Christians can be the best advertisement for their faith. Or they can be the worst. Too often we are the worst. We do not do a good job of recommending our faith to others. I am not talking about sharing our beliefs with others. I am talking about how we conduct ourselves. Our conduct is an important part of our witness to Jesus. It tells others, those whom Percy Dearmer called “the man outside,” that Jesus has had a positive influence on us and he is making a real difference in our lives.
While Jesus discourages us from trumpeting our good deeds like the Pharisees did, he does encourage us to shine like lights before the world so that others can behold our good deeds and glorify God. The underlying truth and principle of what Jesus is telling the multitude is that what we do and say and how we do and say it can bring honor to God. It can spread light in a dark world. Like salt, it can add savor to a flavorless dish. It can purify what has become contaminated, It can increase the fertility of worn-out soil.
I posted links to two articles this week, which are relevant to this topic, Keith Matheson’s “The World’s Hatred Is Not a Guarantee That You Are Following Jesus” and Craig Thompson’s “Be a Good Christian.” Keith Matheson draws our attention to how we erroneously conclude that the negative reactions that our actions and words provoke are the hostility of the world about which Jesus warned his disciples and we must be doing the right thing. We fail to recognize that what is provoking negative reactions from “the man outside” is unchristian. It has little, if anything, to do with Jesus’ teaching and example. We are using Jesus’ warning as a rationalization for actions and words that are unbecoming a follower of Jesus. Craig Thompson points to our attention how poorly some Christians represent Jesus to the world.
While it is tempting to blame a changing culture and secularization for the declining influence of Christians and Christianity in the United States, it is to a large extent our own fault. If we are honest with ourselves, we have not been good ambassadors, good representatives, for the One whom we call Lord. We are stingy when we should be generous. We are hate-filled when we should be loving. We are uncaring when we should be compassionate. We are judgmental when we should be forgiving. We are impatient when we should be forbearing. We are demanding and rude when we should be courteous—considerate in our manner. We curse when we should bless. If Jesus has any influence in our life, it is far from apparent. This is not lost on “the man outside.” It is not lost on the woman outside too.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on the Christian Church’s declining attendance in the United States. It has also focused attention on the strengths and weaknesses of US Christians. Some Christians have gone the extra mile in ministering to their neighbors and their community during the pandemic. They have put the health, safety, and wellbeing of their neighbors and their community before themselves.
Other Christian, however, have focused on themselves. They have placed what they call “worship,” gathering in a crowd and listening to a praise band and a celebrity preacher, before the kind of worship that God seeks, a life of devotion to Jesus, obedience to his teaching, and emulation of his example, a life that honors God not only in word but also in deed.
Among the reasons that US churches are experiencing declining attendance is their failure to adequately disciple not just their young people but all their members and attendees. When I looked up the meaning of disciple, I found its use as a verb listed as an archaic and obsolete word. This itself may be a commentary on the church’s neglect of discipling.
To disciple means to convert to a disciple, to make a disciple or follower. Churches are not doing a good job of making disciples or followers of Jesus. Discipling involves more than instructing someone in Jesus’ teaching. It entails practicing what we teach, not just as an individual Christian but as an entire church. Otherwise, we become like the inconsistent parent who says one thing but does another.
A living faith, a vital faith which God’s grace has enabled, is evidenced by a transformed life, a life that is lived in accordance with Jesus’ teaching and example, a life that honors the Son and the Father who sent him. Whether we make a declaration of our faith in baptism, or, in the case of those baptized as infants and so dedicated to God, at our confirmation, our profession of faith is only empty words if the way that we live our lives does not support it.
Being a professing Christian is not the same as being a practicing Christian. Being a practicing Christian is not same as being a churchgoer, a Bible reader, a sermon taster, and a tithe payer. A practicing Christian is a genuine disciple of Jesus. The influence of Jesus is very evident in the life of a practicing Christian. Practicing Christians are not perfect. They are works in progress, but it is clear that the potter turning the wheel and forming the pot with his hands is God. God is working in their lives to will and to do his good pleasure.
Church attendance will keep declining, Christian influence will go on waning, and our mission to make disciples will grow harder as long as “the man outside” sees a serious disconnect between the beliefs that we profess and the way that we conduct ourselves. When Jesus sent the twelve disciples out to proclaim God’s kingdom, he told them that they should be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves."
