Clamming up

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday, we laid out a few staged conversations about life and faith. Let’s think back on that first conversation. In that chat, Joe asks his friend how he’s spending his time that weekend. Joe goes on and on about his excitement over the rugby, free food and undoubtedly, beer. Joe is clearly passionate about sport and is specific about his passion for the Sharks and Cheetahs. When given the opportunity to respond to the same question – ‘What are you excited about this weekend…?’ His friend responds only by saying, ‘Me too….’ He doesn’t speak about his own passions. He just goes with the flow of what Joe already thinks is cool. Ring any bells?

Let’s look at the second conversation. In this conversation, again, Jane describes in detail and with great excitement an experience she’s had with the jazz festival, something she clearly enjoys – maybe even something that speaks to her soul. Her friend then responds by mentioning her involvement helping at her church, but she does so almost grudgingly– maybe even with regret that her experience didn’t seem as exciting as Jane’s. Frankly, she just didn’t act as passionate about church as Jane had been about jazz. Does this ever sound like you? I confess that sometimes it sounds like me….

And consider the third conversation. Joe doesn’t have to be shy about bringing up the topic of faith because his friend does it for him – actually asking him flat out what he believes about God. And still, Joe responds almost shyly, giving a vague answer about his consistent church attendance without describing anything about what he believes and how it’s affected who he is.

Why is it that we can talk for hours on end about rugby? We can invite people happily to watch movies that we know have little to no enduring value in our lives. We invite people to eat in our homes. We brag about experiences we’ve had that are exciting, expensive, and culturally impressive, but when it comes to inviting people into our sacred space – our beliefs about God and our practices like church-going that feed and grow our understanding of God and ourselves, we clam up.

We are afraid of being offensive and overbearing. We are afraid that we don’t know enough, and we might say the wrong thing, giving someone the wrong idea about God and our own beliefs. We are afraid that the other person might know more than we do and we’ll end up, like Paul warns in the scripture for today, ‘wrangling over words’ that we may not even understand. We are afraid that if we invite someone into such a vulnerable place inside of ourselves, they might disagree, chipping away at some of our confidence. And if we’re honest, we are afraid that if we invite people to church, and it ends up being a Sunday when things don’t run perfectly in the service, the sermon is a little confusing or boring, or we end up sitting next to someone who doesn’t smell the greatest, people might think our choice to worship is… silly.

We want our churches to grow, and we think someone else should take responsibility for that, but we forget that we are the church.

Because you see, in a survey that was done at Church of the Resurrection, a church of over 15,000 people in Kansas, they realized that even with their fancy marketing campaigns, radio ads, and website, that still over 90 percent of the people who come to their new member coffee say that they visited and got interested in the church because someone they knew invited them (Catch: Attracting and Connecting Visitors).

In other words – no matter what people do in a church office, people will ultimately come to worship because of the way that we live our lives in the places we work and socialize – the way that we, ourselves, take ownership of the Gospel. The way that we share what we believe without shame. As Paul says, we are to be workers who have “no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.” What might it mean for you to be unashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth to those you know outside of church?

FOCUS READING

2 Timothy 2:14b (NRSV)

…warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.