Willow Creek once put out an evangelism curriculum called Contagious Christianity. It was a wonderfully named program that gave a great visual for how Christians should be in the world: the Gospel is such good news, people who come in contact with Christians should be quick to catch it and spread it themselves.
I doubt many people on the outside looking in would consider Christianity to be something worth catching. More likely, they'd want to take the lot of us and have us quarantined. Sadly, many believers, disgusted by the decline of the world around them, would be all to eager to go along with that, condemning the world to die apart from Christ while they live blissfully ignorant in their religious bubble.
There's no question the world at large is more hostile toward Christians than ever, but Christians by and large have responded not in love, but with hatred and bile. Christians are openly hostile people who vote for the wrong political party. They hate the sinner on top of the sin. They write posts on websites that are just as hate-filled and inflammatory as the most militant anti-Christian writers. The only difference is they leave out all the cuss words - usually.
Can you blame the casual seeker - or even the staunch unbeliever - for not wanting any part of whatever's infected us? We're not acting like a bunch of Christ followers. We're acting just like everyone else. Why would someone buy into the idea that Christ will give them a new life if Christians are just as bitter and nasty as everyone else?
It's far past time for Christians to repent of our hate, our bias, and our bitterness. Yes the world has rejected Christ. This is no surprise; Christ himself said it would. But that does not give us the right to respond with anger, with screaming, with flames fired across the Internet.
We as believers need to go back to the Word and re-learn lessons long lost. When someone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other cheek as well. If a soldier asks you to carry his pack a mile, go with him two.
Render to Caesar what is Caesar's - and do it without grumbling. Pray for those in power, for they are indeed the Lord's anointed. It doesn't matter what you think of them and their actions. Remember, God even used Nebuchadnezzar.
Above all - and this is the big one, folks - love your neighbor. Love unconditionally, for you are God's hands and feet in this world. And God's love is for everyone: conservative or liberal, gay or straight, rich or poor, famous or infamous.
When you struggle to love someone, pray for them, and pray for yourself. God help me if someone misses a chance at heaven because I was the one who failed to show them God's love.
“Company Man” was written to call Christians back to a life of love, grace, and mercy. Not that we accept the sin, but that we embrace the sinner unquestioningly. My prayer is we'll learn to hold our anger, to lay it at the feet of the Lord, and to respond to anger and bitterness with a gentle answer. I pray that we will learn to love people without condition, and welcome them to God's family just as they are. It is God's place to mold and shape them, not ours.
Above all, I pray that we become a church with open doors, not locked doors, that we leave our little bubbles and go where the people are that Jesus loves - which is pretty much everywhere.
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