{"id":2069,"date":"2012-08-02T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T13:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/?p=2069"},"modified":"2014-07-17T14:33:56","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T19:33:56","slug":"are-we-an-interest-group-or-a-kingdom-of-disciples-and-evangelists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2012\/08\/02\/are-we-an-interest-group-or-a-kingdom-of-disciples-and-evangelists\/","title":{"rendered":"Are we an interest group or a kingdom of disciples and evangelists?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I get that we live in a morally complex world, but I want us to do better. The Chick-Fil-A drama has been a series of disappointments for me on all sides. I\u2019m disappointed at progressives for uncritically circulating misinformation<\/a> about what Chick-Fil-A\u2019s Don and Dan Cathy actually said and who their foundation actually supports (only several thousand of the alleged $3 million in donations can truly be said to go to \u201canti-gay\u201d activist groups). I\u2019m disappointed at the mayors of Boston and Chicago for inappropriately responding to something that shouldn\u2019t have merited their attention in a clumsy gesture to a segment of their donor base that turned this into a \u201cfree speech\u201d issue for culture warriors to rally around. I\u2019m disappointed at my fellow evangelical Christians for letting themselves get baited into reinforcing the stereotype that all Christians care about is policing the sexuality of other people. I\u2019ve already spoken to several other aspects of this issue. Here\u2019s the question I want to ask my fellow Christians: are we an interest group or a kingdom of disciples and evangelists?<\/p>\n

As my brother Jonathan Martin at Renovatus Church said way more eloquently than I could<\/a>, Jesus doesn\u2019t need us to stand up for Him. He didn\u2019t stand up for Himself. He let Himself get crucified, so that He could stand up for sinners like you and me who don\u2019t deserve to be stood up for. Being a disciple of the Crucified One doesn\u2019t mean becoming a sports-fan of the Jesus team, buying up all the right paraphernalia, and jeering the fans of the other sports teams. When we think that the way to be a Christian is to get a bumper sticker or buy a chicken sandwich on a certain day, we are contributing to the redefinition of Christianity as a cultural tribe rather than a kingdom of disciples and evangelists.<\/p>\n

One of the rawest blog sites out there is called \u201cStuff Christian Culture Likes.\u201d<\/a> Formed as a parody of Jon Acuff\u2019s \u201cStuff Christians Like,\u201d it goes through a humorous but often uncomfortably true list of all the fads of contemporary evangelical Christian culture with its soul patches, \u201cfrosted tip\u201d blonde highlight hair, pipes (but not cigarettes), \u201crelevant\u201d skinny man-pastor jeans, etc. When \u201cChristian\u201d turns into just another sub-genre of pop culture, then it\u2019s no different than all the other manufactured \u201cidentities\u201d that capitalism sells us like jock, prep, skater, or goth.<\/p>\n

Christian discipleship doesn\u2019t have anything to do with whether you eat chicken sandwiches or not. When you make Christianity about eating chicken sandwiches and doing other superficial things to demonstrate tribal loyalty, you\u2019re making it not<\/em> about discipleship. Discipleship is about following a savior who ate and drank with sinners, stood up for them to the religious authorities, and got crucified as a result. The purpose of the spiritual disciplines we undergo as part of our discipleship like prayer, fasting, Bible study, etc, is to forge us into people who deny themselves and exist for the sake of others just like Jesus did. It is to make us a disciplined body that doesn\u2019t easily get baited into stupid arguments by the drama manufacturers in our worldly media.<\/p>\n

True disciples of Jesus Christ do not whine about the so-called \u201cpersecution\u201d that occurs in the circus world of the culture wars. True disciples welcome persecution, if it really happens, as a means of their spiritual refinement. They \u201crejoice [whenever they are] counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name\u201d (Acts 5:41). As Peter writes, \u201cRejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you\u201d (1 Peter 4:13-14).<\/p>\n

The more you have been refined into a selfless disciple completely devoted to the advancement of God\u2019s kingdom, the more that every concern you have about your public appearance is shaped by the goal of evangelism. Political gurus talk about the importance of \u201cstaying on message.\u201d How spectacularly have evangelicals failed in this regard over the past thirty years in which we sacrificed the focus of our message in order to gain status as a powerful special interest lobby? The message we\u2019re forgetting to mention is that God loves everyone and offers a means through Jesus\u2019 cross for all of us to be made clean and enter into an authentic community that\u2019s unlike all that fake superficial tribal crap that the world has to offer. The best way to \u201ctake a stand against sin\u201d is not through publicity stunts that \u201csend a message\u201d to a world of strangers we aren\u2019t interested in knowing or loving, but in the context of our own struggle with discipleship and the journey we share with fellow disciples.<\/p>\n

So please stop redefining Christianity as a superficial cultural tribe that self-identifies through its particular tastes in facial hair, \u201crelevant\u201d fashion, political stances, and the culture war loyalty test of the week (despite what it says in the picture your friend shared with you on facebook, you really won\u2019t burn in hell if you don\u2019t share it with 10 other people). Instead of all the superficial tribalism, be disciples who take a stand against your own sin. Be evangelists who are acutely attentive to navigating around other peoples\u2019 stumbling blocks and loving them into the truth. Be witnesses of the beauty you have seen in Jesus Christ. Don\u2019t let anyone trick you into being any less.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I get that we live in a morally complex world, but I want us to do better. The Chick-Fil-A drama has been a series of disappointments for me on all sides. 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