Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah

Is it just me, or do some Christian blogs (even this one at times) seem like infinite verbal diarrhea? I regularly surf blogs written by theologians, Christian leaders, pastors, etc., and often come away asking myself: And we wonder why people are confused, or checked out? Given some of the stuff church leaders are writing about and discussing it's no wonder that research continues to reveal that most of the "non" and "formerly" churched don't want anything to do with "organized" religion or church in general. A recent sampling of some of these blogs gives the impression that churches and leaders are more caught up, or concerned with the following: the recently resurrected Calvinism-Arminian debate; the inerrancy of Scripture; the role of women in ministry; abortion and politics; worship styles; elder leadership v.s. congregational forms of governance; and the ongoing critiques of Joel Osteen's ministry and whether or not they (those who seem to believe God has appointed them as chief watchdog and critic) deem it as heresy. Many times there appears to be a Pharisaical arrogance about it all. Each person seems to be trying to prove he/she is right and the other person is wrong. And believe me much of it is done with very little grace. I'm not kidding. Quite often the blog hosts have to tell respondents to cool it and stop making personal attacks in their responses to what someone has written. And these are supposed to be the people who are modeling and teaching the love of Christ?

Hold on before you send those emails justifying the relevance or importance of such blogs and dialogue. I didn't say this stuff wasn't important. But as one who stands week after week before people who are interested or trying to walk like Jesus in the middle of serious life garbage these supposed "weighty" issues of theology and faith (usually translated-pastoral debates) has little to no impact on their lives. When I say garbage, I'm talking about divorce, homosexuality, addictions, marital struggles, AWOL children, abuse issues, parenting, financial struggles, health issues, aging parents, etc. The majority of them could care less about most of this stuff because in light what they are experiencing it really has no bearing on their attempts to follow and practice the teachings of Jesus in the garbage pile.

Many in these studies say they admire the teachings of Jesus, consider themselves as spiritual or interested in spiritual matters, but continue to see most churches engaged in irrelevance. Whether the perception is real or not it should make church leaders sit up and take notice. We need to ask ourselves some tough questions in regard to our intentional efforts to engage the culture, and those practices (perceived or real) that seem to be turning off the very people we're supposed to be trying to reach.

Don't take my word. Recent research by the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. speaks to this. From Southern Baptist's LifeWay Research:

NASHVILLE—A majority of unchurched Americans are turned off by the institutional church and don’t have a biblical understanding about God and Jesus, yet they believe Jesus makes a positive difference in a person’s life and would enjoy an honest discussion with a friend about spiritual matters.

Highly regarded evangelical researcher Ed Stetzer directed the study which polled 1,402 adults who had not attended a religious service at a church, synagogue or mosque in the previous six months. Stetzer noted, "A full 72 percent of the people interviewed said they think the church ‘is full of hypocrites,’" Stetzer said. "At the same time, however, 71 percent of the respondents said they believe Jesus ‘makes a positive difference in a person’s life’ and 78 percent said they would ‘be willing to listen’ to someone who wanted to share what they believed about Christianity."

Relevance does matter. And contrary to the cerebral crowd it doesn't water down everything and cause us to sacrifice timeless biblical truths, solid theology and shared beliefs in an effort to reach the culture. Jesus was relevant, a master theologian, but someone who spent more time engaging the hurting, broken and wounded than he did the theologues. Stetzer's comments prove once again that the most effective way for the church to be taken seriously is to simply engage people through intentional relationships that meets them where they are instead of viewing them as our personal "evangelism project" who needs to acquire our level of theological knowledge and debate. And love must be the central motivating force, or anything else will be viewed as suspect.

Granted, it's far easier to write/debate about these theological notions than it is to roll up your sleeves and hold the hands of a couple who struggle financially, have just lost a baby, are watching a parent battle cancer and need help battling an addiction. These precious people need Jesus. And its going to take people who spend more time with Jesus, than people who spend more time talking about Jesus and all they know about Him. I don't know about you, but that's a life area I always have room for improvement. And people wonder why Walmart, Barnes and Noble and coffee houses are full on Sundays!