Jesus hung out with people who no one else wanted to hang out with. Lepers, Prostitutes, the Poor, outcasts etc. So, who would he hang out with if he were alive today? I think we might be a bit surprised. I don’t think Jesus would be first in line at the megachurch. I think today one group he would hang out with for sure would be people who are gay. Is there a more outcast group of people from the church than gay people? I can’t think of one.
The church needs to figure out how to bring people who are outcasts into the mix. How can we do this? How about being friends with someone who is an outcast and just loving them. I say this as much to you as I say it to myself. JVD
I agree with your heart on this post. We MUST do a better job at moving closer (physically and emotionally) to the outcasts, poor and disconnected to God and culture.
I also think another group that is slowly moving towards the margins (at least for us “post-modern, emerging, missional, etc….” leaders) are the “mega-church” attenders. It’s unfortunate that what God has used to change 100,000’s of lives is being berated to the degree that it is. I have to point the finger to no one other than myself on this one as I have unfortunately attacked “the established church” (whether it was the mega-church movement or “Christian” TV or something similar). I hope that as we stand up to speak that we don’t distance ourselves from our brothers and sisters who are faithfully moving the Kingdom forward in these settings. We need them and they need us.
Finally, here is a very short list on who Jesus would hang out today…..
PEOPLE. All kinds of people. (Including those with big hair or who have their pew reserved every Sunday for them at the WillowCreek SaddleBack 1st Bapist Grace Church of Anytown).
If that includes you then it’s a pretty safe bet He would love your company.
Thanks for that Stephen - it was not my intent to bash the megachurch - as much to say the CHURCH in general does not know how to deal with this issue (for the most part in my experience) emergent church, megachurch, small church, big church….
This is a topic I’ve thought about extensively in the past. The challenge for me is exaggerated by my travel to other regions of the world.
Still today in the many Eastern cultures, there is a sense of inclusiveness and wholeness where all are considered part of the community. Not ‘community’ as in the warm fuzzy feelings of nostalgia or familiarity we use it for in the West. But ‘community’ as in each has some place they fulfill in the life of the village, the city, the society. Even though interactions may be limited between social class, economics, culture, religion. As you wander the streets of these non-Western places you witness interactions and a completeness to society that we miss here. You rub shoulders with people very different than you.
The big thing I see in Jesus’ interactions are not necessarily religious interactions with ‘outsiders’ but interactions in the course of everyday life - offering healing, justice, and life direction as He goes through normal life. He doesn’t seek to pull them out of their norms into some strange, different environment (your church) but instead reaches to them in the hustle and bustle of their everyday life. I might imagine Jesus today walking the streets in Israel interacting with Jews or Muslims or Palestinians. These people He would rub shoulders with and pass everyday. In the course of the normal life situations, He would bring the power of God into their lives.
The challenge translating these ideas to Western mindsets are numerous. Individualism. Stratification of society between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. The implication to bring ‘them’ into our circles to include them.
Most Western churches (spoken or not) intend to reach those who are basically the same socio-economic, intellectual, political, and cultural background. We don’t walk the streets to market rubbing shoulders with those different than ourselves. We don’t see prostitutes in the streets as we walk to church. We don’t live in a house with walls around it and beggers laying outside the gates. We don’t buy fruit in the market from the person of different religions.
We live in the other part of town. Go to the other schools. Shop at the grocery among people just like us. We seek to avoid those areas. Not just christians doing this, all of Western society does this.
So the question is…do you go against the established Western mentality that seeks to compartmentalize everyone off, by interacting in ways other than ‘normal society’ would? Replicating what Jesus did by interacting with the other elements of society? Or do you seek to contextualize his ideas to our Western mentality, executing a measure of what Jesus did, influencing those you naturally come in contact with throughout the course of your everyday lives - but probably all look and act about like you do?
I don’t know that the ways Jesus interacted in a 1st century near Eastern culture translate nearly as easily to the 21st century Western as we’d like. Do we act like we live in the East or do we influence in ways He might in the West?
Sorry for the length Joe…
Do we act like we live in the East or do we influence in ways He might in the West?
Great question Steve - great question - I will take a stab at it and have others jump in as well.
I appreciate your global perspective that is more extensive than my travels.
My wife and I live in an area of Minneapolis that is very ecletic. We live (in our fourplex and immediate neighbors) We have gay neighbors, straight neighbors, liberal social justice folks, green folks, and we are BY FAR the odd ducks where we live. But, we love where we live, and try and engage people in everyday life. We have a hard time with churches that do what Steve is talking about, segmenting themselves off in a one-type people group.
Now - I don’t see that as all bad if you are in an area that is not diverse, but if you are in an area that is diverse - should your church not represent that?
I know I don’t have the answer here, but it is important stuff…. JVD
“but if you are in an area that is diverse - should your church not represent that”
I think that’s the key Joe. How do we live out the message in the context we find ourselves in? It’s so easy to look at how it should be or even could be. Instead I wonder what is the reality of the situation we’re in? And where can I influence in ways that Jesus might?
I think what happens is the homogenous look and feel of what is church starts to slip. And we find ourselves down a path of influencing others where we find opportunity.