Why are so many people–more and more it seems–wanting little or nothing to do with a local church? And often just telling someone that you’re a Christian can be a deal-breaker. They seem to shy away or fear us.
Why is that? Are people rejecting the Church? Are they rejecting Jesus or the good news of the gospel? Maybe it’s not so much any of these and what’s really happening is that the Church is guilty of false advertising.
Are You The One?
In the Gospels we find a clarifying story…from Jesus’ own life. His cousin, known as John the Baptist, is in prison (and soon to die) because John offended Herod when he challenged the king’s relationship with his sister-in law, whom Herod has taken as his wife. John sends his crew of friends to ask Jesus if he is “the One”, the hoped for messiah/savior, or should they wait for another?
Things weren’t really going that well for John and he was beginning to wonder if he should look elsewhere for hope.
Jesus answered John’s question with what I call his Kingdom job description: “Tell me what you see and what you hear…the crippled can walk, the blind can see and the hungry are well fed.” [clickToTweet tweet=”What if it’s not Jesus people are rejecting–what if people are having a problem with false advertising on our parts?” quote=”What if it’s not Jesus people are rejecting–what if people are having a problem with false advertising on our parts?”]
Should We Wait For Something Else…Someone Else?
And I wonder if the world today, your friends and mine, our neighbors are asking, “Are you the ones we’ve been waiting for, or should we expect something else?
They’re thinking, “My life stinks over here and I was really expecting a different kind of Christian or church to show up and help us and put things right…is this it?!”
Do we bear the “image” publicly that Jesus did? Do we do the things Jesus did? Could we answer the way he answered? And would we be entirely convinced by our own answer?
“Well, um, we have three services on Sunday now with a new and improved children’s ministry wing. Our youth group is the biggest in the county…”
And they’re thinking, “Yeah, that’s great, but my boyfriend left me alone and pregnant and I already have two kids from my first failed marriage. I also just found out that my job is being outsourced to another state…I am scared out of my mind…are you the ones who can help or should I look for someone else?” Check out my book TRANSFORMED for help in living as the Good News.
Are We Living as The Transformed People of Jesus?
It seems most people don’t miss who we are as the Church because they have not heard what we say or preach to (at) them, it’s because they have seen little to no evidence that we are the transformed people of Jesus.
Other than a few hours each week, our lives don’t look that different from their’s.
Often we have not lived out of what is now true for us as God’s family of missionary servants in their midst.
…the crippled can walk, the blind can see and the hungry are well fed.
There are real physical, emotional and spiritual needs all around us. All of which are opportunities to live out Jesus’ life and testimony in our own context. In real tangible ways.
Are we out there BEING the Good News?
I think that lots of people believe in a good God. They want to know more about Jesus and have (or had) hope that he loves them and could change their lives. But when they’ve seen and heard many of our brothers and sisters say one thing and then live out another, and it has really put them off. Or confused them.
“Are you the ones that will love me like Jesus did…or should I keep looking?
The next best time to really start laying our old lives down and living out of our new transformed identity, letting our lives match our words is now.
And maybe then, just maybe, we’ll see that it’s not the gospel that has lost it’s good news…it may have been us.
Question: What does it look like in your family, neighborhood or “mission field” to truly live as the Good News to others?
