Thursday, 21 August 2008
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Abrasive Ministry Style- Does it Work or Does it Scare?
by revelifecrew
We receive quite a few messages from people asking for help with certain issues, and oftentimes, we're not sure how to relate or answer the person's question - which is where you guys come in! Every Thursday, we feature a reader's problem/question and leave it open for you guys to offer your two cents. Please feel free to message us here for advice! It can be about anything from parents, to keeping up with devotionals, to unwanted suitors, to difficulty praying without falling asleep. Don't worry, we'll keep you anonymous.Today's post is about a sensitive topic. Please be respectful of each other's differences and be civil when expressing your opinion.
The Woodward Dream Cruise just rolled through Metro-Detroit this past Saturday, and an estimated 40,000 classic cars converged onto a 16-mile stretch of Woodward. With all the horrible things happening in our city this summer, the Dream Cruise is one of our few remaining bright-spots.Unfortunately, a small group of pro-life Evangelists has been viewed locally as casting a shadow on the sunny-day, and even brought their own "special" vehicle: a van covered in color-photographs of aborted babies. They also carry picket-signs with similar gruesome pictures. In 2006, a group of them were arrested for picketing at the Super Bowl our city hosted.
They are highly controversial in Metro-Detroit, especially among the Christian community. I had happened to catch one of the activists on a Christian-radio broadcast last Thursday (August 14), and as I listened to the callers, I noticed they all had the same opinion: this is a good message, but it was the wrong way and the wrong place to get it out.
The pro-life group argues that the Cruise is the perfect forum for getting their message out; they say abortion is too much "swept under the rug." Okay, but at such a high-profile event...and in such a grotesque, vivid way? Does this even work? Michael Mattia, who heads up this small group, doesn't know. He says there isn't a way to measure their activities.
Beyond the perceived blight, however, it's an embarrassment. Even Believers are saying that this group is "a bunch of fanatical Christians who reflect poorly on the entire faith." Their actions seem too abrasive for a group of people who are supposed to be loving. Additionally, for all the Christian criticism of their actions, I have to wonder why this group isn't heeding the advice of their Church family.
All I can imagine is a woman who had an abortion 20 years ago, who has felt the guilt and shame of the act, has come to Jesus and repented. Now put her on Woodward in front of one of those images. How could she not immediately think of her child? Yes, God has forgiven her, but she still carries with her the knowledge of her actions.
I was talking to someone in Birmingham today about this, and she told me the van is parked beside the road near an abortion clinic (I believe) which she passes every day on her way into work. She told me she's even seen people on their knees, facing the building, praying. At first, she said she was horribly offended and angered; now, she merely views them with disgust.
I personally feel this is a counter-productive method of ministry. I feel it's too abrasive, and surely there must be a better way of getting this important message out. One caller to the radio program told how she chose adoption over abortion, and would the group please try having women holding up large pictures of their young children with their adopted-families. Why not have child holding a sign that says, "I was adopted, not aborted." I think this might be just as impactful, and certainly less crazy-Evangelical-fanatic.How do you, a group of Christians and non-Christians alike, feel about this style of ministry? What other ways could this group go about getting their message across?
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Comments (72)
Holy cow, I had no idea that was so long, haha...
I guess I'm a bit wordy.
@walkintotheseaaa@xanga - I quoted you, because I made a blog entry of my comments here, and they didn't make sense without your comment, I hope you don't mind. If you do I'll remove it and paraphrase.
I find it amazing and disheartening when we (included me) find it so easy to sit in judgment on some ministry/minister. Why do we feel that freedom? Do they not either stand or fall before their maker as judge?
This is not to say that all ministers/ministries are right or appropriate. This is to question why it is so easy for us to judge others rather than let their ministry challenge our thinking.
How many of us anti-abortion christians are doing nothing really about the facts of the abortion problem, but we'll judge someone who is actually doing *something* at least.
My 2 cents
@xapatotheworld - I don't agree that morality must be backed by religion to be true. If anything, religion should be backed by morality to have truth, rather than vice versa; morality must be independent of religious and/or political influences to be at all meaningful to begin with.
