The True/False Film Festival made its summer debut this past Saturday with the first ever Boone Dawdle. The Boone Dawdle consisted of a bike ride on the MKT and
If you read my post earlier in the year about True/False, then you know that I worked as a volunteer with my friend Rob as part of his Tourniquet Team. Rob asked me to take part in the Boone Dawdle and my job was to transport all the bikes from Les Bourgeois back to
Saturday was a long, tough day, but it was also tons of fun. I don't know about you, but accomplishing something that seems impossible is good for my soul. I felt good when we got done and it really seemed like we had conquered something. Maybe that's my ego talking, but there was some kind of satisfaction that working this event brought to me. It was also fun to be able to do this with my wife Janice, who was part of my team.
Since Saturday, I have been trying to think of how I can "spiritualize" this whole thing. How did volunteering at this event help further God's Kingdom? How did my involvement at the Boone Dawdle help someone see Christ? I mean, I didn't stop and tell anyone about Jesus. I didn't open my Bible and read Scripture to anyone after they checked their bike in with my team. So how was my involvement a witness of who Christ is in my life?
Wouldn't you know today I received my daily email from John Fischer, an old Jesus Movement guy from the 70's who is still around singing, writing and changing the world one email at a time. He is a guy who believes that Christianity and "culture" can and should come together and he talks about this in very practical ways. He has been on this topic for awhile now and today he put out a list of what he called "10 Prerequisites for being effective in the marketplace." He also called it a "manifesto for global change." So, to avoid the risk of plagiarizing John, I'm just going to copy and paste in his whole email from today. So here it goes:
| 10 Prerequisites |
| We know that Jesus did not come to condemn the world (John 3:17), but most of those who are not Christians today are convinced his followers did. We have exchanged the good news of the gospel for the bad news of a culture war, and the battle continues to rage in many sectors and in many minds. In light of this, The Catch is seeking to help advance a different worldview and redefine a Christian's role in society. Today I share with you a work in progress-a new manifesto for global change. Reflect on it. Comment on it. Pray over it. We will be looking more deeply into all 10 of these as the days go by, but this will get us started. "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." (Proverbs 23:7) What you think ultimately effects who you are. 10 Prerequisites for Being Effective in the Marketplace 1. A personal understanding of my own sinfulness 2. An overwhelming sense of God's grace for me, and for everyone else 3. A heart that forgives and forgets 4. An absence of agenda 5. An expectation that God is already in the world (I am joining Him there, not taking Him there.) 6. A sense of the church as the Body of Christ Universal 7. An insatiable curiosity for all that is not yet known to me 8. A belief in the intrinsic value of every human life 9. An assumption that I have something to learn from everybody 10. A deep and abiding desire for everyone to know what God has done for them through Christ So there it is. After seeing this, everything came together. Especially number 5. Who am I to think that I can take God out into the world He created? How about I get off my duff and meet him there. Lots of people associated with True/False know that Rob and I and several others are part of Karis Church, and I know they respect what we have done for them. The fact that we can come to the table with no agenda (See #4) and work our tails off has to speak to these folks. So many believers have to "spiritualize" things instead of just getting out there and getting their hands dirty. I have even heard people say that the culture cannot be engaged. Well I beg to differ! We were engaged on Saturday. Here is the bottom line: You will never win someone to Christ who doesn't like or respect you. I guarantee that if any of the folks we served with on Saturday ever have questions about Christianity I'll bet they will think of us if they decide to talk to someone. That is what engaging the culture is all about. As I continue on this journey I hope you will join in in some way. We live in such a great city. There are so many ways to serve. Find something that hits on one of your passions and get involved. Christ can change hearts and he can change our city and He wants to do it through us, but it can't happen if you're on the couch. |
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Tom,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post reminded me of the period of my life which I think of as my "theistic crisis of meaning". This happened when I was still a Christian. My position now is skepticism.
In high school I had friends with which I would go bowling every week. Some of them were Christians, some of them weren't. With my good friends who were non Christians, I had made some abortive attempts to discuss religion, and present my case that belief in Christ was the most important thing in this life. I had yet to convert anyone.
So we'd go bowling. We'd goof around, tell jokes, talk trash, have a good time. But I had these nagging doubts. I believed sincerely in heaven and hell (though maybe some watered down conception of the later) and that belief in Christ was the way to receive entrance into heaven. Also, I always believed that these places were eternal and infinite. The laughs and the good times I had while bowling were fleeting, lasting but a few hours. How could this possible compete with a notion of something meaningful that would last for eternity?
In this way I felt compelled to "spiritualize" (to use your term) all of my experiences. For something to have meaning, it had to somehow factor in to my great moral calculus of souls moved in the direction of Jesus. All events in my life had instrumental value except for heaven and salvation, which were the only things that had value in and of themselves. I gradually came to find this cast of mind to be very depressing. My freshman year of college I experienced a protracted crisis of faith and eventually came to abandon my beliefs.
I now feel that being an atheist frees me to enjoy things in and of themselves.
Sincerely,
Dan Steffen
Dan,
ReplyDeleteThis is a common misconception about Christianity that I once shared myself - all that matter are salvation and heaven. Then I realized that salvation is more than just about "heaven."
Scripture begins with a creation. It moves to new creation. Christianity isn't about getting away from matter to spirit. It cares about the material. God isn't going to explode the earth and take us to some ethereal, non-bodily heaven, like we're floating in the clouds. No, Christianity is about the resurrection. Jesus, Scripture says, is the "firstfruits" of the resurrection. He is going to raise our bodies, along with all of creation. Heaven biblically isn't seen as the ideal. It's a state before the ideal. It's a state before a new heavens and new earth, where we'll have bodies and souls both and we'll be living in a perfect, material world renewed by God. Resurrection hope. And we want all people to hear about that and experience it.
If you're a reader, check out Culture Making by Crouch or Heaven is a Place on Earth by Witmer. I think they would destroy some stereotypes you have.
Summary? I agree with your concerns about that kind of Christianity. I think God agrees, too.