So in my efforts to win seoulsearch's zombie thread challenge (this is thread 6 so if they all are approved as meeting the criteria I've done it ), I scoured my brain for a lot of the questions I'm asking about life, faith, relating to people, etc. And then I have had to do my best to turn them into coherent writing on the internet. But one of the things I'm thinking about a lot is the separationist attitude of most Christians. We're exhorted to be "In but Not Of" the world but having grown up in church I've seen how we have Christian radio, Christian music, Christian websites of all varieties, and just about Christian everything. And for the most part we are encouraged to stick to the Christian stuff because it is a good environment and we won't be tempted.
Now there is definitely a place for these things, but to me its starting to seem like instead of being encouraged to get out and be in the world and minister to it, I've been encouraged to hole up in these little "separate but equal" zones of segregation from the world. And the other big problem I see with the Christianization of everything, is often the real hardships and difficulties of life get pushed aside. In the Christian zone, God is supposed to make everything better, if you're still having problems well it's a whole lot easier and more comfortable to blame you for not being a good enough Christian than it is to face up to the fact that you can be doing everything right (like Job) and still have issues.
So the two questions I want to hear people's thoughts on are:
1) How can we encourage a greater degree of honesty about real life in all its messiness within our Christian circles and communities? How can we learn to walk with hurting people instead of giving them a quick fix verse or principle that basically tells them you need to try harder?
2) How can we (or how do you because I know some of you do) get outside of our Christian safe zones and interact with the lost and hurting in the world? You know like Jesus did; that whole seeking and rescuing the lost bit. How do we make sure we don't lose our focus on God when doing this?
And before anyone misinterprets: I love CC and am grateful for it and in no way am I trying to criticize the site or the mods for existing as a specifically Christian entity.
Now there is definitely a place for these things, but to me its starting to seem like instead of being encouraged to get out and be in the world and minister to it, I've been encouraged to hole up in these little "separate but equal" zones of segregation from the world. And the other big problem I see with the Christianization of everything, is often the real hardships and difficulties of life get pushed aside. In the Christian zone, God is supposed to make everything better, if you're still having problems well it's a whole lot easier and more comfortable to blame you for not being a good enough Christian than it is to face up to the fact that you can be doing everything right (like Job) and still have issues.
So the two questions I want to hear people's thoughts on are:
1) How can we encourage a greater degree of honesty about real life in all its messiness within our Christian circles and communities? How can we learn to walk with hurting people instead of giving them a quick fix verse or principle that basically tells them you need to try harder?
2) How can we (or how do you because I know some of you do) get outside of our Christian safe zones and interact with the lost and hurting in the world? You know like Jesus did; that whole seeking and rescuing the lost bit. How do we make sure we don't lose our focus on God when doing this?
And before anyone misinterprets: I love CC and am grateful for it and in no way am I trying to criticize the site or the mods for existing as a specifically Christian entity.