There’s just something about Jesus that gets people’s back up against the wall… and I am okay with that. In fact, I would venture to say that if being an out-of-the-prayer-closet Christian hasn’t offended at least one person, you’re doing it wrong. Being a Christian is like having our own little community of misfits, outcasts and social pariahs who are united in love(ish). That is super trendy right now, BTW ICYMI.
We Christians love our numbers, don’t we? How big is your church? How many does your building seat? What’s your headcount at the mid-week service? Wait, you don’t have any satellite campuses? How many subscribers on YouTube/Insta/Facebook/Twitter/Snap?
Although Christianity is still the fastest-growing religion in the world, the word “Christian” itself has become relative, subjective and fluid. Why? Because calling yourself a Christian isn’t the same thing as being a Christian.
The fact is we don’t belong. Also, we shouldn’t want to belong. That’s not to say we need to dress in Handmaid’s Tale garb, cultivate marijuana plants and isolate ourselves in the jungle with our Kool-Aid either. “…I implore you as aliens and refugees…Live your lives honorably among the Gentiles, so that though they speak against you as evildoers, they shall see your good works and thereby glorify God,” Peter wrote (1 Peter 2:11-12). Even better, John 15:19 says, “…As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world…” Paul reiterated the same thought: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)
All things considered, Christianity still holds the top spot as the fastest growing religion in the world and the Bible is still the best-selling non-fiction book of all time. Of course, calling yourself a Christian isn’t the same thing as being a Christian. “Christian is as Christian does” – Forrest Gump might say. You can’t show up to a basketball game with a softball and glove and say you’re a basketball player or expect to be allowed on the court. There are some pretty specific expectations outlined in the Bible that define a “Christian” and loving one another and not being judge-y aren’t the only ones (and that second one isn’t even accurate).
Why is it that people seem to scamper away from us when we approach them with an invitation to church as though we are Borg, roaming the universe as single-minded marauders who will absorb people into our Jesus collective, adding their biological and technological distinctiveness to our own, when really the
. in the world and not of the world
I remember in this one episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the Borg Queen notes that the automaton hybrids were once much like humanity, “flawed and weak”, but in an ongoing attempt to evolve and perfect themselves, they had developed a “one mind” collective of drones.
Christians have a way of absorbing people
Depending on what you read, Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world. Islam and Mormonism are right at the top as well and there are a lot of factors to think about like “growth” due to the number of births within a religion, the death threats hiding the actual number of converts, who is growing fastest worldwide versus in America, and lateral conversion (from one religion into another, rather than going from non-religious to religious).
Why is it that people seem to scamper away from us when we approach them with an invitation to church as though we are Borg, roaming the universe as single-minded marauders who will absorb people into our Jesus collective, adding their biological and technological distinctiveness to our own?
the Borg Queen merely states that the Borg were once much like humanity, “flawed and weak”, but gradually developed into a partially synthetic species in an ongoing attempt to evolve and perfect themselves. in the world and not of the world
