I’ve never actually seen a moth burn up as a result of being drawn into a flame. But I’ve seen them buzzing around my back porch light enough to get the idea. It is a great illustration for how we are often drawn into the very things that will ultimately destroy us. That has been the experience of the church in America. We fight to obtain the very things that will ultimately weaken us and make us wholly ineffective.
I would argue that the spread of Christianity in the early church was attributable primarily to two God-ordained circumstances: (1) persecution from outside the church, and (2) conflict from within, due to the differences among them. Take away the oppression of the Roman government and Christianity does not have a reason to spread beyond Jerusalem except by mere happenstance. Take away the vast cultural differences within the early church, and Christian doctrine never really gets tested and grown and purified, it never develops any of the Spiritual “immunities” to false teaching which it currently enjoys.
It is always funny to me, then, when we in the church spend so much time and energy trying to rid the world of both of these catalysts. The church in America is actually fighting in favor of two things that will kill us: (1) political favor from the outside and (2) homogeneous culture on the inside. I spoke to the second item in my recent post here. I will only summarize that post by saying that, contrary to what many of us seem to believe in the church, diversity is actually our friend, i.e., our strength…not our enemy. But what about the first catalyst? What about persecution from outside the church? History tells the story best.
Historically, Christianity has always grown stronger in the face of political persecution. In the instances where Christianity has enjoyed huge political favor (such as being a State Church), it has grown little in terms of Spiritual depth and has grown even less in terms of geography. On the other hand, where there has been persecution, Christianity has known nothing but growth. Conservatively speaking, the church in China is estimated at 25 Million strong…this, in the face of nearly a century of Communist government directly prohibiting Christian assemblies. Here in America, where we have enjoyed 200 years of freedom to mold and shape Christianity in any way we please, our Spiritual intensity pales in comparison to China or South Korea or South America or any of a number of other third-world communities. Despite boasting some of the greatest Christian leaders and teachers in the world, our American communities scoff at our hypocrisy and our lack of compassion.
In response to this demise, the church in America continues to pour its energies into fighting for political favor, as if it is both our right and our benefit to have the world see us as superior. We fight to make the lost world act more Christian, and the harder we fight to make them act Christian without actually helping them into a relationship with God, the further we drive them away from the church. We fight for our right to pray over the loud speaker at football games (while our brothers and sisters in China don’t even have the right to pray together in any setting) but do we really have a genuine desire to pray (which we are still free to do), or is it just a desire to be favored? We fight to have history portray us as a Christian nation, but we don’t seem nearly as intent on actually following Christ in our individual lives.
I am wondering if there is a relationship between our political activism and our Spiritual shallowness. I think there are still plenty of American Christians who are so disillusioned as to believe the American church is somehow leading the Kingdom of God on a global scale. Wake up America. It has been a long, long time since our church was “the standard” for Christianity around the world. We are far too busy trying to moralize our country to spend any time or resources actually showing people Jesus. We need to be good citizens of our communities, to be sure, but how much of our energies spent fighting the world around us should be redirected to loving the world around us and helping it see Jesus? Like moths to the flame, we are drawn into political frays and our testimony is burning up before our eyes.
But here is hope. The more time I spend watching and listening to the youngest generation of Christian leaders in America, the more I believe they understand the flames and genuinely desire to avoid them. What’s more, I believe they understand what genuine compassion and Christ followship looks like, and I believe they will lead us well in that regard. I have great hope for the American church and am actually looking forward to being a part of it for the next several decades…if I can just get these flames on my tail put out
© Blake Coffee
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I never thought about it quite like that before, but it makes good sense. I get so frustrated with all of the hatred Christians spew out against issues that they have no business even battling. God called us to be light and salt. Some of us get so caught up in being right that we forget to love and serve, and in the process, completely ruin our witness. I’m forwarding this on because I feel this is a message that Christ followers need to embrace.
How do you keep this principle and keep Unity in the Church?!! I agree 100% but I struggle with the line between wanting to make a difference and show “radical inclusivness” verses being frustrated and sometimes angered by hearts that don’t echo what is in my own heart?
Penny, thanks for your comment, and for passing this along. Maybe it’s not so much that we have “no business” in these issues. After all, truth is important. It’s just that we really do have to care about how we handle that truth. If we’re using it just to be right, or to somehow gain political superiority as a community, then our motives are not right.
Keesha, thanks for checking in here. You’ve put your finger squarely on one of our biggest struggles, haven’t you? We want to have a community of believers where we can bring our non-believing friends and know that they can do some honest, judgment-free exploring. But as soon as we begin to create that community of believers, some of the believers among us start to misbehave and suddenly we’re not so proud of that community anymore. Sounds a lot like family, doesn’t it? Our challenge is to love not only the radicals on the outside, but to learn to love the mean-spirited ones on the inside as well…and hope they will learn to love us when we mess up too!
