07/26/03

One thing that frustrates me about most Christians is that many of them are out of touch with reality, and out of touch with people that are not Christians. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I realized that I still do the same thing.

Here's the scenario.

Over the past few days I've been updating my web site. I did something I've been meaning to do for a while, and finally put some videos of mine online. I like the way that it's turned out, and I've been getting people to check it out. There is a friend of mine that I met a few months ago during a college class that we both despised. I see him online every now and then, and I decided to tell him about the changes I've been making to my web site. So I told him, and he checked it out. A few minutes later he asks "Is this some kind of christian religious web site?"

Then it hits me. All the videos I have are related to Christianity or to First Assembly in some way. This guy isn't a Christian, and naturally wouldn't really care about videos entailing an all-night prayer meeting, or about Christian youth camp, or a nine-month discipleship program. On top of that, it would look weird to him.

So, the Spirit of the Lord helped me to turn the situation around, and I led my friend to Christ right there at his computer. Let's all give thanks to the Lord for his (excuse me, His) wonderful blessings, and praise His name for the new soul that was added to the kingdom!

And yes, I just made that entire last paragraph up. What really happened is that I said it wasn't intended to be a "Christian religious web site," but that I worked at a church and most of the stuff I made was work-related.

This incident only goes to show that I'm still part of the Christian subculture. As much as I ridicule others for it, I still do the same thing. The fact of the matter is that Christianity is normal to me. I don't see anything out of the ordinary with the Master's Commission program, with All-Night prayer meetings, or with Christian summer youth camp. This isn't to say that there's something wrong with those things, because they are all well and good.

It's just that Christians should take into consideration that not everyone sees these things as normal. We need to pull our heads out of our subculture and interact with the rest of the world around us, without shoving Christ into everything. I mean, really...is there a need for a Christian version of everything?

I am not saying that Christians should never talk about their faith. The Bible tells us that we're always supposed to have a ready answer to give to people who ask us about the reason for the hope that we have. Doesn't this indicate, though, that we should wait for those same people to ask about it (as opposed to shoving it down their throat)? As we interact with nonbelievers, they will see that we're different. If what we have is genuine, it will be a good difference. If, however, our relationship with God is wrapped up in a bunch of weird stuff, nonbelievers will think that we're just weird. And that isn't very good at all.

-Ben