Back in the dark days of my youth I went to Happening convention at Belgrave (think huge youth rally with bands and speakers - youth groups all went and camped there for a long weekend whilst being self-congratulatory about being “saved”), I remember a band called “Thrash Puppies” which had a number of very cool songs, including “This T-Shirt won’t save you”.  It was pitched against Christian tokenism that was so common with us youths - this was before the WWJD trend, but I remember being pretty proud of a couple of “edgy” T-shirts from Koorong with designs that relied heavily on the fish motif.  Man I rocked.

Anyway, Tim pointed out these couple of posts on Dan Kimball’s site about his encounter with a guy wearing a T-shirt which seemed to suggest that Jesus preached intolerance, with the words on the back “HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN!  ISLAM IS A LIE!  ABORTION IS MURDER! Some things are just black and white.”  So I want to quote some of his reaction:

I am amazed and even numb now, of when I ask Christians what they are doing to share Jesus with others or how they are being Jesus to others. I am guessing around 95% of the Christians I ask, especially church leaders, are not in any true friendship with a non-Christian. I ask when was the last time you went to dinner with someone outside of the faith? Or when have you gone to a movie with someone not already part of your church? The answer almost 95% of the time is “I haven’t”. All of the time is spent with Christians in the church. Have we so turned the need for “community” into a selfish thing to where we now don’t ever make effort to be salt and light to others? Or do so only by giving money to the poor or go on mission trips elsewhere - but not being in real relationships and friendships with those outside the church where we live? How else will they not think Christians are all like the guy wearing the t-shirt?

Interesting challenge.  It may not be a t-shirt but there are plenty of other fads which are used as special signals of our faith and belief.  It might be the NIV study bibles which were fashionable in my youth (complete with large leather cover), it might be a WWJD bracelet, or even, more subtly, a “Make Poverty History” wrist band.  None of this really matters, except where it is being used as a replacement for what we ought to be doing to express the love and commitment of Jesus to others.

Certainly, in my experience of “contemporary worship” churches, high demands are put on peoples time (with leadership, small group attendance, worship, then supper after worship, plus training days etc).  Pretty soon, it is difficult for people to develop relationships with non-christians even if they want to.  This time theft was one of the motivating factors behind our multi-congregational model, which has a different emphasis.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 at 8:36 am by dan and is filed under challenges for the church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.