I Like My Jesus Not Yours

It is common now to hear and read that people really like Jesus but not the church, or even , they like Jesus but not Christians. In an interview with Rev. Bill Hybels, Irish rocker Bono says, “I never had any problem with Christ but Christians were always a bit of a problem with me. . . . Christians can be very judgmental. . . . I grew up very suspicious of Christians but determined to know more of Christ.”
This is the same perspective the emerging church is hearing and the need they are trying to meet in our postmodern world. Karen Ward of Church of the Apostles in Seattle says that a poll taken in her area “found that 95 percent of the nonchurched have a favorable view of Jesus . . . . It is the church they dislike.”
Barry Taylor of Sanctuary in Santa Monica says his church “focused on the humanity of Jesus and lost all the categories of church history.” Sanctuary adopted the Jesus of popular culture, not the church. Taylor says, “I needed to stop reading Paul for awhile and start focusing on Jesus.”
One can understand disappointment with Christians as we are often disappointed with ourselves. We can also understand the interest in Jesus. However, there is a problem in letting the culture interpret Jesus for us. The 95 percent of the nonchurched who have a favorable view of Jesus, have a favorable view of their understanding of Jesus. Is their understanding correct? Should we stop reading Paul and focus on Jesus? Who do we think Paul was focusing on?
It is true that the Gospels have their own themes and Jesus was all about the Kingdom entering the world, while Paul was more interested in interpreting the cross and resurrection. But, to see the two as mutually exclusive is to ignore the continuities in New Testament theology and to give a very selective, incomplete, skewed or false understanding of who Jesus is . The apostles were all about interpreting Jesus.
We do have to start where people are but staying there is not discipleship. Building a ministry on an incomplete view of Jesus is not fair to those who find an initial attraction to our Savior.

Ravi on Postmodernism

Ravi Zacharias recently spoke at the Evangelical School of Theology on the subject of postmodernism. In his address he pointed out the growing "stridency of the willingness to live with the ramifications" of atheism. I've observed this as well. An atheist friend regularly sends links to Youtube videos wanting my response. (Check out this example, if you can handle the regular use of the "f" word: http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=gyILS5RL3M8 .) You're familiar, I'm sure, with the growing number of popular books promoting atheism. What I've discovered in my dialogue with my atheist friends is that logic alone no longer wins debates. Zacharias suggested the Church needs to enter the debate with a 3-pronged approach: 1) We need an apologetic that's not merely heard but also seen. Our faith must be visible. 2) We need an apologetic that's not just argued but also felt. And 3) We need an apologetic that is conscious of the ends as well as the means. It's worth using these 3 criteria to evaluate our/your church's missional agenda.