You’ll recall Oliver, the conspiracy theorist I met at POPS.  He had some interesting things to say about Christianity.  In his words, “the Christian God and the Christian Satan must be the same person because they both enslave people”.  As I listened to his story I realized this young man was not describing the God I know, but rather his own experiences with church and religion.  While I’ve never heard anyone else say God and Satan are one and the same – and I my guess is that he said it this way for shock value - I think there are many others out there who can relate to Oliver’s point: nobody wants our religion.  What’s more, when we try to attract people to our religion (not Jesus) we taint their view of what God is like.

Here I’m not using the word religion in the biblical sense, which involves how we treat one another and care for the down and out.  I’m using this term to refer to our obsession with “getting things right”.  Rather than pointing people to the One we follow, we have spent a great deal of time and energy attracting people to ourselves and our ways of conducting worship services, our religious rituals, and our unique brands of church. 

Yesterday I talked about how we are the starting point for leading people to Jesus, but this is only true if as starting points we are pointing people to Jesus. 

Yesterday I also shared a quote that following Jesus is about “being conspicously spiritual without being obnoxiously religious.” I think this can be done in a lot of ways with and without words.  But in terms of our words, what would happen if, when we invite people to follow Jesus the Christ, we talked more about Him than ourselves and our ”better” or “right” ways of believing and doing church? 

How refreshing would that be not only for Oliver but for you and me? 

People like Oliver are decidely done with religion and all our “this is why our group is the best” presentations.  But I believe many, many people are attracted to Jesus himself, especially when our speech and lifestyles betray a perpetual focus on and surrender to Him.

In terms of communicating all this without words, it seems many people who are turned off to religion are drawn to…

the mysterious power to change destructive lifestyles into better ones,

the overriding hope for tomorrow,

the learner’s mindset,

the merciful hearts,

the acceptance of others, 

the endurance and joy through difficult times,

the wisdom when handling money,

the selfless acts of justice,

the concern shown for the poor and oppressed,

and the shame-free relationships

of a Jesus-centered life. 

Lifestyles marked by these kinds of behaviors and focus are not obnoxiously religious, but they do help show what people what God is really like.

For Oliver’s sake, and by the grace of God, let’s be like this!

Categories: stories, the why
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