Christ planned to attract people to himself through the transformed lives of his people. It's understandable that we feel chafed by what media giants say about us and the things we care about, and that we crave the chance to tell our own side of the story. It's as if the world's ballpark is ringed with billboards, and we rankle because we should have a billboard too. But if someone should actually see our billboard, and be intrigued, and walk into the door of a church, he would find that he had joined a community that was just creating another billboard.
[...]
Culture is not a monolithic power we must defeat. It is the battering weather conditions that people, harassed and helpless, endure. We are sent out into the storm like a St. Bernard with a keg around our neck, to comfort, reach, and rescue those who are thirsting, most of all, for Jesus Christ.
Frederica Mathewes-Green in "Loving the Storm-Drenched," (now online) Christianity Today, March 2006, p 39. Pick up a copy.
Man, and I thought you were going to say we should give out free beer at ball games as a ministry. I guarantee a TON more people would stop and chat if you popped a keg of Bud Light rather than trying to hand out gospel tracts.
And I doubt Jesus would be offended.
Posted by: Mike | 02/24/2006 at 09:46 PM
Yeah, I'll take a Bud Lite. But in all reality, good thought on one angle we should have on culture and our mission. Thanks.
Posted by: Ted Gossard | 02/27/2006 at 10:45 PM