Mission Field
I hear so many Christians bemoaning the fact that our world – our nation especially – is not as Christian as it should be. But could it be good that things are going the way they are in our world?
I, for one, welcome the changes. Our society is not “Christian” anymore? Good. It means people will have to take the Gospel at face value rather than just equate it with what it has become. Kids aren’t growing up in church and having prayer every morning in school? Good. Maybe when they ARE presented with the truths of Christ, they won’t be negatively prejudiced against it.
I think the Gospel has been in chains in America for some time – the chains of organized backburner religion. We make Christianity such a cultural thing that we leave it there – it’s social, a thing we do on Sundays, a thing that has no place in the home or in our habits or our everyday lives.
In that light, maybe here – the Deep South, the Bible Belt – is as challenging a mission field as the deepest untamed places of the Middle East. At least there they can see a clear difference between the Gospel and their own religion. At least there they can accept it or reject it at face value – assuming, that is, that someone will go to tell them. Or as much at “face value” as they can when a Western “Christian nation” is pushing their own version of Christianity.
Here, it’s different. Here, all things Christian – whether they are the real Gospel or not – are all relegated to the same place. “I’ve heard this all before. Who’s that knocking at the door? It’s Jesus again. He belongs over here.” And we leave him alone. Never mind that this is a different Jesus than the one we’ve always known – one who calls us to take up our cross, to be willing to suffer and die to ourselves. One who calls us to actually SEEK OUT the “least of these” to minister to them, rather than waiting for them to come to us. One who came to bring fire and division, not “world peace.”
Just thoughts… very open to comments.
You have very eloquently written what I have felt for several years. That some organization has taken phrases like “Christian” or “Family Values” and copyrighted it to mean something that is quite different from what those words mean to me. My daughter is in kindergarten and when, in the midst of kindergarten conversation, she said “God is our Father” – she was challenged by SEVERAL kids! But I was glad, it was an opportunity for us to talk about it, to read the Bible and to make it mean something to her, instead of just a rote phrase that she had learned. And perhaps something for fellow kindergarteners to mull over and maybe begin having similar conversations with their parents.
Jesus was a radical in his time. His society was very resistant to his message. Early Christians had to really WANT their salvation and they worked hard to bring the love of Christ to the masses. They had to cling to the Lord and to on another because the world was against them.
Not so different today. I work in the public school system and see evidence of this exact phenomenon before my very eyes. Christians have become complacent while the world around us continues to diversify. It is during times of trials that we grow the most and I, for one, welcome the challenge. I know my son will understand what it means to stand for our beliefs, because they are challenged every day.