@forgottenrevelations@xanga - well, I agree that it shouldn't be backed by religion. I might have misspoke when I put that up earlier. I don't think that religion has anything good in it. But where does any morality come from? With what do you judge morality? There has to be a standard that you are using, or else morality just becomes something that is relative to each individual...which leads to chaos. But the Bible is the standard that has been used throughout history. The basics laws of morality are dependent on the Truths found in the Bible (or what was the Bible at that time...as it was written over time) and true morality is only found in Jesus. There is a degree of morality in the world, but the purest form of it is found in Jesus...and the Bible. That's why I say that anyone who is not a believer has only a mediocre attempt of morality...because without Jesus, it's misguided. C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity is a good book to read about the "standard" of morality.
You know, these people mean well. But they keep falling so far from the mark... yeesh
It's entirely too abrasive.
@big_fat_stupid_ugly_seal@xanga - "this type of ministry only pushes people away. how about teaching non-believers about Jesus's LOVE?"
Couldn't have said it better myself :)
that type scares sheep. :)
as a non-christian, all aggressive ministry is frustrating. i don't want pamphlets and literature detailing john 3:16 and how to know for sure that i'm going to heaven thrown at me on the streets. i don't want every conversation i hold with a christian to be about jesus, god and the bible.
what impresses non-christians who remain open-minded to spiritual matters and the idea that there may be an organized religion out there that doesn't completely butcher the possibility of a life lived with equal parts logic and faith (not just "You have to have faith!" as the answer to EVERY doubt that isn't immediately and clearly resolved within the bible) are the believers who walk confidently and reasonably within their faith. don't TELL me about jesus, SHOW me about jesus. and not just in the bible either. to walk with confidence in faith is a matter of not freaking out if and when someone disagrees with tenets of your faith. it's a matter of not denying that there ARE other valid opinions and beliefs out there. most people don't call themselves pro-choice because they LOVETOKILLBABIESOHITMAKESTHEMSOHAPPY
but because they have weighed the sides of the argument and sympathize with another element of the issue than a christian chooses to. walking with confidence is a matter of showing that you are capable of thinking for yourself and not just following the herd. displaying the ability to reason and think critically and understand that not everyone will agree with you. and...well it's obvious where i'm going with this.
the cool thing is, i know tons of christians who do walk confidently and reasonably in their faith, and seeing them gives me hope for a fundamentalist cease-fire. and it makes me go back to old favorites like cs lewis and brennan manning and remember that there *was* a spark of something in their message.
@xapatotheworld - The Bible has only been used as a measure in Western Europe/the Western Hemisphere, though. Most, if not all of Asia and Africa developed their own moral codes (which more or less match those of the Bible) without European influence, which leads me to conclude that the Bible and Jesus are not required to have true morality, no more than one must own a Ford to know what characterizes a car.
@TheBillion@xanga - Agreed. I know many Christians that hold and live by their creed without feeling the need to expound upon it on a daily basis. They're respectful, unintrusive, and set an example that is truly inspiring.
@forgottenrevelations@xanga - Hmm...I can't see how you could possibly have taken anything else that I said in my original comment as worthwhile without believing that the Bible is the Truth and inerrant. Seems like you want the good-fluffy stuff of Christianity but not the hard-to-digest parts. I'll leave it at that because even through the fluffy-feel-good parts of Scripture, God's incredible Truth shines through and can convict where it needs to. I'll pray for you and your belief. :)
@xapatotheworld - I have severe issues with any belief that, by its very nature, excludes those that question it (much less those that have never heard of it...!), especially when such a belief system deals with the concept of an afterlife. Can one truly be so callous as to say that someone that has never heard of Christianity, the Bible, Jesus, or God will be condemned for ignorance not of their own devising?
And if they aren't, doesn't that change the entire dynamic of what the Bible preaches?
@forgottenrevelations@xanga - If they weren't, I wouldn't have a job. I believe that God has placed the Truth of His existence in nature, so that even just by looking at the trees, flowers, and stars, you cannot deny the existence of a Creator. When God created mankind, He created us with a responsibility. Adam and Eve had a responsibility to pass on the knowledge of God to their children, but throughout generations, people lost that memory, or it became marred or replaced by some tribal belief. Mankind didn't want to be responsible to an Almighty God...they wanted to do their own thing, live their own lives, and that is disobedience. Maybe their parents taught them that, but it is still disobedience. God is not a hateful God. But He is a holy God. He cannot have communion with anything that is unholy or sinful. Because of that reason, people go to hell. My job, and it's a sobering job, is to tell others about Him and His great love for them in sending His Son to die in their place so that they don't have to fear death and what will come after. It's sobering because even after telling people about this great love, they choose to deny it. It's sobering because there are people who choose to live in their ignorance. It's sobering because today is a world that is so communications oriented, where information is so free and available, but people refuse the Message of the Gospel for their own ambitions and selfishness.
