Our Product, Christianity: Is Your Circle Facing Inward or Outward? AreWe Fishers of Men?

Matthew 4:19

What is more comfortable, staying within your own church circle or turning your circle outward?

Try this. Form a circle facing inward and hold hands with the person on your right and on your left. How comfortable does that feel? Next, from that same circle, turn around and face outward. Everyone in the circle should be facing outward. Do not hold hands with the person on your right or left. How does that feel? Try this with a group of youth and then a group of adults. You probably felt very comfortable facing inward and very uncomfortable facing outward.

Are Christians trying to sell Christianity to others by staying within there own little groups or church buildings. Are we facing inward thinking people will come to church or our small groups of their own free will? Have you ever made this statement before, “I don’t think you have to attend church to be a Christian.” If we are saying that, then it isn’t surprising to hear others say, “Why do I need to go to church?”

Sometimes we are like a business facing inward, just hoping people will come and buy our product without trying to market our product. We have to market our product like the big corporations do. We have to put our product out there for others to see, for others to want.

The following happened about 15 years ago:
The minister from Living Light came to our church and made a statement to us during a sermon that he gave to us and a large group from his own church, “We can’t learn to live together with us out there and you guys in here.” His church was all Black or African American (if these are not the proper terms used today, then I apologize) and our church was all Caucasion. Our circle needed to face out to them. We thought we had done enough by just saying they were welcome and by shaking their hands. Were we holding our heads up high in the air because the people from Living Light chose our church to visit? They had chosen our church to attend. We must have been OK. The people that said that we were a stuffy old church were wrong. Look who came to visit us.

Well, they didn’t visit us because we were here in our own little circle. Our minister had turned his circle outward and reached out to them and they came.

Build it and they will come. It is not that simple.

What can we do?

Remember Jesus said to serve not be served. Don’t ask what others can do for you. John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Why don’t we take this statement and use it in our church. Ask not what your church can do for you, ask what you can do for your church. Ask not what God can do for you, ask what you can do for God. Ask not what others can do for you, ask what you can do for others.

Think of what your church can do to turn your circle outward. Jesus said in Matthew 4:19 to follow Him and he will make us fishers of men.

Judging and Casting the First Stone

This post has to do with judging, casting the first stone, and taking ourselves too seriously. The scriptures I am relating to are John 8: 1-11 and Matthew 7: 1-5.

In John 8: 1-11, Jesus was teaching in the temple and the scribes and Pharisees brought him a woman who had committed adultery. They mentioned that the punishment for adultery was stoning but they wanted Jesus to tell them what to do. Jesus paused. Then they continued to bug him about it, so he stood up and said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." He again stooped down and paused.

Was he referring to himself as the one without sin and that he should be the one to cast the stone, and was his pause and writing in the dirt his answer that he would not cast a stone at the woman? And why did he pause twice, what was he thinking? What would Jesus do if he did what the scribes and the Pharisees wanted him to?

Matthew 7: 1-5 talks of judging and that we need to first examine our faults and take care of them before we can help someone else get rid of their faults.

As a school administrator I have experienced many instances where someone (a parent, teacher, or student) is pointing a finger at someone else. It seems like every day I would have to listen to others complain about other people or place the blame on others. The person complaining does not always want something done about the 'problem', I guess they just want to be heard.

While I am listening to the complaint, I am thinking of all the faults that the person sitting in front of me has and I have to 'bite my tongue' to keep from pointing out their faults. It is like seeing a list of their faults appear in front of my eyes.

One of the reasons that I mostly just listen and pause a lot while I am being yelled at or verbally abused or just plain being talked to about someone else and 'Their' problems that 'They' have caused everyone else to experience (especially the person sitting in front of me, or so they think), is that I am also seeing my own faults and a list appears before my eyes.

Don't get me wrong, I am not always a perfect listener and I have been known on several occasions to lash out with a complaint or two. I have on occasion been so frustrated at listening to the complainer that I have lashed out at them and started reading from the list of their faults that I am seeing before my eyes.

When someone is complaining, I want them to visualize a list of their own faults. I hope that maybe they will realize that their complaint is not going to solve anything and that they need to clean up their own act before they can help someone else clean up theirs.

Usually the person complaining is guilty of the same fault that they are complaining about. Just one silly example: One of the complaints that I have heard the most is that other teachers let their class be too loud in the hallways and just generally everywhere. When a teacher is standing in front of me making the complaint, though, what I am seeing is the list of times that she has let her own class become too loud and in the wrong locations. And being a teacher, I also remember all of the times that I let my guard down and my class was too disruptive and loud!

I wonder if Jesus, when he paused to write in the dirt, was seeing all of the faults of the woman's accusers and was hoping that they would see them, too.

Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously and think that what we are saying or doing is just right for the audience that we have in front of us, when they are not listening to us at all or what they are hearing is not exactly what we are saying.

An example: I remember listening to a coach describe the motivational talk that he had just delivered to his team after practice. I decided to quiz the players to see what they thought of the speech their coach had just so eloquently given them. I talked to two or three and none of them could tell me what the coach talked about. They had not concentrated on him at all.

