February 23, 2006


More Than Friendly
by John Fischer

In her book, Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America, Temple University professor Dr. Colleen McDannell has discovered a certain kind of Christian in America who seeks to only interact with those who share their Christian beliefs and cultural lifestyle. From her study as a sociologist, she makes a number of very acute observations about this American Christian, the most telling being: “With their non-Christian neighbors they are friendly but rarely best friends.”

I am well acquainted with this kind of thinking. I grew up with it. I was encouraged to be on friendly terms with non-Christians but to have only Christian friends. I'm pretty sure this was more for our protection than anything. Meanwhile, while we were learning to be good Christians, who was left to tell the others about Jesus? Unfortunately that's how we developed gospel tracks and door-to-door evangelism. Hit and run witnessing, I call it. Get in; get out; stay clean.

I have no doubt that Christ would want us to be more than just friendly to those who are not of the household of faith. He would want us to be friends. That's the way He did it when He was here. In fact his friends were quite scandalous among the religious leaders of the day. Word was, Jesus was “a friend of the worst sort of sinners” (Luke 7:34).

Being friendly is just not going to get anybody into the kingdom of heaven. Being a friend will. It takes love, patience, and longsuffering with even the most cantankerous of unbelievers for walls of resistance to break down. And it takes time. But that's what a true friendship is -- caring for someone over the long haul, and letting someone care for you, too. Friendship is always a two-way street.

It's been statistically shown that people who become Christians typically lose all regular contact with their non-Christian friends within two years. What's wrong with this picture? For brand new believers, it may be necessary for a season to stay away from former influences, but this is never to be a permanent situation.

Let's think about our neighbors today, and our work related associates, and think about how we can be more than just friendly. Think of it this way: we are the carriers of Christ. If we remain distant, we are depriving others of the opportunity to come into contact with Him. After all, Christ in you is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27) -- hope for me, hope for you, and hope for our friends. This is why being friendly just isn't good enough.

Excerpt from Chapter 20, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Meaning of Everything:

A sad reality in the quest for the meaning of life is that each of us is only one mistake away from starting a hero and ending a loser. All though history, people have begun well and finished badly....

1. We were made to be God's people, with God as our King. When we make our own way in the world, things degenerate really fast.

2. Saul himself tells us that when we cast God aside, we soon find ourselves out of our league. This man had likely grown up bigger and stronger than his peers, so that he generally got what he wanted with minimal effort....On his own, he wasn't able to carry the day.

3. Each of us has flaws inside us that blow up when we choose to go our own way without reference to God. These flaws may not get us today or tomorrow, but one day they'll mess us up royally. We were never constructed to be successful at independence.

4. God may seem to have "stupid" rules in his universe, but every one of them makes sense in the larger scheme of things....

5. Before we second-guess God's reasons for doing things, we need to take a reality check. The reasons may not be clear to us, but we're dealing with a God who understands the big picture better than we can. This is more than a "dad knows best" kind of thing. It gets to the heart of what the Bible is saying about us, that we are fallen creatures and he is Creator God. Does he know what he's doing. Yes.

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Our regular church service schedule has been pre-empted
by the football frenzy known as Super Bowl.

As I originated in the Midwestern empire of corn fields and Indiana basketball, for me, a super bowl is IKEA's clear glass half circle suitable for a heaping of tender white popcorn, topped with a black lid that doubles as a tray.

Now, before I knew there would be such a thing as VCR and then TiVo, there was the mini-series, The Thorn Birds.
The saga of Meggie and Father Ralph's forbidden love aired the week before Easter in March 1983.
In order not to miss a single controversial episode, I was faced with the moral dilemma of staying home to watch TV versus not forsaking the assembly.
After giving it much thought, I developed a headache strong enough to render me recuperating on the sofa with the TV on.

Until today, I had not specifically confessed my poor choice.
And now, with services scheduled early in order to dismiss in time for a televised sporting event, I wonder, was I guilty?