Hi, I'm Steve, and I don't like...

When I started dating my wife, I asked questions like, "What sort of things do you like to do?" or "What makes you tick?" or "What is the thing you're most passionate about." Usually when you want to know about someone or something, those are the kinds of questions you ask. It works best when you don't even have to ask, but you can get to know someone just by watching them interact with others or by listening to them speak.

I think people who are outside of the church are asking the same kinds of questions. Whether they know it or not, they want to know this person, Jesus. They want to know what He is about. They want to know what He does, thinks, and is motivated by. The incredible thing is that God has placed countless people here on the earth to be His voice and His ambassadors. This amazing fact is, quite candidly, the thing that scares me the most.

This is part two of a series of posts responding to Dan Kimball's book, They Like Jesus, But Not the Church. The next grand perception that Dan Kimball says non-believers have about the church today is that it is judgmental and negative.

So, as people check out the church in today's culture... what are the answers we give them to the questions they are looking for? More often than not, when they actually take the step of attending a church or befriending a believer, they are not shown what Christ/the church is actually about. The great message being communicated is what Christ/the church is not about--and even then, the picture painted is a distorted one. Go ahead... ask a non attender what the church is about. They probably would tell you the obvious answers: God, religion, being good. They might even tell you it is about power or money or control. Ask them what the church is not about... what Christians are negative about... you'll probably get a much more lengthy answer.

If any group of people have something positive to be known for, it is those who are followers of the origin of hope for mankind. We have the greatest message of hope to carry to the world--it is even our greatest task assigned to us. I have to ask, however, are people turning to the church when they are need of hope? In many respects, the believers of the world are known as some of the most negative, griping, complaining people. I even found myself recognizing this sad fact years before I entered into ministry.

While attending Chicago Musical College in my pre-ministry days, I did what the typical performer/actor did to make ends meet--I worked as a waiter. I loved it. People could tell. I worked at TGI Fridays in Oak Park, IL. I was at TGIF in the days of flair on the suspenders, and let me tell you, I was flair-ful. You could even say I was the flair king. I was all about it. It was there that I met some of the most fun, encouraging non-christians that I have ever come to know. We all worked as a team, laughing and encouraging each other... and they all knew about my faith. Once a month or so, I would have to work on Sunday. While I missed driving out to Barrington to attend Willow Creek on those weeks, it wasn't the lack of church or the abundance of work that made me depressed to work on Sundays. Simply put, it was the groups of people I would have to serve who had just come from church. The other servers would pawn off all the church tables on me... since they were 'my kind of people.' In an effort to cheer up their forlorn spirits, I would always make it a point to let them know that I, too, was a churchgoer. This was usually followed by their veiled attempt at laying guilt on me for working on the "Lord's Day." Following the guilt trip, these people would eat. And MAN, could they eat! They'd ring up some of the biggest bills of the week, and while normally this would please a waiter (big bills=big tips), Sundays were an exception. You were 'blessed' if they gave you 10%--although it was always accompanied by a tract. Woo-hoo.

You might say that it is a coincidence. You might say that they were being good stewards of their money (bogus...). Regardless of what you might think... shouldn't we be the message of Christ everywhere we go? While the message they wanted to communicate was the sinfulness of working on Sunday, the more accurate, more important message was left unsaid. Worse yet, what was said through their actions hindered the message of the Gospel going forth. As Dan says on page 101, "We would present the message to others better if we were demonstrations of the love of Jesus."

Many in the church are of the opinion that if we don't call people on their sin--if we don't point out the ways they fall short--then they will never see the truth. I would encourage those same people to look into the Word of God. Look at the way that Jesus interacted with the unreligious and unbelieving. Not only did Jesus not judge or condemn them (John 3:17), he did the exact opposite. He showed them their worth. He showed His love for them. He went out of His way to move toward them.

God sent us the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of people and show them the ways that they settle for less than God's best. It's best left to Him. While churches are out there screaming about the evils of alcohol, tattoos, piercings, hard rock, dancing, television and such (all of which are not inherently wrong or evil y any biblical standard), how many churches are out there sharing the truth of the love of God? I know that many, many are. I also know that many, many are not. Those churches are, quite simply, not doing what the church is called to do. In fact, I would go as far to say that they may actually be counter-productive to the Gospel--effectively stopping people that God loves from hearing and responding to Jesus.

It isn't just about the things we say in or out of church, either. It's about the things we don't say as well. What is accepted in your church? What is not? Who is not? What do your policies, dress codes, customs or traditions say about the heart of your church?

Do me a favor? If, by some chance, you're scheduled to go on television tonight and talk about how the church is against teletubbies, homosexuals, drinking, the internet, MTV, insert cultural trend here--please help us out--cancel. You don't speak for all of us.