Another example: I once read a story about a baseball team that had just finished a fine season but had come up short in their final contest. The loss had put an end to a season that their parents and coach thought would end with a championship. After the game there was the usual end of game talk and parents gathering around to rehash the game and season for a while. The rehashing for the parents continued that evening and for many occasions after that. The writer of the article, however, noticed that the ball players did not go on and on with the rehashing of their final game. He saw many of the players already shooting hoops at the local playground within minutes after the game. They were ready to go on with their lives and did not take the loss as seriously as their parents.

Another example: As a basketball coach I had a habit of giving my players bubble gum to chew at the games. I, too, had delivered many a glorious half time talk. One game I had given the girls some Bazooka bubble gum at half time. I delivered my half time talk thinking that I had motivated the girls to give a super effort in the second half. What I hadn't realized was that all of the girls were preoccupied during my talk with reading the comics that came with the gum. The head coach pointed this out to me during the second half by showing me that the players on the bench were more focused on reading their comics than watching the game.

We sometimes get so concerned that our opinion and judgment should be known, that we can not see that it is probably not that important.

And before we point out faults in others, we should examine our own faults.

God's Awesome Knowledge and Abilities

Have you ever wondered how God knows everything ? He knows our thoughts before we think them, He knows everything about us. How does He do this, how does He have the ability to listen to and think about billions and billions of things at any moment in time? We would like to see proof sometimes of how He is able to do all these amazing things. That proof is all around us.

Psalm 139 and Luke 12:7 talks of God's ability to know everything about us even before we are born. The hairs on our heads are even numbered. We can not comprehend how God can do this because we as human beings do not have the ability to know everything.

Working in education, I have come across some pretty amazing things that students can do. Some of the most amazing things I have seen actually have come from autistic children. If you have seen the movie 'Rainman', you know that the autistic character in the movie has some very amazing abilities. I believe there is a scene where several toothpicks or matches are dropped and Dustin Hoffman's character is able to immediately tell the exact number of them. Can you do that? Some autistic people can, and God can.

Autistic children have been able to memorize books, movies, commercials, songs, rhymes, and many other things by only being exposed to them a few times. I, for one, can not do this. I can not count hundreds of objects at a glance. It would take me many tries to memorize songs or rhymes. Yet, some autistic people can do some of these amazing things without even trying to.

I think that through autistic people God is giving us a glimpse of some of His abilities. It is hard for us to comprehend God's amazing abilities. I think that there are examples all around us of proof of His amazing abilities and autism is just one of them.

So. the next time you see or here of an autistic person doing an incomprehensible thing, think of it as being just a microscopic glimpse of the awesome power of God.

CB

On Being More Tolerant and Not Hating So Much

Love your enemies and do good to those who despise you.

We all are guilty of disagreeing with or complaining about a person or group of people who do not believe the way we believe. Sometimes this disagreement is to the point of hate.

I really have a hard time agreeing with Christians who display so much hate for others. And when I find myself falling into the same hate state of mind I have to stop and think of what the bible says about love.

We are supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves and pray for those who we disagree with. Those that try to harm us are also supposed to be recipients of our love and prayers, too.

Sometimes we just do not feel like trying to love others who would try to hurt us and we lash out verbally at them. I guess if we did pray for our friends as well as our enemies, and love our friends and enemies then this world would be a better place.

Maybe if we love enough and pray enough for our enemies, they can be changed into friendly loving people. More people would be open to the Christian faith if we would do more praying and more loving.

Showing more love to people that we have not been tolerant of and people who we disagree with would show others that Christians do care and that being a Christian is okay, too. There are so many people who don't want to be Christian because of the hatred they see coming from Christians.

Christians sometimes do so much hating and bashing of others that I am ashamed that they call themselves Christians.

All the scriptures I have referenced are scriptures that we should constantly reread and then listen to God as He tells us to do His will.

It Is Tough Getting Along With Others In A Congregation

It is not easy to get along with others in a church.

Forgiveness is essential to getting along in a church. Without forgiveness it would be tough to move on after disagreements or heated discussions.

If we are to love one another then we are to succeed in getting along with others in a church. Love will be the beginning and the end in all successful relationships in a congregation.

Putting others first will lead to cooperation and trust in the workings of a church. When all members of a group in church practice putting others first, then it is easy to get along with others.

All of these: forgiveness, love, and putting others first are the keys to successful relationships in a church.

Those Who Have Should Help Those Who Have Not

From Luke 12:42-48 we learn that much is expected from those to whom much has been given.

We are blessed as Christians in this country. Expectations are higher for us because we have so much and we also know our Master's will.

Blessings have been showered upon us and we are expected to use what we have to help those that do not have.

Our knowledge of Jesus Christ is another blessing that we must share with others who have not been as lucky as us. It is for the luck of our birth that we were born in a country that supports freedom of religion and in a country that studies and follows Jesus Christ.

For the Luck of Our Birth

As I have said before, it is for the luck of our birth that we were born in a country that knows and understands the way of Jesus Christ. The scriptures I have referenced have a common theme of humility.

We should be humble and think of others more than we do of ourselves. In our thoughts , words, and deeds we should stay humble and help others.

If we stay humble we will be able to further God's will and spread His word to those who have not had the opportunity to know, study, and follow Him.

Too many times I have seen rude, arrogant Christians who think they are better than others. I think it is the rude and arrogant attitude of many Christians that keeps a great number of people from attending church.

So let us humble ourselves before God and our fellow human beings and serve.