My brother and I were doing some last minute shopping around mission/fashion valley and we noticed on several street corners these Christians with yellow signs.
The signs said,
“Jesus died for you”
“Jesus loves you”
“Jesus bore your sin.”
On the same street corners were people begging for money.
I felt like there was something wrong with this situation.
So, what’s wrong with this picture?
-jpserrano
Seems to me that perhaps the greatest singular failure across denominational lines in the Christian church of twentieth century America was an emphasis on converts rather than discipleship. To be sure, there are exceptions across the board and on either end of the liturgical/evangelical spectrum, but in post-Christendom America of the new millennium, even most atheists seem to have a working knowledge of the sinner’s prayer/four spiritual laws/[insert oversimplified doctrinal statement here]. In short, we all know what Christianity IS, but even on the “inside” there is shamefully little emphasis on “what’s next;” the practical application in our daily lives. The shrinking mainline churches are desperately doing anything to get butts in the pews, and the ballooning conservative churches are so busy turning “seekers” into “believers” that they outpace their own ability to truly create DISCIPLES: followers/students/slaves to Christ.
Again, speaking in VERY broad strokes here, but that is one of the endemic vibes I picked up in a dozen years of youth ministry in two different churches and countless conversations with others in my position at varying denominations and congregations.
What’s wrong with this picture…the guy holding a sign instead of helping the needy guy? The needy guy who won’t or can’t come to the Christian guy for help because of his own perception of the Church? Or is it the rest of us who take a picture, talk about it for a few days, feel bad and (maybe) do something about it before going back to the next season of Glee? (I’m not implying that you didn’t or wouldn’t do something, but I do think a HUGE drawback to our hyperconnected technological society is that everyone’s into “raising awareness” and clicking here to raise a cure, but the number of people actually DOING something is shrinking…)