Our Nicely Dressed (Hide Behind Your Closed Windows) Friends
Posted by Chris
A good friend of mine who is a student pastor in Colorado has been sharing via his blog about his conversations with some LDS (Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka Mormon) missionaries he has befriended. It began when they came by his house and no less climbed on his roof to help him spray for yellow jackets. They agreed to get together for lunch a few days later.
I've had good experiences with LDS missionaries. I don't close the blinds, run out of the living room & hold my breath hoping they won't realize I'm home. I open the door, and, if it is a good time, invite them in. I like Grant's attitude on the whole thing and I wish we were all right there as well.
The problem is that, for me, too many Christians are ignorant and scared. We don't know what we believe, let alone what others, like Mormons, believe. I have a Book of Mormon on my shelf. I got it in college shortly after taking a class on cults & other belief systems. It was a difficult course (I spent several months avoiding Scripture in large part because I couldn't read it without immediately dissecting it to figure out how others might twist it around to say something different). It was an important time for me, though, as it helped break down those walls.
Grant wasn't surrendering his beliefs by having lunch with these men. On the contrary, it provided a great place to have good discussions with them about exactly what he believed. He was able to bring it all back down to the One thing - Jesus - and talk about their differences off of that common ground.
Most Jesus followers are fearful of talking with people who don't believe exactly what they believe - and I do mean exactly. Never-mind the common ground. Never-mind the fact that we get the big things right. You think Jesus is coming back in the middle of the tribulation? You actually wear T-shirts that don't have some corny Christian rip-off slogan on them? You don't think everyone who takes a sip of alcohol or smokes a cigar is going straight to hell? I'm not sure we can be friends.
Sometimes it is laughingly absurd the kinds of hills we are willing to die on, while at the same time forgetting the very hill that Christ did died on.
I like what Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill out in Seattle, says. He says that we should hold tightly to the 'big stuff' - Scripture, who Jesus is, etc. - and that we should hold everything else loosely - our beliefs on lesser issues like speaking on tongues, alcohol use, when we think Jesus is coming back, etc.
I've had good experiences with LDS missionaries. I don't close the blinds, run out of the living room & hold my breath hoping they won't realize I'm home. I open the door, and, if it is a good time, invite them in. I like Grant's attitude on the whole thing and I wish we were all right there as well.
The problem is that, for me, too many Christians are ignorant and scared. We don't know what we believe, let alone what others, like Mormons, believe. I have a Book of Mormon on my shelf. I got it in college shortly after taking a class on cults & other belief systems. It was a difficult course (I spent several months avoiding Scripture in large part because I couldn't read it without immediately dissecting it to figure out how others might twist it around to say something different). It was an important time for me, though, as it helped break down those walls.
Grant wasn't surrendering his beliefs by having lunch with these men. On the contrary, it provided a great place to have good discussions with them about exactly what he believed. He was able to bring it all back down to the One thing - Jesus - and talk about their differences off of that common ground.
Most Jesus followers are fearful of talking with people who don't believe exactly what they believe - and I do mean exactly. Never-mind the common ground. Never-mind the fact that we get the big things right. You think Jesus is coming back in the middle of the tribulation? You actually wear T-shirts that don't have some corny Christian rip-off slogan on them? You don't think everyone who takes a sip of alcohol or smokes a cigar is going straight to hell? I'm not sure we can be friends.
Sometimes it is laughingly absurd the kinds of hills we are willing to die on, while at the same time forgetting the very hill that Christ did died on.
I like what Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill out in Seattle, says. He says that we should hold tightly to the 'big stuff' - Scripture, who Jesus is, etc. - and that we should hold everything else loosely - our beliefs on lesser issues like speaking on tongues, alcohol use, when we think Jesus is coming back, etc.
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