Christians Might Be Crazy

I appreciated his honesty. I told him so. I respected his effort to understand what Christians believe even if he did not accept it. He was a likable guy with a quick sense of humor who seemed open to hearing more. We met once a week to discuss what crazy Christians believe. That lasted a few months until he moved away. I sent him off with a gift of a nice Bible. We emailed for a while, but eventually that fell off. I don’t know where he is now or if he ever became a Christian, but I still pray for him.

As a pastor our conversations were incredibly helpful to me. He had provocative questions. He was open about his disagreements. The more we talked, the more we understood each other, even if our views remained at odds. Honestly, I would benefit from more these kinds of ongoing conversations. The same can be said for most Christians.

HONEST CONVERSATIONS

What do people really think about Christians? What do they say about us when we are not in the room? I want to know. I am curious because I have given my life to working with people, and they fascinate me. I want to understand how they are wired. I am curious because Jesus Christ instructs us to love our neighbors, and one of his most outlandish commands is that we show kindness even to people we consider enemies. We are compelled to value them as people made in God’s image, to understand what they believe, and to wrestle with what they feel. It is infinitely important that we uncover their real attitudes toward God so we can respond to the points where they think followers of Christ are crazy.

I have spent my entire adult life as a Senior Pastor in large cities where the majority of people are as close to believing the Bible as I am to birthing a baby. And the questions that people have asked over the course of nearly twenty years have changed. There is little need to answer the questions of previous generations. People are not asking them. At one time our main task was to convince people that a supernatural world could exist. Now they already believe that. They think that God permeates and animates every part of the natural world. But that God bears little resemblance to the personal God of the Bible.

To offer people real answers, I need to get at their real questions. Then I can address them as they are, not as caricatures of who I perceive them to be. So, I started brainstorming ways I could get truthful information from a range of people who do not embrace the historic beliefs of the Christian faith. This led to two extensive research projects: a phone survey and face-to-face focus groups.