It's amazing to see and hear people's responses to Christianity. And not just Christianity, but evangelism.
Let me precede my following monologue by saying, for all who do not know, I am a member of mission Baltimore: School of Emerging Missional Leadership. There aren't many of us. Many quit because they cannot "take the heat" as it were. We live by two main focuses, our core values and our commitments:
Core Values
- Balance - We believe that a disciple of Christ should be balanced physically, spiritually, mentally and socially. (Luke 2:52)
- Loving Relationships - Loving relationships should permeate every aspect of our lives. (John 13:35; Acts 2:40-47; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
- Integrity - Integrity is the heartbeat of every Christ follower. (Psalm 78:72)
- Excellence - Excellence honors God and inspires people. (Daniel 5:12; Daniel 6:13)
- New Testament Church - The New Testament Church is the hope of the world. (Acts 2:42-47)
Commitments
- Communion - Communion with Christ establishes our foundation for service.
- Character - A transformed character is the brand of a Christ follower.
- Calling - God's calling is our unique invitation to ministry.
- Community - New Testament community is the expression of God's love to the world.
- Culture - God engages culture; therefore so should we.
Now, to get to the point.
With mission Baltimore we had a project:
Paint a cross.
Take it downtown.
Engage culture. (remember? it's one of our commitments. ^)
Simple right?
Absolutely.
There were six groups.
Six crosses.
Six different paint jobs.
Six different areas.
I just happened to be leading the team that had the red light district: Baltimore Street.
My team also just happened to have one of the most offensive (to one who is closed-minded) paint jobs on our cross.
Here's what we did.
The night before we took our cross, grabbed stencils and three bottles of
spray paint: two black, one red. We then spent the next three hours
spray painting sins on the cross, sins that we had dealt with, or sins
that people we know had dealt with and they had impacted our lives in a
major way.
On the front: Lust. Pride. Hate. XXX. Greed. Homosexuality.
On the back: Liar. Drugs. Rebel. Murder. Envy. Abortion.
For example.
One of my team members, Monica, fell in love with a guy once. Completely in
love. But he had a drug problem and he ended up choosing them over her.
Or how about myself. I can lay claim to 8 of the 12 sins on our cross. The
biggest being Lust and XXX. I had a problem. For six years I had a
problem that ruined my relationship with the person I love the most, my
God. But Christ bled for me to cleanse me of it. and now "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
But to get back to the point.
We then took the paint and sprayed nails at the hands and blood at the
head to drip down over the sins, showing that Christ bled for
everything that we have gone through.
Still with me?
Good.
The next day we went downtown and decided to park at Federal Hill. If you
don't know anything about the layout of Baltimore City, Federal Hill is
on the other side of the
Inner Harbor. A literal 20 minute walk over an area teeming with people
displeased with being confronted with a 7 1/2 foot high wooden cross
blaring out their sins. Not exactly the best choices of parking spots
for a group to get in, do their time, and get out. But that's the way I
like it.
No hiding.
No escape plans.
No excuses.
We begin walking across the harbor with no one daring to take a second
glance at us. Unless of course it was judgmental. Mothers yanking their
wide-eyed kids away from us.
"Mommy... why is he carrying that?"
"It doesn't matter. Just stay away from them."
Cold stares from the army officers stationed to recruit.
Jeers from the group sitting on the dock.
"I guess they have to carry their crosses. HAHAHA!"
Whispers overheard.
Eye contact avoided.
Angry looks received.
"Why are they doing that?"
We just kept walking.
Two streets down from Baltimore street we were stopped by two homeless
guys. Freeman and his friend. They were truly homeless, they were truly
hungry, and they saw us carrying a cross and saw that we could truly
help them. They asked us for food.
Did you get that?
Food.
Not money.
Food.
So we walked back down to the McDonalds to buy them some McGriddle sandwiches. As we were going in people stopped and stared.
"Oh. my. GOD!"
But we focused on the job at hand anyway. So we took the cross into McDonalds.
Yes. We desecrated your almighty fast-food shrine with the light of Truth.
Here Monica took the reigns.
"Guys, get whatever you want. We love you and we want you to know that God
loves you too. We're getting you food, but we want you to know that
Jesus is the Bread of Life."
Short, sweet, to the point.
We left them with smiles on their faces, full stomaches, and a seed of Truth planted in each of their hearts.
Too bad most people are too worried about bashing others in the head with the Bible instead of first taking care of their physical needs. Like a wise man once told me:
"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
We kept walking down Baltimore Street where we came upon a man unloading Dells from a truck. Again Monica spoke up.
"Hey man. What's this cross mean to you?"
"Nothing."
This got Monica a bit flustered for a second so I asked the man why it meant
nothing to him. He replied by telling me that it was because he didn't
have any time for things like that. But then he tried giving us advice about how we should minister. Talk about a double-minded man!
After a few more minutes he pulled away from us and we continued down to the
Red-Light District. A few more blocks and we came upon a picket line
protesting low wages and Jesse, who was by now carrying the cross,
stopped right in front of them. Immediately to my mind came thoughts
that we shouldn't do this, we shouldn't stop here. But praying gave me
a sense of calm to know that the reason I was having those thoughts is
because the devil was afraid of us being there!
We stood there for a few more seconds and up came Celeste, a prostitute
who Monica and Tiffany talked to for a while. Then up came Jeff and
Tyrone and Jesse talked to them with the girls while an asian man by
the name of Chris came up to me.
"What is that?" he asked me.
"Well, it represents that Christ gave himself to forgive me of all that I have done."
"Oh... I used to be a Christian"
"Used to be?" I inquired, "What are you now?"
"A Buddhist."
"Why?"
"Well,
mostly because too many people told me that if people didn't believe in
Christ God was going to send them to Hell. And I don't agree with that."
"Well,
I don't agree with that either Chris. But I do believe that if you
don't believe in Christ you choose to be separated from God because
Christ is God. And since God is love, joy, peace, truth and hope, being
separated from Him means there will be none of that. It will be Hell,
and we are the ones who chose to be there. No one sent us there but ourselves."
"Well, I don't believe that."
There was no getting through to this guy about anything. But the seed was
planted and he left me with me telling him that I would pray for him.
And I will.
I have.
After he left, another guy, who's name I didn't get, came up to me and told
me that I shouldn't start conversations with people, I should just ask
them if they believe in Christ.
"But do you do that sir?" I asked him.
"No."
"Then what do you do for God sir?"
"I go to church." he told me as he turned and left.
And this is where I would like to make my point.
What good is it to be a Christian if you are living in active disobedience
to the person whom you are serving? I do believe that Christ's last and
greatest command was the we are to GO
into all the earth, preaching the good news of the gospel. But instead
"Christians" sit in their sparkling clean pews and eat up all the
spiritual food, become bloated, lazy, and obese; cry about the lost and
dying world; pray for God to send revival; but then do NOTHING!!!
Please tell me, dear sir, dear Christian, what in all Heaven and Hell is wrong with you?
Do you need a checkup?
Need to clean those mashed potatoes out of your ears?
Need a spiritual liposuction?
A spiritual 2x4 to the face?
It's all right there, plain as day, black and white, clear as crystal.
"Obedience is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22)
and
"Go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone" (Mark 16:15)
What aren't you getting?
"Then what do you do for God sir?"
"I go to church."
Good for you sir. Would you like a cookie for all of your hard work?
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