Pastor Sid's Journal

Walking Out of Church

A little while back a friend of mine used this image on his blog and I chuckled because it's a commentary on the media's view of many Christians. Because the media likes to portray Christians as harbingers of hatred, some of us (and I think I would include myself in this category go out of our way to show our communities that we are not like that. We don't want to be the character in the above cartoon. In fact because I know many Christians who are people of grace I'm often angered by the media who only take the time to focus on the "believers who are jerks" (doesn't it feel like that should be an oxymoron and sadly it isn't)

This past weekend I was involved in a retreat with a group of close friends who are also fellow pastors and spouses. On Sunday we had the opportunity to go to a church and worship together. We rather at random went to a church nearby. Now I have to tell you, pastors can often be very critical of worship practices and Biblical interpretations that are different than our own (we are always needing to work at this). Because of that, before we went to church, we covenanted to not be critical, but rather to receive God's message as it was and to be gracious guests amongst these fellow believers. We entered into church and we discovered that the church was going to have a guest preacher, a former Jehovah Witness who was going to speak on his ministry to Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons. It sounded intriguing. We enjoyed communal singing that was not that different from what most of us were used to. Then the guest preacher got up to speak.

Within the first 3 minutes of speaking he made very bigoted and stereotypical comments of a number of different religious groups (not only Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons) that were off colour and in my opinion quite offensive. I could appreciate that he was wanting us to take seriously the people who come to our door, but the way he was talking about people, fellow human beings showed nothing of love for those who were created in God's image. Now he would probably make some comment that I fall into a category of preacher who only talk of love but not of a need to be a warrior, a green beret (his words not mine) for God. He was trying hard to be funny, but his language was rude, crude and entirely unecessary, in fact his humour was the type of language I would expect from a stand-up comedian that thinks he/she needs to swear in order to be funny. All of us were trying to be a graceful presence, but we were squirming. One of the spouses left after the first three minutes, the rest of us tried to stick it out. I finally had it when while he was talking about how to trap a Jehovah Witness in his/her words he made a comment about shaking your hand like you had palsy or something (again his words not mine) That's when I left, I could not stomach it any longer and slowly over the next few minutes the rest of our crowd all left as well.

I never expected to go to a Christian church and have them validate the media's view of Christians. I've walked out of movies, I've walked out of stores, or conversations but I don't think I've ever "had" to walk out of church for such an abuse of God's way.

I know that Christians in the North American culture can be accused of being too passive, the preacher was right in that we should be ready to engage ourselves as witnesses of God's life giving word. But when our presence and choice of words show nothing of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control (Galatians 5:22-25), then there is some real question as to what Spirit is leading us. When we engage the world with the gospel (good news), we do so in a way that reflects a love for them in and out of their presence. Because we desire that all people know the love of Jesus and we desire that they have his life-giving spirit, our hearts ache for people. We don't make fun of them behind their back, we don't talk one way in front of them and different when they're out of ear shot, and we don't laugh at other's difficulties, struggles or brokeness...not only in a worship setting but ever.

If anything this past Sunday reminded me that we as Christians must always remember that the tongue is a double edged sword and that laughter often represents the sharpest edge (see James 3:1-12).

Lord have mercy on all of us when we use our tongues in a way that does not reflect your beauty.