What's Your World Look Like?

I've been back in Michigan this past week visiting the family and some old friends. During my time here I've had some rude awakenings concerning the condition of souls around me. Sometimes, while being at Bible College, I loose sight of how depraved and lost the world is. It seems that while I am at Bible College my view of the world can become somewhat jaded. I assume that the world's spiritual condition as a whole is much better than what it really is because everthing at school is good, respectively.

But thats not the case. At all. If possible, it seems that the world is becoming increasingly depraved. Conditions are worsening and it is now our time to act as Christians. It is now more than ever, that I think it is important that we as Christians should know what we believe and why we believe it. We need to properly formulate our Worldview according to our faith. We cannot give into this concept of believing and not challenging our faith. It is imperative that we wrestle with our faith and mold it over in our mind daily. A faith not worth wrestiling with, in my opinion, is not worth having. As a Christian we need to do three things to properly solidfy our Worldview:

1. Know what you believe and why you believe it

2. Live out what you believe in your everday life through you daily actions

3. Be able to explain to others what you believe and why you believe it

It was late tonight that I had a long talk with three friends of mine. Two of these friends are presume are agnostic. They believed in some higher power, but they couldn't narrow down what they believed in and they were extremely sceptical of believing anything specifically. My other friend, I'm fairly sure, confesses to be a Christian, but is very pluristic in his beliefs. I sat down with these three men and debated with them for over an hour about theology and faith. It was enlightening and very intellectual to say the least. At the same time though, it was discouraging. It showed me how unprepared I am to answer some valid, tough questions that sceptics have. Thus, I have to challenge myself to learn more about my worldview.

So I ask you, what's you world look like? And why does it look like that?

Evangelistc vs. Missional

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIRtz0AjgLY

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago when I was in New York City to go to Redeemer Presbyterian Church and hear Pastor Tim Keller speak there. It was definitely one of the most intellectually based church services that I have ever been too. He addressed the concept of righteous anger and how it is to be applied in our culture today. It was by far the best exposition on righteous anger that I have ever heard. He has an innate ability take the paradoxes of scripture and shrouded truths that are often debated within theological circles and come up with simple logical answers to them. Obviously Dr. Keller can not and is not right on many facets of the Christian worldview, it is very interesting to see how he approaches different subjects. Some believe that Dr. Keller promotes an emerging view of the church in reference to our Postmodern era. I have not done enough research on it to give a valid account of whether he is or not. I do know that he seems to have a heart to reach the lost of this world and bring them to Christ.

While doing my daily rummage through the cross-section of young American that we call YouTube, I stumbled upon one of Dr. Kellers many short clips addressing problems of the current church. In this clip he describes a difference between Evangelistic and Missional that I have never considered before. I have always realized the failing practice of many churches to make Evangelism simply a appendage of the church and not the heart of it, where it should be. I agree with Dr. Keller in that we need to make the church of this era a missional church. The church's sole goal should be to reach the unregenerate for the Kingdom of God. If this vital aspect of our Christian life isn't the central part of the Christian body then we are destined to fail.

Is it evident that vast majority of our churches in America today view Evangelism as only a department of the Church. We have compartmentalized the works of the Kingdom into different "ministries" that the Church is to perform. It is not until we make the advance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the heart of the Church's work, that we see another Great Awakening.

This starts in the individual believer. Each believer needs to resolve to personally make their life a mission field. Then and only then will the masses seek repentance.

Capitalizing on Christ

One of my biggest frustrations with contemporary Christianity is this concept that we can better reach the lost through making Christianity, or Christ himself a product to be sold. This has hit every aspect of the Christian life. We have everything from cheesy Christian t-shirts to lollipops in the shape of crosses. Since when is our Lord and Savior on the same level as Coca-Cola and Tootsie Pops? I apologize if it seems that I'm blowing this out of proportion but it just seems to me that this concept fosters a dangerously shallow faith among believers.

Some of the worst cases that I've seen of this are shirts at your local Christian book store that instead of having Coca-Cola on a shirt it has Jesus Christ written in the same trademark way as that refreshing soft drink. What is this really promoting? Is it really a good witnessing tool or is it doing more harm than good? From a educated Christian perspective I see those t-shirts and say on one hand you have Coca-Cola and on the other you have Christ our Lord, being "sold" in the same way. We're equating our Savior with popular consumer products. Do you want Coke or Christ? Your choice.

I was flipping through the pages of a Oriental Trading Company catalog the other day with some friends, making fun about various products. While flipping through this endless cornucopia of useless products I stumbled upon "cross mints", which are pictured above. This was the pinnacle of my frustration. Have we really reached that shallow of a point in our faith? I cannot begin to tell you the frustration I feel when I dwell on these things. It is horrible that we've reached a point to now, where the cross that my Lord and Savior bleed and died upon for my sins is now made into a tiny mint that you can pop in your mouth to freshen your breath. We need to start taking our Christian walk more seriously. It is imperative that we allow our minds to be transformed in the way that would be glorifying to God.

We need to stop treating God as a product to be sold, but rather our Creator, Provider, Lord and Savior.