Something we're trained to do as missionaries is to listen. Listen. Observe. Ask questions. And listen some more.
Richmond Protests Part 2 - Place de la Republic
Richmond Protests Part 1 – Smoke & Fire
God used a pandemic to close our doors, but that does not mean that the mission of the church has changed, instead a new place has been prepared for us. A place for us, as a church, to go out and seek and save the lost.
The Christian Worldview Part 2
How our worldview stops us from talking to others
When I first became a Christian one of the things that shocked me the most was how difficult it was to express myself to my non-believing friends. It was like we were speaking the same language but the words had different meanings and I am not talking about Christian jargon or "Christianeese" but really basic words.
Words like "truth" just had a much more concrete meaning to them, and curse words really began to sound like their name implies; like actual curses.
"Pray" went from a word that sounded cheesy and corny to a word that sounded powerful. The word "sex" turned from a goal and pride to something entirely different, something complicated that wasn't just a bodily function but more connected to commitment and marriage. It had a more intense meaning and was colored darkly as my past experience had never known it in this light.
It felt like I was seeing all of these words through a new lens and everything had become much sharper. I wanted to make the world a better place both before and after I gave my life to Christ, but these two versions of myself had drastically different views on what a better world looked like and how to get there.
In my Agnostic worldview, the only thing that would make the world better was happiness and societal and technological progress. We could cure disease, unite the world in language and politics. Give people freedom from oppressive leaders, jobs and lives. Enable ourselves and others to find love and follow after meaningful passions. Human nature that was harmful could be rehabilitated. We could fix things.
From a secular standpoint it would seem that the greatest men in history are people like Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, or Albert Einstein. These men advanced human knowledge and social progress. These things are good goals but do not fix the fearful and selfish nature of man that lies behind all of these problems. The Christian worldview is quite different in this respect.
In the Christian worldview, Jesus Christ's death on the cross and resurrection are the most important and greatest events in human history. No human can or will ever do anything as good or important as what Christ accomplished during his earthly ministry 2,000 years ago.
For the Christian, Jesus Christ defeated death and the sinful, fearful, selfish nature of man. He defeated our shortcomings and failures and in doing so enabled mankind to come into relationship with a perfect God and be redeemed. He allowed us to become son's and daughters of God and in doing so allowed us to be reshaped into the image of Christ so that we can be holy and justified before God. His presence in us enables and motivates us to do good things.
To the Christian the best and greatest thing to make the world a better place is to encourage others to come into a relationship with Christ, whereas from a secular point of view, things that save lives and improve the quality of life on this earth are of the highest importance. I do not believe that these differences may be resolved, however just knowing this fundamental difference makes communication with the other side much easier.