TILL HE COMES Blog

When going into church planting, planters are advised to look up the demographics of the place they are thinking of planting in. Today, I found a site with a special set of demographics you won’t find anywhere else. If you want to reach into the guttes of life and find a place that needs the Gospel, a place filled with people who to be shown grace, love, kindness, and mercy, check out the following demographics studies by Forbes Magazine:

http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/14/cities-sinful-lander-forbeslife-cx_lm_0213sinful_land.html?partner=weekly_newsletter

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I am by no means an expert on how to live a life of grace. Up until a few months ago, the entire focus of my life was to read, write, study, teach, and talk about grace. I did a very poor job living it. Yesterday, I suggested that the more a person talks and writes and proclaims grace, the less they seem to live it. That’s just my experience.

(So, with that being said, let me talk and write some more about grace!)

Here is how I am trying to learn to live a life of grace.

First, I started trying to figure out which sort of people were most often criticized, judged, and condemned by the churches, Christians, radio shows, books, and articles I interact with. These people made my mental “grace list.”

Second, I started praying to see these people as Jesus sees them, and to give me opportunities to get to know them. I suspected that it is much easier to judge a person’s bad theology or bad behavior if I don’t actually know them.

Finally, I began to actively seek out these people to get to know them and befriend them. I set up appointments. I scheduled lunch meetings. I applied for jobs with them so I could work with them and help them. I read their blogs, and interact with them by e-mail (all in a kind, gracious manner!).

I’m not going to tell you who I have been meeting with, but let me give you some examples of people you could try to develop relationships with: atheists, abortion doctors, homosexuals, pornographers, strippers, prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, people who have different theological views than you do, people with different political views, etc. There are dozens more.

And by the way, if you are going to try to develop friendships with these people, don’t focus on the things that separate you. Your friendship will last about two seconds if you do that. Just try to get to know them as a person. Focus on the things you have in common. Try to find out everything you can about them, and who they are. Learn about their dreams, desires, and goals in life. Ask if there is any way you can help them or be of service to them. These are some ways you can live grace, which is the only way to truly teach it.

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I had a discussion today with a guy that most Christians love to hate. It was the most refreshing and eye-opening discussions I have ever had. He told me about some of the criticism he gets from Christians, and how he just tries to respond with kindness and love.

I have noticed this sort of behavior on many fronts. Those that Christians most loudly denounce are often some of the most gracious people to be around. Doesn’t that seem strange? Those of us who are saved by grace, teach grace, write about grace, proclaim grace, and have “grace” in the names of our churches and ministries, are some of the least gracious people that exist. I am observing this pattern everywhere I go.

Which got me thinking…just like the preacher pounds the pulpit during his weakest points, maybe those who talk loudest about grace are trying to compensate for a lifestyle that lacks grace. Maybe those of us who talk and write a lot about grace should follow the example of non-believers (and Jesus) and start living grace. I’d say that living out grace is a better way to teach grace anyway.

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Some days, I’m ashamed to be a Christian. Today is one of those days, and I want to issue a public apology to all people everywhere who were ever hurt, slandered, abused, or hated in the name of Christ. I am sorry for what has been done.

The reason I feel this way today is because of a website I ran across which is solely dedicated to spreading the terrible idea that the God of the Bible hates everybody. The site is so mean and hurtful and angry, I kept wondering if it was just a terrible, horrible, awful joke. I am not going to post the site, because I don’t want anybody to go to it. It is the most despicable, hateful, hurtful, angry, website I have ever come across, and it is all run by “Christians” who claim to be working for “the Gospel.”

One entire section of the site is geared toward helping Christians gather and picket people and businesses with signs that say “God hates _______ (fill in the blank).” I am astounded at the people and places they are planning on picketing, and the way they do it is despicable. They call such events “Picket Crusades.” It’s very reminiscent of the actual Crusades, except that swords and horses have been swapped out for signs and bullhorns.

Personally, I think God hates “Christians” who do such things. Maybe some of us other Christians should get a group together and go picket these picketers. We could write signs that say “God hates people who make signs that say ‘God hates _____ (fill in the blank).’” I’m jesting, but that would be quite a circus.

