Occasional dibble dabblers? Sure. Purveyors of Christian goods and services? OK.
Christians? I think not.
What if…at the end of our lives when we meet our Maker instead of hearing “Well Done” we hear “Depart from here…I never knew you?”
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
You, my friend, have nailed it.
It's so important to understand that, as a Christian, we are called to value the edge, or risk of the christian faith, not the center of our comfort zone as believers.
I agree. 'These who have changed the world are among us' (Acts 17:6) What a reputation! compared to the Christians reputation today. We have more tools, more platforms, but a sadly less leverage and influence..
Thanks for provoking thought.
Paul
Awesome post man. I agree 100%. I preached a message called “Fanatic” some months ago that dealt with that. You and Courageous Church are in God’s sweet spot on this. Be Courageos (and adventurous) my friend.
This is a very haunting post, something that concerns me.
I wonder what will come of this?
Will the Church as a whole respond back to this?
Will just a select group respond?
I cannot disagree with you here shaun, but I have heard this all before and it seems to continue.
It is almost like we read it for a day and agree but forget about it the next until a respected blogger blogs about the same issue again.
Maybe if we were concerned about the things of Jesus as much as our 401k's it would be different.
Would love to see some follow up post to this.
Very true, Shaun and something that the church, as a whole, does not want to hear. (Being candid.)
I'm reading Francis Chan's excellent book "Crazy Love" right now and he talks about this VERY thing. It definitely makes one look within and ask some tough questions.
Good post…. as believers, we need to keep asking these hard questions.
Religion…Church…Face it, religion and church are as boring as ever. Three songs, a feel-good message about some obvious principle, a little flash here, a little flash there, but something is clearly missing. It could be that Jesus never called us to start a bunch of churches or form organized religion? If the ultimate goal of church is to bring people into some form of relationship with Christ, why does it suck so bad at doing this? If you have music and message, your the same non-courageous crap that church has become. Tear down the walls and come to the people who really need Jesus.
Gosh. This is so true…and scary…
In many ways, Shaun, you're right. Of course. That being said, Jesus was beaten, tortured, nailed to a cross, & left to die; more than a few early Christians became lion snacks.
We don't often explain that faith is not easy……
And as Ben Franklin said, "Serving man is doing God's will, but prayer is thought an easier service, and therefore more widely chosen."