an invitation to the table: part one

“if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or clanging symbol. if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. and if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” 1 corinthians 13:1-3

I have been asking myself lately, “what happens when Christians are no longer identified as being loving?” the bible states that God is love, yet his followers are often tagged with descriptions such as judgmental, intolerant, condemning and hypocritical. in the past 50 years, we have seen a drastic shift in the attitudes of the secular world towards the church. pastors and priests are no longer respected authority figures and the church has ceased to be the center of social and spiritual life. Christians are more often associated with a certain political party and bandwagon issues like home schooling than with moral and ethical lifestyles.

somewhere along the way, we Christians decided that our voice was the only necessary ingredient for communicating our message. we stopped listening. we stopped engaging. as a result, the world around us hears nothing but static. years of ranting from the pulpit, preaching from bumper stickers and expressing opinions through boycotts have left the culture around us numb to our words and cynical of our lifestyle. by running to the sacred hills, we have removed ourselves from places of influence. by considering ourselves superior, we have lost the respect of weary seekers. by speaking our faith without living it, we have created a specter of skepticism that shadows our every move. by answering questions that people aren’t asking, we have become, at best irrelevant, and at worst, unworthy stewards of the gospel message. as a result, the pews are emptying and seekers are searching elsewhere.

what has happened? when did we decide that crusading for causes was more important than ministering through compassion? at what moment did we buy into the lie that a certain political agenda can transform the hearts of people? when did we start slaughtering the message of the gospel by reducing it to a slogan that fits on the back of a t-shirt? and when precious brothers and sisters did we decide that loving in both word and DEED was elective rather than essential?

we have become the noisy gong and clanging symbol.

i believe with all my heart that the time has come for the church to be quiet and listen. we no longer know the questions our culture is asking. worse than that, we have stopped asking ourselves how we can best be salt and light in a world that is broken and hurting. maybe the time has come for us to come to the table with those who see life differently than we do. maybe it is time to listen, to really hear what is on their hearts and minds. and maybe it is time to hear where we have gone wrong and allowed our message to be clouded by us the messengers. what could we learn from such a conversation? why don’t we pull up a chair and find out….