Many times I feel like other Christians are saying this to me when we talk about where we attend church, although maybe not in so many words.
Sometimes I think we as Christians spend too much time evangelizing to other Christians. Sometimes we may think that because we go to a certain church, then everyone else needs to go to the same church too! Well, I've got to be honest with ya--that's just not true.
The truth is, there are many churches out there that preach the gospel, and many of them are very different. Different people worship different ways, have different habits, and live in different social circles. If they are attending a church that functions as their Body of Christ by holding them accountable and building them up, then why do they need to attend your (or my) church?
Maybe instead of spending so much time touting our churches to other believers we should spend more time holding out God's grace and love to the lost around us. I'm not saying that I'm a stellar evangelist, I'm just saying let's think about this for a second....
If someone is attending a God-fearing church that isn't our own and they love it, we should be happy for them, not trying to win them over to our philosophy of service organization!
Of course, there is a flip side to this.
What if the person you are talking with attends a legalistic works-for-salvation church? What if they believe their soul will be saved by adhering to the "7 holy sacraments"? What if their church doesn't even believe that Jesus is fully God?
I'd say that's a different case entirely! We need to be evangelizing to these people too! Maybe they are just in a horrible environment that is hindering their Christian growth... then it's our job to get them out of there! And then there's the possibility that the person we're talking with, if they attend one of these churches or pseudo-christian organizations, doesn't even know Jesus as their personal savior at all. Then these people are just as in need of Jesus's grace and love as anyone else!
But what about even hazier areas? What if your acquaintance's church believes that you aren't indwelt by the Holy Spirit until you speak in tongues?
Now things really start to get sticky....
Relevant post, Greg! Thanks.
Sweet, I'm glad it was useful!
Great thoughts Greg! Very straight-forward and to the point.
Challenges Christians to examine Church bodies based on Biblical principles and not superficial, temporal things.
If Christ is at the center - His glory and majesty being the purpose and passion behind the Church - Many other things become secondary concerns. Secondary. Ha, maybe even farther from that?
This reminds me of something that I meditated on this weekend:
Our opinions are ever changing based on the experiences that we have in our lives. Our opinions may be strong-felt, but they are ever fluctuating, growing, and can be quite unstable in some cases. The key here is having acceptance of other people's preferences and opinions when it doesn't have a negative affect on their relationship with Christ and, consecutively, others.
Solid stuff. Making me ponder other details...
AJ
how about, you let people believe what they want to, you let them do what they want to, forcing your view points on other people is never a good thing. forcing our viewpoints on other people is also called being a jerk (which to me is not very christian.)
So if they want to beleive that jesus isnt fully god, dont "prostitute" out your religion and try to convert them. The very act of converting people by force, is an evil act. And telling a person they are wrong, telling them that they are going to hell, that to me is considered "by force".
@AJ, I'm glad we're on the same page!
@Anonymous, Saying what I personally believe can hardly be equated to forcing someone else to accept my viewpoint. In fact, it is impossible to FORCE someone to actually BELIEVE anything... in order to truly believe it they have to arrive at that conclusion on their own.
By your own standard, you telling me that my view that sharing Jesus is important is wrong is just as forceful as my actually sharing it. Now YOU are trying to force your beliefs off on ME. Does no one else see the double standard here?
On the topic of witnessing, I agree that there is a right and a wrong way to go about it. And I would agree that "telling a person they are wrong, telling them that they are going to hell" is probably not very effective.
oh okay, if you think its impossible to force anyone, then when you do actually force someone, its okay because you are not actually forcing them. I see the logic here.
What about gay marriage as being forced? A lot of gay couples want to get married, a lot of people say its against the bible, thats fine, but what if they want to get married in a non christian wedding?
Or what about back just a few hundred years ago when the church killed people who didn't believe in what they did? I think you are mixing up the word believe and faith. You cant force someone to have faith, but you can force someone to believe something through many various means. I know several people who call themselves Christians that say "well if I don't believe in god, I am going to hell".. that is belief based off fear.. fear is a very common torture and if fearing someone to do something or believing something isnt "forcing", then fine thats what you think. But forcing someone to even pretend to believe something is not right either. And if you want to justify why you think forcing someone in any way shape or form is right, then power to you.
Now as far as the double standard. The only point in which I talked about forcing was when I was talking about christians converting and saying things like "if you dont believe in god you are going to hell". You seriously 100% honestly think that it is okay to say something like that? telling a person they are going to hell? I think that is a little more forceful and bad then me saying that its "bad to force someone into believing something"... lol
That is like me suspecting a person of child abuse. So I accuse the person after seeing them punch and kick their child. That person turns around and says "its not nice to accuse people", yes both people were doing some wrong, but one is clearly more wrong than the other.
Yes I was forcing my opinion about forcing opinions no you, but I dont think that is anywhere close to saying things like "you dont believing god, you are going to hell".
And talking about forcing peoples opinions on others is wrong, cant be considered an act of itself. That is wrong in itself. That is like saying "questioning the church is wrong".. You should be able to talk about things in a cival manner without being shunned for it.. I should be able to talk about how forcing opinions is wrong without being accused of it myself which is quite silly to be honest
All I'm pointing out is that you think your opinion is right and mine is wrong, and you are trying to convince me of it. You are evangelizing your own point of view.
Also, I agree that saying someone is going to hell is a bad tactic for evangelism, but maybe for different reasons than you.
Just tell me: why is telling someone they are going to hell so cruel? If they don't believe in Jesus, they don't believe in hell either, so it's a moot point. That's why I don't think it would be a very effective method of evangelism, and why I don't think it would be such a wrong thing to do. Wrong no, but pointless, yes.
Is telling a drug dealer they will end up in jail or dead because of there deeds wrong? Doing so is imposing your will on the "drug dealer". I don't think so, you are just giving them a warning. Mentioning the ways of Jesus is the same way. You are planting the seed of Faith, maybe just watering the seed or maybe seeing the seed sprout. However the seed may just be thrown out on rocky, thorny ground. But than again maybe fertile soil.
-brianW
Well said!