It behooves us to take what Jesus said with the seriousness that it merits. Jesus understood the human heart. He understood that people are more likely to take note of the bad things that we do than they are of the good things. They also take note of the disparities between what they hear that Christians are supposed to believe and value and what we actually believe and value, the inconsistencies between what we say and what we do. For them we may be the biggest obstacle to their acceptance of Jesus as their Savior and Lord and life as one of his disciples as their way of life.
They may observe non-Christians like themselves acting and speaking in ways which they believe that we as Christians should act and speak. While we may tell them that Jesus has made a difference in our lives, they see and hear us acting and speaking no differently from the non-Christians that they know. They may not say it aloud, but they are thinking, “What difference?”
In my years as first-time university student I knew a young woman who became a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation. She claimed that it was making a big difference in her life. I saw no changes in her from the way she acted and spoke before she began meditating. If she was receiving any benefits from the practice, they were purely subjective and were not discernible to anyone else. Becoming a disciple of Jesus is not that kind of experience. When we become one of his disciples, there will be perceptible change in us, discernible not just to ourselves but to those around us. It may not be a big change at first, but it become bigger as we grow as a disciple.
Going to church is not the best measure of that change. A heart-felt devotion to Jesus, which goes beyond voicing our love for Jesus on Sunday mornings, and a life that genuinely embodies his teaching and example are far better indicators. They do a far better job of advertising that Jesus can make a difference in people’s lives and may prompt non-Christians to explore the Christian faith.
Among the reasons that US churches are experiencing declining attendance is their failure to adequately disciple not just their young people but all their members and attendees. When I looked up the meaning of disciple, I found its use as a verb listed as an archaic and obsolete word. This itself may be a commentary on the church’s neglect of discipling.
To disciple means to convert to a disciple, to make a disciple or follower. Churches are not doing a good job of making disciples or followers of Jesus. Discipling involves more than instructing someone in Jesus’ teaching. It entails practicing what we teach, not just as an individual Christian but as an entire church. Otherwise, we become like the inconsistent parent who says one thing but does another.
A living faith, a vital faith which God’s grace has enabled, is evidenced by a transformed life, a life that is lived in accordance with Jesus’ teaching and example, a life that honors the Son and the Father who sent him. Whether we make a declaration of our faith in baptism, or, in the case of those baptized as infants and so dedicated to God, at our confirmation, our profession of faith is only empty words if the way that we live our lives does not support it.
Being a professing Christian is not the same as being a practicing Christian. Being a practicing Christian is not same as being a churchgoer, a Bible reader, a sermon taster, and a tithe payer. A practicing Christian is a genuine disciple of Jesus. The influence of Jesus is very evident in the life of a practicing Christian. Practicing Christians are not perfect. They are works in progress, but it is clear that the potter turning the wheel and forming the pot with his hands is God. God is working in their lives to will and to do his good pleasure.
Church attendance will keep declining, Christian influence will go on waning, and our mission to make disciples will grow harder as long as “the man outside” sees a serious disconnect between the beliefs that we profess and the way that we conduct ourselves. When Jesus sent the twelve disciples out to proclaim God’s kingdom, he told them that they should be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves."
It behooves us to take what Jesus said with the seriousness that it merits. Jesus understood the human heart. He understood that people are more likely to take note of the bad things that we do than they are of the good things. They also take note of the disparities between what they hear that Christians are supposed to believe and value and what we actually believe and value, the inconsistencies between what we say and what we do. For them we may be the biggest obstacle to their acceptance of Jesus as their Savior and Lord and life as one of his disciples as their way of life.
They may observe non-Christians like themselves acting and speaking in ways which they believe that we as Christians should act and speak. While we may tell them that Jesus has made a difference in our lives, they see and hear us acting and speaking no differently from the non-Christians that they know. They may not say it aloud, but they are thinking, “What difference?”
In my years as first-time university student I knew a young woman who became a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation. She claimed that it was making a big difference in her life. I saw no changes in her from the way she acted and spoke before she began meditating. If she was receiving any benefits from the practice, they were purely subjective and were not discernible to anyone else. Becoming a disciple of Jesus is not that kind of experience. When we become one of his disciples, there will be perceptible change in us, discernible not just to ourselves but to those around us. It may not be a big change at first, but it become bigger as we grow as a disciple.
Going to church is not the best measure of that change. A heart-felt devotion to Jesus, which goes beyond voicing our love for Jesus on Sunday mornings, and a life that genuinely embodies his teaching and example are far better indicators. They do a far better job of advertising that Jesus can make a difference in people’s lives and may prompt non-Christians to explore the Christian faith.
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