Who Needs God?
I was raised in the church, being told things (or at least implied things) about God as I grew up, that I later realized were not entirely true. As Christians do we feel we need to make God more attractive or more “user-friendly” for others to accept Him? I would enjoy your feedback on this blog, as I feel these are things that many times are not discussed.
It has been refreshing for me as I have listened to Andy Stanley recently. Andy is a pastor in Atlanta that approaches the hard questions and doesn’t give a Sunday School answer. He doesn’t talk to Christians. He talks to everyone. He doesn’t condemn or judge non-Christians, he shows them respect and engages them in conversation about important topics. How uplifting to listen to someone that is so sincere, engaging, and relevant.
His latest series has me riveted. I can’t wait till the next week comes out. I am two weeks in and have been exposed to many thoughts and writings of atheists and De-converted Christians. It is very eye-opening and I encourage you to check it out. You’ll find it at whoneedsgod.com.
One of the things that make sharing Christ with people ineffective is that many times we have a faith from childhood but when an adult asks questions about it, we end up giving Sunday School answers, “You just have to have faith; the Bible says it, so it has to be true.” These things mean nothing to a non-believer, I’d expect. As Andy states in the second message of the series, “People are asking fact-based questions and getting faith-based answers.” This is why I expect our conversations are less than effective, and maybe just annoying.
Did you learn about God about the time you learned about Santa? Are you still living with your childhood faith? Do you still believe in Santa? Have you taken your faith through some rigorous questioning as you have matured? And maybe did you happen to become Santa? Do you compare what you thought you knew of God with what you are learning as an adult? Does it fit? Andy addresses looking at God as an adult.
Can you relate to persons of all walks of life? Or do you let the tattoos, the wrinkles, the body odor, the political views or the piercings hold you back from realizing that these are real and valuable people? Valuable to you and me and most valuable to God? Many times I call the phrases and terms we use in the Christian culture as “Christian-eeze.” Do you speak it? Does it even interpret to the outside world? Jesus spent much of his time with those outsiders that have no clue what we are talking about when we speak Christian-eeze. Do you? Do I?
So let me know what you think about Who Needs God. I’m anxious to hear your thoughts. I don’t know how many weeks new messages will be coming, but I’m hoping we can share this and have a conversation along the way.
whoneedsgod.com
(I had some problems with not all postings showing up on my website, so please email me also if you make a comment so I can see if the problem is resolved. bj@periwinklesue.com )