The truth is that while I feel very sorry for what has been done in the name of Jesus, I also feel very sorry for the people who do it. What is going on in their lives, hearts, and minds to cause them to say and do such things? I feel awful that they think this is the way God is. I wonder what can be done to show them the true love and grace of God?

Anybody want to start a ministry focused on reaching Christian picketers?

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My wife and I are currenly undergoing the biggest crisis of our lives. I cannot go into details right now, but this crisis is definitely not the biggest crisis that can happen to a family. We are all healthy, no one has died, we still have a home, etc. However, with what we are going through right now, we find it very easy at times to be angry at God and other Christians.

And as we ask ourselves, “Why is this happening to us?” one reason Wendy and I keep coming back to is that God wants us to understand how a life crisis can lead a person to deny and reject Jesus Christ. We haven’t gone through one-tenth of what some people go through, but I think we now have a glimpse of what it is like.

When bad things happen to a person, it seems like God doesn’t care. Then, to make it worse, Christians come along and many of them stab you in the back. In such times, people are prone to think, “God must not exist after all. Or if He does, and this is how He shows His love, and this is how His people treat one another, I want nothing to do with Christianity.” One thing is for sure, as the country song says, “It’s times like these you find out who your friends are.” And in times like these, it certainly doesn’t seem that God and Christians are very good friends. (And for you Christians who think that is a heretical statement, go ahead and prove it true by making a critical comment below or on your own blog.)

So I see why people leave the church. I see why people turn to alcohol and drugs. I see why people become atheists.  As another country song says, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

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I read over 40 blogs every day through BlogLines. Of them all, my favorite is by Vince Antonucci, who is planting churches in Virigina Beach. He wrote a post today I have been thinking about for a long time, so rather than put my own thoughts down, I figured I would just paste his post here:

I want to take some time to talk about one of the main things that keep Christians and churches from reaching out to lost people. (By the way, recently I suggested reading, “No Perfect People Allowed” by John Burke. Some of the ideas I’m going to express in these next few posts come from his book. He says them so well in there, I can’t really improve on them.)

So one of the seven core values at our church is: “Grace Wholesalers. We love people unconditionally and help them onto the road to healing and wholeness in Christ.” As you know, grace means to get the opposite of what you deserve. It’s unmerited love. A wholesaler (like B.J.’s , Sam’s Club or Costco) is someone who only gives in bulk. The idea is that at Forefront we give grace, love, hope, healing, acceptance, friendship in bulk. In huge quantities – you can’t just get a little.

Why is this one of our core values? Well, first of all, because God is a grace wholesaler. The Bible says that that’s how God treats us, with amazing grace. The reason we have Christ, the reason we’re saved, the reason we grow, the reason we live, the reason we’ll spend eternity in Heaven is because of God’s grace.

Second, Jesus came and exactly represented God the Father while He was on earth, and Jesus was a grace wholesaler. This is why when you read the gospels you find that the people who were drawn to Jesus were the worst of sinners. Why? Because they knew they needed grace. And He’s the one who gave it in bulk. We see Jesus condemn no one (except religious people who felt no need for grace). Jesus was the ultimate grace wholesaler. So why are we grace wholesalers? Because we have no choice! The church is called to be the body of Christ. As Jesus exactly represented God the Father, we are to exactly represent Jesus. And so Christians, Churches must be grace wholesalers.

In fact, this should be the distinctive of Christians and of Churches. I love how an author named Gordon MacDonald put it, “The world can do almost anything as well as or better than the church. You need not be a Christian to build houses, feed the hungry, or heal the sick. There is only one thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer grace.” Grace is what separates Christianity from the world. Grace is also what separates Christianity from other world religions. There are a lot of similarities amongst the world religions, but only Christianity offers grace. Only Christianity says you get the opposite of what you deserve from God. Only Christianity says God wants to offer you unmerited love.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you what may be the saddest thing I know.

I think I know what the saddest thing is…but you’ll have to get it from Vince tomorrow at his blog.

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