Christians and Evangelism. Brethren -v- Nazarene
okay, HERE is a topic that as been beaten to death: the annoyance / necessity of evangelic christians. This one is a little specific, I promise.
Background: I grew up in a VERY evangelical nazarene church. When I was young, it seemed we were the good crusaders enlightening the world. As I grew older, I realized that constants evangelizing to people whether they wanted to hear or not could be hurtful, rash, shortsighted, and generally more negative than positive. It seemed that, at least with the camp I was with, that the whole purpose of this "christianity" was to get other people to join in and if you did not, you were a worse christian than your friends. Of course, as I grew older, I realized that the ability to blather to someone who is dissinterested about christianity is not a god-appointed gift, but rather simply a personality trait.
Soooooo I went a few years wanting to be nowhere around these "telemarketing" christians. Introspection, etc, made me realize that I was not as much upset with christianity as I was at the type of christianity I grew up with...this seemed to be the type of christianity I saw in the organizations around college, etc.
At this point, I became someone interested / very skeptical of the bible, etc. I'm sure some of you can relate here.
So this gets me to today:
Occassionally, I go with my dad to the church we grew up in and pretty much want to vomit all over the pews at the message the church seems to convey. It's basically the ultra-right "show people the light" kind of thing...pretty common.
So I lately I have attended a Brethren church with my fiancee's family on occassion and it has been truly enlightening...a denomination (or at least this particular church) that actually supports Peace, never supported the iraqi war. So, what brings me to the point of this post: the most recent sermon I attended was on evangelism. At the beginning, I roled my eyes and prepared to be severely annoyed and critical towards the rest of the sermon.
This didn't happen though. The very first thing he said, and he really, really, stressed this, is that there should be an INTEREST shown by the other person...what a concept, don't be like the telemarketers calling during dinnner! He also stressed that people were not non-christians because they didn't "get it" Not sure if this one makes sense, but it seems the view of some is that the non-christian just doesn't "get-it" like they, the christian, do. Furthermore, he indicated that christians helping the community, working in soup kitchens, etc, is far more helpful than standing on corners handing out tracts (what is it you say, BR, "two hands on a shovel is better than a thousand clasped in prayer?")
Let me iterate that I am not really even a christian, but rather that I am just a jaded ex-christian relieved to attend a church full of people who actually respect those who are not christians and stress the importance of love and actually, gasp, acting like jesus, rather than intolerance and over-evangelizing.
Another major factore in this may be the education level of those in the two churches I am comparing. THe church I grew up in is probably 10% bachelor's degree or greater while the comparison (brethren church) is closer to 50% or 60%. I don't intend to make broad generalizations based on people's education, but in my experience it has been somewhat indicitive of attitudes.
Hopefully this post was at least 30% sensical...
Background: I grew up in a VERY evangelical nazarene church. When I was young, it seemed we were the good crusaders enlightening the world. As I grew older, I realized that constants evangelizing to people whether they wanted to hear or not could be hurtful, rash, shortsighted, and generally more negative than positive. It seemed that, at least with the camp I was with, that the whole purpose of this "christianity" was to get other people to join in and if you did not, you were a worse christian than your friends. Of course, as I grew older, I realized that the ability to blather to someone who is dissinterested about christianity is not a god-appointed gift, but rather simply a personality trait.
Soooooo I went a few years wanting to be nowhere around these "telemarketing" christians. Introspection, etc, made me realize that I was not as much upset with christianity as I was at the type of christianity I grew up with...this seemed to be the type of christianity I saw in the organizations around college, etc.
At this point, I became someone interested / very skeptical of the bible, etc. I'm sure some of you can relate here.
So this gets me to today:
Occassionally, I go with my dad to the church we grew up in and pretty much want to vomit all over the pews at the message the church seems to convey. It's basically the ultra-right "show people the light" kind of thing...pretty common.
So I lately I have attended a Brethren church with my fiancee's family on occassion and it has been truly enlightening...a denomination (or at least this particular church) that actually supports Peace, never supported the iraqi war. So, what brings me to the point of this post: the most recent sermon I attended was on evangelism. At the beginning, I roled my eyes and prepared to be severely annoyed and critical towards the rest of the sermon.
This didn't happen though. The very first thing he said, and he really, really, stressed this, is that there should be an INTEREST shown by the other person...what a concept, don't be like the telemarketers calling during dinnner! He also stressed that people were not non-christians because they didn't "get it" Not sure if this one makes sense, but it seems the view of some is that the non-christian just doesn't "get-it" like they, the christian, do. Furthermore, he indicated that christians helping the community, working in soup kitchens, etc, is far more helpful than standing on corners handing out tracts (what is it you say, BR, "two hands on a shovel is better than a thousand clasped in prayer?")
Let me iterate that I am not really even a christian, but rather that I am just a jaded ex-christian relieved to attend a church full of people who actually respect those who are not christians and stress the importance of love and actually, gasp, acting like jesus, rather than intolerance and over-evangelizing.
Another major factore in this may be the education level of those in the two churches I am comparing. THe church I grew up in is probably 10% bachelor's degree or greater while the comparison (brethren church) is closer to 50% or 60%. I don't intend to make broad generalizations based on people's education, but in my experience it has been somewhat indicitive of attitudes.
Hopefully this post was at least 30% sensical...
Comments
Hopefully this post was at least 30% sensical...
I understand your post completely. I believe what would be ideal for people to do is to live their life based on beliefs that are important to them. The message of Jesus should not be something that is presented in a marketing scheme that will turn off people. I think people will come to their own conclusions with options presented to them as they live their lives. Door to door is a bit wrong in my opinion. Moral complaining by some on television the likes of Dr. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries and Jerry Falwell of Jerry Falwell Ministries do a measurable bit of damage to the message of Jesus. That said not all on television are such. Two of my favorites are Dr. David Jeremiah and Dr. Michael Youssef. If you watch these thoughtful gentlemen you will be changed by their gift to speak the message of Jesus.
I realize that different Churches have different levels of education level. I enjoy Fellowship Church as it is centered in a very highly educated high income multifaceted society in North Texas. I have seen and visited Churches that quite frankly come across to me as very off message and more engaged in politics. This disturbs me and I believe it to be a mistake and wrong. Jesus does not care our income / education level but for understanding of the word of God there is no better place to tun than the Bible itself. If one can find a gifted teacher like those I mention above lives can be changed and hearts transformed.
Peace,
Fellows
Originally posted by FellowshipChurch iBook
"... I believe what would be ideal for people to do is to live their life based on beliefs that are important to them. ....Fellows "
Exactly.
Over the years this church has gone from being the kind where the entire service is comitted to the teachings of the Bible to one where political influences creep into Sunday mornings. (Of course, this happened after I lost interest in church, but anyway, I prefered the way it was)
More recently I've regained some interest in Christianity, and I have been to a few churches here and there. There are definitely some big differences between them. I'm not the best authority on this topic, but I like to think that when i go to church I'm gaining some insight about my religion rather than being fed opinions on current events, especially because there's so much data available on a daily basis covering the world's secular events and I'm smart enough to form my own opinion.