Seek and Cultivate

Have you ever tried to look at Christianity through the eyes of a non-believer? The concept of Christianity and the Bible from their perspective can look pretty far fetched and at times delusional. The belief of a God that we can not physically touch or see, while altering our lives to live a life to please God, can be pretty crazy for many. I have been around the Christian culture most of my life, in fact 33 years, and have been apart different trends and ideologies of how the church is to function. Most of them, well nearly all of them were man made strategies (with good intentions) on how to reach the lost and many times those strategies failed. Program after program, new up to date buildings with a Starbucks, edgy music, taking the cross out of the building, sitting on couches and comfortable chairs, high tech lights and sound equipment, the list goes on. The church has tried all these things and more, to lure the lost and clueless person into their building, some churches even changed the message so it would not offend someone new. I know of some para-churches youth organizations that will not use the name of Jesus or share the gospel freely during their meetings, instead they have certain times throughout the year to share the gospel (this is another topic for another day). As long as the church continues to morph into whatever the next trend is or what the new ideology may be at the moment , it will continue to fall short. I wrote earlier about looking at Christianity through the eyes of a non-believer. How are the trends and ideology of the day addressing how we are looked at? The church can do all those things above but it does not promote or help them to see what we believe. Here is where I feel the church has fallen short. The above list is a good start but the main thing is “Relationships.” Luring someone into the church with all the flashy trends does no good if there is no way to cultivate a relationship. Jesus, to start his ministry, reached out and cultivated relationships with his disciples and he continued to build relationships throughout His ministry, and even to this day He continues. Look throughout the gospels if you don’t believe me (the gospels being Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)
Ephesians 5 talks about being imitators of Christ but how many of us are? What relationships are you choosing not to get involved with because it would be uncomfortable or time seems to be a factor? How many potential relationships did you allow slip through your hands because you assume someone else will do it? Are you making the most of every opportunity to seek and cultivate? I believe that the non-believers will be able to see and start to understand Jesus, by the way we imitate Him through his example of building relationships. As long as the church continues to wait for the next big thing to arrive then things will remain. Relationship is a big key in furthering the Kingdom and in helping change the godless culture we are living in today. In examining my life, I know I need to do better. I have missed opportunities and even recognized opportunities and did nothing, how about you? I think its time to put all our trends and ideas on the shelf and be real. We need to be who we are in Christ, drop our guard and pray for opportunities for us to get into the community and serve like Jesus and love like Jesus. By doing this, those looking from the outside in, will see this God that we love and serve.