Byrnesys Blabberings

Full Article here HT: Floyd and Sally McClung

I read this article "5 kinds of Christian" and thought it was well worth sharing, I think it highlights many things worth considering when our culture and societys views of "Christianity" and Jesus are increasingly irrelevant.

For more background you can read the article linked above but if you dont have time, in essence the article refers to a body of research conducted in relation to people who professed their religion as Christian and the 5 distinctive groups which emerged from the research. Further in the article the results are shown and responded to by some pastors, all, as the research, based in the US. Bold titles mine.

An authentic Evangelism

“The old paradigm of evangelism was a transactional sharing of the gospel,” says Ken Fong, senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles. “I would try to get people to intellectually agree with me. But the new paradigm is different, an approach in which I invite you to walk alongside me, examine my life, and see evidence of the truth, and hopefully there will be something compelling that you see. It’s a no-strings-attached invitation to enter my life as I follow Jesus.”

As cultural concepts of Christianity become increasingly negative, and in many ways understandably so, most people wont even enter into a conversation once the buzzwords of Christainity and Jesus are mentioned. An example of this was something a few of us did on sunday, we walked around a bit of Aberdeen giving out invitation to come for breakfast and watch an Alpha Explore DVD, even though we were in no way looking to convert anyone out there on the street, just give them a little card as we mentioned we were from a church just around the corner (so as not to mis-present ourselves so then they turn up and feel duped into coming to a church) a few people just straight blank refused. Now I realise this isnt only a picture of Christianity, in fact when people are on the streets giving out flyers for pizza, clubs, and charities, most people try and navigate around them, or if they take the flyer, shortly pop it into a bin, but the point is that in these instances it was in fact the mentioing of Church which gave them such a repudiation of the card. Equally we also had a few good conversations, and interestingly enough these were with the more marginalised sectors of the public, such as  the homeless, ex-cons and minority immigrants. The point Im making here is that people dont need another flyer, though flyers aren’t bad the way in which people recieve maningful input is in relationship, and an invitation to walk with someone as they live their lives, this results in a much more authentic  representation of someone who is trying to live their life in accordance to Jesus. It can show that followers of jesus can be weird, eccentric, depressed, angry, elated, just like everyone else, they are not (normally) fake, trying to be someone there not, living a perfect moral life, never swearing, honking their horn etc but they do live for more than just their p.a income, more than the next gadget or the band of the moment, they might enjoy those things, but they are not defined by them, not encapsulated in them, they are living with the hope of something more, something more fulfilling, and faithful than human relationships and cultures cures.