What’s your reputation?
May 1, 2009
I was poking around on the website for Adullum, an incarnational community that has taken up residency throughout the Denver area, when I was reminded of this amazing quote by Roman Emperor Julian,
Atheism (Christianity) has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not one single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.
It appears the early church was known by the way she loved strangers.
She was know in the way she loved and cared for those forgotten and left alone.
She had the reputation for extending love to those who played on the other team.
What is the reputation of the church in America today? If a leader in you city were to write down the first three things that came to mind when they thought about your church, would their list describe Jesus?
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Jamie,
I was reading earlier on Jesus Creed that evangelicals are willing to agree and strongly agree,to the tune of better than 60%, to torture by waterboarding. In contrast to Julian, I wonder how outsiders may view this enigmatic stance of faithful church attenders.
Wow, what a contrast Georges. Jamie, just this week I met with a guy who went to the Exponential church planting conference in Orlando. He found the pre-conference time with Smay and Halter (the Adullum guys) to be the most helpful and challenging. He shared with me about a “primer” or workbook that they had just produced that went along with the book. I am going to order a few copies from their website. You can also download the first couple of chapters on the site as well.
http://kevintracydesign.com/tangibleKingdom3/the-primer/
In connection to what Georges said, I think the church in my area, southeastern US, is known for its conservative politcal allegiance and for the things we are against. There are a lot of political and cultural “creeds” that we have added to the gospel. I think many christians like myself have believed that one cannot be a good christian without believing them.
A missions/missiology class I took http://www.perspectives.org/ opened my eyes to the cultural baggage we attach to the gospel. If you are not familiar with Perspectives I would encourage you to look into it. It is an introductory course to missions and missiology. It completely turned my “christian culture” on its head and planted the desire for missional living even before I had heard of missional churches. Missional churches and christians take a missiological approach to their communities. Perspectives will open the door of missiological thinking if you are unfamiliar with it. It meant thinking on a whole different level for me.