But, if you don't like the restrictive nature of the Bible, then you are going to think that everything I have just said is the most hateful thing you've ever heard. I'm prepared for it. But it's not enough to make me deny that the only way to heaven is through the blood of Jesus Christ. If there were any other way, then why send Jesus in the first place? Why would Jesus have to die? There would be no point to it. But He did, and there is. I cannot be more clear about it. And you can't be more clear in your own refusal of it. So my words are pointless for you, but I say it to anyone else who might reading. I'll be praying for you that your eyes will be opened, so that you won't be one of those condemned.
@xapatotheworld - So you're literally saying that any culture that has yet to come in contact with Westerners is damned for wallowing in its own ignorance?
I'm not so much talking about the modern day (though there are still plenty of countries where our 'modern communications networks' are not, in fact, accessible to the common individual because they struggle to do useful things, like survive and eat) as I am about, say, any century before the 20th. You know, when all people knew of Central Africa was that it existed and was peopled by 'savages'?
Apparently, they were all damned by default. Oh well, to each his (well, or her) own.
@forgottenrevelations@xanga - but you forget that all cultures, all people, came from one family, Noah, his wife and kids....and ultimately Adam and Eve. They had a responsibility to teach their children the history and the love of God, and I'm sure that Noah's immediate family did...but their own children quickly fell away from that responsibility...thus sealing the fate of their generations. And it's not a Western religion...by no means. It's Middle Eastern, if you want to be specific and choose regions. I believe that it's global.
There is enough evidence in nature and in a culture's history to point someone to Christ. People have been studying cultures in their pure form and almost every culture has some story of a catastrophic flood, of an Almighty God that is beyond their reach...but some have lost the knowledge of that deeper mystery in their own tribalism.
What about the Alaskan tribe who had an ancient prophecy that a man would come to them in a canoe that could fly, carrying a black book with gold pages, who would tell them about the Father God's Son and how they could get to heaven. They waited for years and years until a missionary finally chose to land a Cessna on their land. When they saw the plane in the air, they sent word to all the people of the tribe, and a mass of people greeted him. He thought they might be hostile, but when they saw his Bible, with gold-leafed pages, they approached him, asking for the news of Father God's Son. He was amazed, and told them the Gospel and they believed.
It's not that God has left them just to wallow...He has done things, prepared things, arranged things, to where they have a certain amount of light of the Gospel and they still choose what to do with it. Many choose to continue on in their animism, but some look forward to the coming knowledge of a Savior. I just pray that Christians do not wait any longer in going to tell them. People needlessly die around the globe without the full knowledge of God...but we have all the resources for complete global exposure. We Westerners are just too selfish and proud (as a generality) to give up our comforts and go tell others who are perishing.
It's disgusting and it's inaccurate. If there's enough to take a picture of, then it's an abortion done at a later stage. They're not all like that. It's also grossly offensive to women... especially if they've had to make that difficult choice at some point.
@xapatotheworld - You're condemning the son for the sins of the father.
@forgottenrevelations@xanga - generational sins are prevalent and a reality. In some families, it's anger, some it's laziness, deceit, thievery, pride, greed, in mine it's sexual sin. I have put my foot down that it will not continue with me and to my children (if I have any) but others in my family have chosen not to fight it. Behaviors are learned from parents. I wonder what sin you have specifically learned from your parents and have allowed to perpetuate through your life. And I also wonder if you only read the first paragraph of what I wrote and then left it at that, because I addressed how, even though the fathers have set up their descendents for failure, responsibility still remains with each individual to make a decision.
@xapatotheworld - None of the rest of the comment negates my point.
When you've been told something your entire life, having someone else come in, claim that your cultural teachings are both wrong and heretical, and that their way of life is both correct and better...and really expect them to take your word over that of someone they've respected all their lives?
Setting someone up for failure and then asking them to make the same leap as someone that's been indoctrinated all their life is hardly fair, much less sporting.