Ask Steve:
I’m ashamed of church
I really don’t want to be disloyal but, even
though we’re asked to, I just can’t take any
of my friends to my church because the
sermons and the whole tone of the services,
when it comes to talking about non-Christians,
leaves me cringing. I’ve even tried challenging my
church leader about it, but he simply says that
the gospel starts by being honest with people
about where they stand with God, which is under
his judgement for their sins. I want my friends to
know more about Jesus and my faith, but I don’t
think that this will help. Am I wrong?
Your dilemma reminds me of an experience I had a few years back. I was given the chance to run in the New York Marathon and on the evening before the race, I found myself standing in the middle of the Big Apple’s famous Times Square. As I wandered around, I became aware of a group of a dozen or so muscular men in their 20s and 30s, one of whom was waving a huge stick and shouting at the crowd standing around him.
These guys were Christians engaged in some sort of evangelistic street ‘outreach’. The man with the big stick was pointing it at passers-by and shouting at the top of his voice about their ‘iniquitous lives’. Every now and then, he would pause, turn to an even beefier man who was standing next to him holding a huge Bible, and order him to read a verse from it. ‘Give me that Deuteronomy 32:22’ he shouted and his assistant read: ‘For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains.’
The message was clear to everyone in the square – God doesn’t like you very much and if you don’t change your ways he’s going to burn you!
I watched for ten minutes or so as this ‘self-appointed prophet’ and his team harassed and harangued anyone and everyone passing by or in the growing crowd. But, in the end I just couldn’t stand it anymore.
Mustering all the courage I could manage, I stepped forward and stood beside the preacher. Then I turned to the guy with the Bible and ordered him, in the biggest voice I could find, ‘Give me that 1 John 4:9-10.’ He didn’t move a muscle. So, I decided to quote it myself, as best I could, from memory. ‘This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’ As the words left my lips a strange lingering silence fell across the whole crowd, which hung there and was only broken when finally the preacher – pointing at his assistant and staring at me – boomed, ‘He only reads what I tell him to read!’
The Church’s goal is to introduce the world to the God of love who is the solution to each individual’s and every community’s sin, isolation and dysfunctionality. But, sometimes, rather than sending a message of hope around these issues, we’ve ended up preaching a debilitating and condemnatory message of judgement and judgmentalism.
The problem is this. If our first understanding of God is more about his anger and judgement than his love, mercy and generosity, it’s natural that we end up reflecting that in our attitudes and behaviour.
When people are lost it does not help to rub it in by reminding them of the fact. Instead, those who are lost need hope from a guide they can trust. Jesus’ story of the prodigal son is the tale of a boy who deeply wrongs his father and, when he runs out of money and realises that his life is screwed up, turns and heads for home simply because he has run out of other options. But when he arrives he is not met with a sermon. There are no recriminations. Instead, the son is met with open arms, love, forgiveness and celebration.
So, to answer your question, if God gently woos those who do not yet know him, surely the Church’s task is to do exactly the same. It is time for our churches to more fully embrace a gospel whose first gentle note is love rather than judgement.
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