This week we started sending "Church for the Rest of Us" cards to people who live in the Madras area. I can't tell you how excited I am about the launch of this new campus being less than a month away. I can hardly wait to see what God is going to do as we try to reach more and more of our area who are unconnected to Christ or His church.
Since sending out the card last week in the area around the Sharpsburg campus I've had many chances to write, talk and e-mail with people about what we are doing as a church. I continue to have people tell me that we as a church have to "draw a line" and make clear what we do or don't condone. While I understand their point I think the question with reaching out to people is not about "drawing lines" to let people know where we stand, but about drawing circles that let people know they are wanted and included. As a parent I have drawn many lines to let my kids know what behavior is not condoned. I can do that with some confidence that my "line" matters to them because they understand that they are firmly in "the circle" of our family - they are wanted and accepted as people. I may be way off but I believe part of the problem we (the church in America) have is that we want to draw lines without letting people clearly know that they are included in our circle. We are all the same (in the church and out) we both need forgiveness, we both need grace from our Father and we both need help to live up to the lines that He has drawn. We can't draw lines so firmly that people who have already crossed them think they can't be included in the circle of people for whom Christ died.
I think this deal of drawing lines or circles is why so many people say they don't believe in organized religion. Religion is all about drawing lines. Christianity was supposed to be about including people in the relational circle of those who know Jesus. I was just recently reading the parable Jesus told about wheat and tares. Even though I don't believe it's the primary purpose of the parable I wonder if it doesn't say something about including those "outside the family of God". Does "let them grow together" have anything to say about whether we draw lines or include in our circle? I know Jesus included people by eating with sinners. How can we be a community that follows Him if we don't include like He does?
1 comment:
A good illustration of what Christianity is comes from Francis Schaeffer.
He suggested drawing a circle and in the middle place a smaller circle, more like a small dot. The diameter of the outer or inner circle is irrelevant. The smaller inner circle represents the essentials of the historic Christian teachings. The one aspect of the picture, and the point it is making, is that around the inner circle, yet within the larger outer circle, there is room to move around. People may want to enlarge or reduce either circle diameter to fit within their lines (draw their boundaries) but it shows that people can be on one side or the other within the circle and still orbiting around the essentials, making Christ their center. Their lives are anchored on those essentials in the center.
In some ways the outer circle can be an imaginary barrier solely for the purpose of illustration. It also is not an iron wall but more of a marker where the distinctiveness of Christ-likeness fades off into a secular mindset or worldview. There are many more who operate far away from the center, outside of the circle and away from a relationship with God. Those are the one's who it seems CCC is trying to reach out to.
Whatever method is used must be motivated by and reflective of, the image of Christ with open arms calling out and saying,
“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matt 11:28-30 (HCSB)
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