New Rant

OK. I will shut up about election and predestination for a while. My new rant, POS Churchianity, etc.

I just read a book by Ron Martoia called Static. Its a decent read. I dont 100% theologically agree with him. I think he goes too far with making salvation a process and redefining the Bible. I do agree that packaging is wrong though. To some extent, I think Ron was trying to repackage the item, but in the end he gets it right. I learned myself that being Christian and evangelism is not about preaching. its about relationships.

In America, we have understood Christianity in a very capitalistic mentality. We (the Church) are the company that provides the goods or services (in this case, eternal life). In order to provide such services, we have to market (evangelize) and sell. Closing the sale is a huge part of sales. So the POS (point of sale) of Churchianity is the altar call. At this point we try to ram Jesus down peoples throats to close the deal so we can rack up some more numbers for the Kingdom. I think this approach is highly unbiblical. Yeah you can get your numbers up but God is not a capitalist, Church is not a business and salvation is not a product. The front of the Church is not a heavenly checkout stand where you trade your money (in this case the sinners prayer) for the product, the ticket to heaven. Maybe its more of a train station than a store, but you get the point.

Why not do what Jesus did. Get over the obsession with conversions. Get out there and live a good life. If people want to become Christians they will do so because they see us a real not because we try to sell them something. This is NOT FREAKING AMWAY people.

I also believe that people of all faiths or no faith are worthy of mutual respect. We are not an exclusive club. We buy our Jesus coats and were ready to go.

Relationship is where its at. If someone says hey you seem to have it figured out. What do you believe, then we can tell them. If they want to be a Christian at that point, we can explain what that means to us.

There is more than enough condemnation in the world. Dont forget Jesus said he did not come into the world to condemn it but to save it. Slight paraphrase.

Anyway, thats my thought of the day