Amen brother! I’ve been reading a little internet monk lately, and have heard some of this argument from him, too. I’ll confess that I’ve been a political activitist type for a while, and am slowly coming to realize that my relationship with Christ and living that out in the world will be much more of a positive influence than I could ever have spewing my political and social agenda. I guess the difficult part of me is standing up for values vs. fighting for them. For example, I hope my life will show that I am pro-life, and when asked I would truthfully give my answer, but I don’t know how far I should or should not go in fighting for that belief. Same goes for homosexual “marriage” and any other issue most Christians are against (or for, based on the issue).
But perhaps I’m missing the point by even bringing up those issues! I do believe we must get back to basic discipleship in our churches, and as we give scripture its rightful place in our lives, the Holy Spirit will reveal how we act/react to the world and those inside our churches.
Jennifer, maybe it’s our motives we should be questioning. I’m with you on the issues. There is nothing wrong with wanting to tell the truth, even in a public setting. But we have to be honest enough with ourselves to be able to discern why we want to tell the truth. If we’re just trying to create a world where we enjoy being the majority or where most people agree with us because that is a more comfortable place for us, then we have missed the point of the gospel. Thanks for chiming in on this. I always enjoy your comments.
Blake, very compelling post! It got me thinking on a very fundental level. I realizie the importance of The Church, it’s a Huge Passion of Mine! (just read some of my latest posts), but I think the problem for many is that we get Way Too caught up with the things and politics of this world. It’s not that we shouldn’t be concern about them, yes we should; such as abortion, and the issue of gay marriage, but it is How we Act. We can talk, debate, and agrue differences till Kingdom come, but it won’t do a bit of good. Jesus said, “you will know them by their fruit”. I think too many are talking too much, (me included), and not Acting on what we know to be ture of our salvation. That we are to GO and Make Disciples. It’s far easier to be a bench warmer for Jesus than a areal player. (again, I am preaching to myself, and have been asking God to help move my butt off the bench). Too, the one reader replied that we are salt and light: Yes, our light should reflect Him, again, by what we do! But salt, listen, I just heard an awesome sermon where it was said that when salt get’s in a wound, it stings! Think about that. We don’t want to sting for what we know is truth, what is Jesus. My prayer (which is on my blog too), is that we would stop talking and start moving the way Jesus moved.
Great perception. I had thought often of the persecution outside, but never really thought about that within being good. I have heard that often there is a goat put in a herd of sheep to keep them moving because they tend to just lie down.
We do tend to want to spend time with like minded people, we feel safe, not confronted, but when we can disagree and still love, we grow and show more of God’s love. We can be unified in vision but differ on journey. Thanks for sharing. love your thoughts
We need to be drawn to the fire. But the Fire we need to go through is the one that purifies us. Gold isn’t very valuable until it has been purified.
A. W. Tozer stated: “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”
Blake:
Great post! When we disregard persecution and suffering for the sake of Christ and His kingdom we have rendered the New Testament to a small document. Over the years I have found myself wandering into wanting the power of His resurrection and ignoring the fellowship of His sufferings. To be Christlike, I am many others want that to be a selected list of our own choosing. I am so impressed with the younger crowd of Christians that Christ is bring forth! Keep up the good work and I will continue to work on your Dad! The best yount warrior!!
Sorry about the misspelling on my reply. Will try again: The best YOUNG warrior!
Blake, I read your comment that this is one of the most replied to posts and I can see why that is. I’m so grateful to be a part of the Church – and so grateful that God gets to judge and not me. I have my opinions and beliefs and when asked I will share them with anyone interested. But I also know that I’m one of the biggest sinners around and as such I find it hard to imagine Christ needing my advice on who is right and who isn’t. There are so many that I hear in our various faith traditions – all of whom may be strong and vital Christians – who have varying beliefs. It appears to me that if we will focus our efforts on mission and ministry and leave the judgement to God in His time, we’ll be much better able to follow His command to love one another. I believe that Christ just did what His Father called Him to do and I hope that I will continue to do the same. I’m grateful to have a place to share my thoughts and read those of others.
Blake
I agree that “christian” culture is shallow and unprofitable particularly in the U.S. There is far too much of wanting to remove the speck from the other guy’s eye while ignoring the telephone pole in our own.
Remember that the wheat and the tares are all in this cultural setting together and in many ways the tares will continue to skew the message and hinder the delivery of the gospel no matter what. Some of the tares even occupy a significant number of the pulpits in the U.S. This bad influence they have includes chasing after political power, and always seeing every problem only in it’s fleshly context. I have been in many “churches” where the institution is not serving God and is even in many ways hindering the spiritual lives of the members, but there always seemed to be a few who were not quite accepting the guff. These few (a remnant) were probably part of the real church.
I would invite you and your readers to remember that the “church” (ecclesia) is the group of people who know and love Jesus Christ and who have a unique and almost indescribable relationship with Him. The thing to remember is that if we know Jesus and we are able, through and by His Spirit, to introduce others to a close walk with Jesus Himself, that is the thing which is most important. The institutions will likely run out of control and crash of their own accord one of these days, and some are in the process of doing so. The unity of the ecclesia, and the purity of the message, through the power of the Holy Spirit, will be much easier to maintain than these human institutional inventions.