How Far Do We Go

Mike Miller from FBC-Kenner came and spoke to our class about the emerging and emergent movement.  He focused on building relationships as the core of reaching out to others outside the church. I completely agree with Mike about relationships being the main way of meeting and share Christ with individuals. However, the question is how far do we go with meeting individuals were they are?

I believe we must be honest and real with people.  They need to know who you are and what you are about, showing them Christ’s love and helping them know him.  However I believe one mistake we make as Christians is not truly loving the person regardless of where they stand with Christianity.  Many times we become about our “agenda” and not about people. We are about sharing the Gospel, but not living it in such a way people know you love them where they are and who they are.  To me, this is authentic and real Christianity.  Loving them with the love of Christ even if they never come to know Him. However, I do not mean people should not change, but knowing and understanding transformation only comes from a relationship with Christ. I am not saying either that the Lord will not guide us away from specific people in order to invest in others. The point is we need to check our heart condition and motive when building relationships with people with the desire to share Christ with them.  Our heart condition needs to be a pure motive compel by the Holy Spirit from a perspective of seeing them as God does, lost, but needing Christ.

I also believe we are not to compromise who the church is in order to “better” relate to the culture. The church is to be different than the world because we have something the world does not have, Jesus Christ. It can use some more contemporary styles and methods to relate to non-believers, but we can not compromise the Biblical model and elements of church. A balance needs to be found in which we constantly ask if what is being done aligns with God’s will and Scripture.

The importance of this in relation to college students is we have to ask the question of what does it look like on a campus to meet students were they are without compromising who and what the church is or Christianity.  Again, I believe we are to show students how we are all humans and made in the image of God, but how our lives  are different than theirs because of our relationship with the Creator.  This can look many different ways, but I believe some ways it can look is:

·      playing sports with students

·      helping them with classwork

·      having coffee or lunch with them

·      attending musical concerts, or art galleries

·      painting pottery together

·      helping them do life things like fixing their vehicle

·      playing video games

In other words, we should go and do the things they enjoy that does not compromise our beliefs.  I do believe we have to meet people were they are, but we must be careful to not compromise who we are in Christ and to trust the Holy Spirit to bring about appropriate opportunities and settings to share Christ. Our role is to be ready and obedient seeking Christ and becoming more like Him ourselves.