This Sunday at my church I talked about sharing Christ. As always, you can listen to my Sunday messages here.
I included a video clip that went around a while ago. In this case, it was from Penn (of Penn and Teller) talking about proselytizing. I told the church I would post it here today so, if you have not already seen it, check it out:
I thought Penn, an atheist, shared some important things that Christians need to hear.
Then, this morning, I heard from my friend, John Avant. He sent this email.
Yesterday I was part of one of the most unique experiences I have ever had within the walls of a church building. I shared my pulpit with an atheist. Lauren Sandler is the author of the book Righteous: Dispatches on the Evangelical Youth Movement. The book is a must read for all of us. Some of it will make you mad. You will not agree with all of it. But it is an amazing book.
Lauren visited evangelical churches and movements all over the country. She predicts that "we are poised on the edge of the next Great Awakening." She believes that she found ample evidence that a great spiritual movement is coming to North America, led largely by a young generation that is no longer welcome in our churches. How ironic that an atheist believes in revival more than most Christians! Her book challenged me to the core. She shows us the worst of who we have become as evangelicals - and the reason why we are reaching so few radically unchurched people.
Beyond all this, Lauren and her husband Justin have become dear friends. Of course I want them to come to faith in Christ. But our friendship is more than that. We will be friends if they never come to faith. So Sunday, a Southern Baptist preacher and a NYC Jewish atheist took the platform together! We modeled how easy it is to actually share the gospel with friends. Lauren made it clear that she is open to talk about God anytime, but that the real draw for her is seeing people that actually live like Jesus. In fact she said that she doesn't understand why Christians don't talk about how cool Jesus is! She challenged us with what has repelled her from Christianity and expressed amazement at the way the people of our church had responded to her.
For me it was the most authentic expression of New Testament Church I have ever experienced. None of our doctrine was compromised. But we actually had God's people, together in dialogue and relationship, with unbelievers - kind of like...well, Jesus! I am blessed to pastor a church that not only allowed this but embraced it. When Jesus hung out with unbelievers, the religious crowd wanted to kill him. Our people showered her with gifts and love. What if, just maybe, our churches decided to love people again instead of oppose them? Maybe we are almost as lost as the unbelievers we have shunned. After all, since Jesus has left the 99 and is in pursuit of the one who is lost, if we are not with him, but are cloistered away in our Sunday clubs, are we not lost from Him too? Hope you enjoy the podcast!
You can download the podcast via iTunes here.
And, in case you wonder what I think, I think if we want to be heard we better be willing to listen. And yes - we can learn from atheists... sometimes. And, above are a couple of examples.
Posted on February 9, 2009 at 7:15 PM ~ 11 Comments
Tagged with: atheism, church, debate, jesus, listening, theism
That's a pretty amazing clip from Penn. He really seemed to be genuinely touched by the gesture from this fellow he talks about. And coming from such a high-profile atheist it ought to encourage us. A lot of us self-described missional types struggle with personal witness because we don't feel like we know how to share the gospel with equal measures of conviction and self-evident compassion. I'm grateful to hear Penn's reaction; I hope that it will help us to relax a bit and be more graciously assertive.
Wow, pretty powerful video clip. I appreciate his honesty and I find it fascinating that he doesn't understand why someone wouldn't share their faith....if they actually believe it to be true. Good words...thanks for posting this.
Thank you for this. Your voice and John Avant have been a huge encouragement to my husband and me. We have seen each of you speak at the Kentucky Baptist Convention in recent years. We've got recordings of both of your presentations and we still pull them out when we need encouragement and refocusing.
As a pastor and wife in a small 'traditional' church we're still looking for ways to move an older, traditionally Baptist congregation to reach out to their community and the world around them. Many of them really have a heart for people, but their language, methods, music, and thinking are relics from a society that once operated within a Christian framework that no longer exists.
We've not yet been here a year so we're still learning the sacred cows. We left a church that simply refused to change. Much of the courage to do that came from a message that John Avant presented when he said, "If you're church refuses change to reach out to those in the community, brother you need to leave." We appreciated the frankness and clarity with which he spoke.
I just wanted you to know that there are those of us out here that are listening. We really have a strong desire to see our traditional church transformed into a loving body of believers who have a real stake in this community. We trust God for this and are learning more every day what Christ meant when he said, "apart from me you can do nothing."
That video was fantastic. I hope that if I was put in that situation I could be "that guy".
Awesome and challenging. As a young(er) - each year removes me further from the young - SBC pastor I pray that our churches will be able to "do" church in such a way that a spiritual awakening will occur before I leave this earth. And how convicting it is to think that an athiest has a better sense of revival than us Christians.
I find it amazing that we, as followers of The Most High God, still find it a mystery that our ministry would be that of reconciliation. God gave us the example by reconciling us to Himself through His Son Jesus. Then He gave us the works (of reconciliation) to walk in. I have been a Christian for 40 years and I myself only realized this point last year. I think we all have much catching up to do.
-Dwight
This is a great video. My nephew actually works on the Penn and Teller Showtime show as a producer. It is always amazing to me that we as Christians never really seem to buy into what we believe at the same level of people who believe other things.
For those who want to download the podcast but don't use iTunes, here's the URL:
http://www.firstwest.cc/pod/podcast.xml
Of course we can learn from Atheists. I have atheists on my site everyday. I even had lunch with Askanatheist.com webmaster when I went to Catalyst the last two years. He is a great guy and I didn't go their to convert him but to learn. I do pray for his salvation but I want to be his friend and hope that one day he will give his life to Christ.
Wow... Penn's perspective, and the email about the atheist are both HUGE eye openers. I think that if I am honest with myself, I have not been 'that guy'. And now I am almost angry that I haven't been. Penn's anaology about the bus just floored me...
Thanks for sharing this Ed!
Thanks Ed. Penn's video, which I have shown in classes and other places, shows more people are amazed at our silence than offended by our message.I have found personally that my friends who are not believers love to talk about spiritual things because I try to be real and honest, not Odd for God.
And that statement, "HOW MUCH DO YOU HAVE TO HATE SOMEONE..." That is haunting.