I was in conversation with one of my friends last week, and my friend began to express his frustration with people who do things within the body of Christ thoughtlessly and without fully knowing what they are doing. In other words, people who are being fed, but never question what is being fed to them. It would kinda’ be like going to see the Eiffel Tower for the first time blindfolded, and having your friend dictate to you the beauty of it. Still bemused by our conversation, I began to chew on our dialogue and a couple of things floated to the surface in my mind.
One of the huge things that I have seen with people who begin to express some interest towards a life with Christ is that the church takes them and feeds them to the filling, and because they are so vulnerable and new, and the church is so fast, they never question what the church is feeding them. When the church finds someone who is open and searching, they will take them and “get them saved”, baptize them with the Holy Spirit, baptize them in water, give them the five rules that will straighten out their life, and answer all their questions with absolutes. Now, granted, some of these things are not bad, and actually are wonderful expressions of our love for God, but when the church does all this, and doesn’t allow the individual to wrestle with what it means for them to follow God, they take away their experience; and their experience is essential to a life with Christ.
Pardon the next sentence, but sometimes it seems that the church rapes people. They take their vulnerability and openness and shove their experiences and knowledge into them without ever letting them ask the questions or experience the mysteries of Christ for themselves. They take them to the Eiffel Tower blindfolded and tell them how great it is but never let them see it and experience the beauty for themselves. The church does all this, and then wonders why, 6 months, a year, 2 years down the line they are not following Christ anymore. The church scratches their head in wonder: “We fed them all the right truths, we answered all of their questions and we even made them head of the parking-lot team. What happened?” These people are not following Christ anymore because nothing ever became real to them. They were never given the chance to wrestle with anything on their own, or discover anything for themselves. To them Christ was a bunch of truths and rules and not a tangible and touchable person to be experienced.
I realize too that most of the time, the church is well intentioned and just wants people to know God, and that if they fill them with so much stuff, these people will know God. But I think that a lot of times the church does these people a great disservice and can unintentionally become a video gamer controlling people with a joystick rather than an environmentalist who cultivates a healthy climate in which spontaneity and growth occur.
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Luckily this is not the experience of all newcomers to Christ. Some people need someone to tell them what to do and others just question things naturally depending upon what has happened in their lives. What do you think we should do for these new believers Ryan?
Posted by Recia
I dont believe that anyone needs to be told what to do. Sure, there are people who are so hungry to know Christ, yet dont know how to cultivate their relationship with Him, and we can come along side of these people to help guide them onto the path of a closer connection with Christ, but to dictate to them what they need to be doing and what rules they need to abide by is wrong. The thing is, that we can be of some help to people as they grow and lead their lives forward, but we do not grow and lead people, only they can do that. Their hunger will bring them to the place of discovery where they will actually experience God, and God will transform their life. Joe Myers sums it up:
“We like to beleive that we hold the answers people need in order to grow, because if we hold those truths, we hold the power and control.”When are we going to realize that God is insanely powerful and that we dont need to control others lives because He is in control? In answer to the question of what we can do to help, I think we need to become like environmentalists. environmentalists cultivate a healthy climate for something to grow. They make sure that there is the best environment possible for something to grow.
Posted by ryan
I like that.
Posted by Recia