Let them know we are Christians
The card was addressed "To: Our Neighbor" at my address. It was from El Toro Baptist Church, an evangelical church in my area. It was an invitation to "Judgement House," (that is their misspelling of “judgment”) and here is the text of the invite:
"Judgement House is a walk-through drama presentation that tells the story of one evening in the lives of four teenagers who through a series of events must face the consequences of their choices for eternity.
The consequences of those choices will be revealed as you tour their eternal destinations and consider yours.
October 28-31. 6:00 PM till 10:00 PM. Reserve your tour in advance. We look forward to seeing you there! There is no charge for admission. Not recommended for children under the age of 12."
The company that equips churches to present Judgement House also has its own website. At the end of the walk-through, guests are offered the opportunity to accept the free gift of salvation. The average U.S. covenant church “experienced 6 salvations per hour of presentation!”
Let’s pray for a moment before continuing. God, you are the ultimate Truth, the Source of Life, indescribable, indefinable, the One whose love knows no bounds. Please guide us to your love; show us how to bring you into our hearts, and fill us with your Peace. Amen.
Okay, I feel in a better place now. Here we go.
The people of this church are so filled with God’s love, and so eager to share His radical message of redemption and peace for mankind, and so moved by their own experiences with His divine touch, that they pow-wowed on how to reach out to the community so that they can share this love with others, and this is what they came up with? A PG-13 rated scare tactic? Has Christianity stooped so low that we need to scare our friends and neighbors into believing in Christ?
While we ponder that question for a minute, I would like to reflect on Jesus and His teachings. His own “drama activism,” if you will. The way he drew large crowds of people together only to bewilder them by defying the cultural norms of the time by touching sick people, speaking with unmarried women, allowing menstruating women to touch him, sharing food that had not been purified with people who were not meant to eat together. Let’s reflect on the way He went out of his way to include the “other.” The way he often disappointed even His own followers with his message of love. They wanted a revolutionary; what they got was revolutionary love.
This is the man I worship as my God. The more of His presence I bring into my life, the more I realize that Jesus saves, not because we one day say “Jesus is my Savior!” but because knowing Jesus means that you know the depth of God’s love for you. It means that you know the depth of God’s love for that person next to you. It means that you can be so buoyed by God’s abiding love that you don’t seek the fulfillment of your own needs, but instead seek to meet others’ needs.
Everything I have learned about God through Jesus Christ, both in scripture and in experience, points me towards wanting to drastically change my life so that I am not about me, but about Him. So that the only needs I have are to meet other’s needs. So that the line between “others” and me is blurred. So that the line between God and others and me is blurred. "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you" (John 14:20). So that we all are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do God’s work in the world, to transform any given moment into God’s kingdom.
This is so much more radical than one day saying that Jesus is Lord. If we are counting and measuring “salvation” by how many people say that Jesus is God per hour of programming, we have missed it. Jesus did not reach out to thousands, challenge his own religion and culture, and die on the cross so that people would say He is king. He did it to show the kind of human we are supposed to be.
So I return to Judgement House. Undeniably, the people putting it on believe that if they don’t act, their neighbors’ souls will end up in eternal hell. I understand that they feel they have to do something, anything, to get people to come to Christ. I know Jesus spoke of the fire and of Judgment Day. But there are alternate ways (see also this) to interpret these quotes that are more consistent with all we know about Jesus through his other teachings and actions. Ultimately, would our God be pleased with the fearful worship of people trying to avoid their own suffering? Was Christ afraid of suffering? If we are to be Christ-like, we must not live out our faith as a fearful exercise to avoid suffering. We must live our lives awash in God’s love.
Let them know we are Christians, not by the way we frighten our neighbors into wanting to avoid pain, but by the way we are willing to endure anything or any pain to help our neighbors. Let them know we are Christians by our love. And they will come to worship what is good, what is giving, what is God. Amen.
posted by Sarah at 2:46 PM
3 Comments:
Have you read Under the Banner of Heaven? While controversial in many ways, I really appreciated the link that Krakauer drew between all fundamentalist/extremist religious groups, including some evangelicals (and perhaps some Presidents of very large countries). His point was that religious beliefs can be wonderful - a comfort, an inspiration, a moral compass, a builder of community. But that when they reach a certain fervor, the followers (even Presidents) will do horrible things (like start a war that kills hundreds of thousands of people) and feel completely justified by their religious beliefs. I have to say that the growing fundamentalist groups of so many religious beliefs terrify me - including these Judgement Day folks.
Excellent. I don't know if, off the cuff, I would have been able to pinpoint what bothered me about that flyer, but you did it. PG13 scare tactic indeed.
Nicely put.
Dear Sarah,
My name is Mike and I am the pastor at El Toro Baptist Church. I first of all want to say how I appreciate the spirit with which you approached the subject on Judgement House. Your deep love for the Lord is clearly evident and your desire to see people come to embrace the Savior is true to the Word. However, I too would like to offer a prospective on Judgement House and the reason we as a congregation have engaged this ministry.
The power of Judgement House is not a PG-13 scare tactic as you presume, it is about showing people that life is short and the time is now for salvation. Each and every day people enter into eternity, some expectedly and others unexpectedly. The truth is not one of us knows the moment when we will be taken from this world. It could be 50 years from now, it could be tomorrow. And that is what Judgement House reveals, that life is a vapor and it begs the question, "When your time comes to step into eterinty will you be ready?"
I assume from the date of your blog that you have not seen the presentation. If you had come what you would have seen is a very loving presentation of the truth. In fact, the climactic scene of Judgement House is when people tour through heaven. It is at this point a man dressed as Jesus greets each and every person going through the tour and simply shares how Jesus gave His life for them and longs to have them with Him forever.
I agree with you that salvation is more than praying a prayer, and evangelism is more than a production put on for four days. I also agree with you that Jesus demonstrated His love by healing and embracing the outcast and the hurting. But Jesus also warned people of the punishment which awaited those who rejected Him. There are many parables where Jesus concluded His message by saying there is a place of judgment awaiting those who reject Him, (Matt. 13:42; 13:50; 25:46; etc...). You see, both pictures reveal the same and complete truth, God is love but there is punishment which awaits those who do not trust in His Son. I realize this is not a popular message, but it is true, isn't it?
Perhaps trying to capture the attention of a lost world during the time of year where witchs, ghosts and goblins are welcomed may seem a bit extreme to some, but we are simply trying to make an eternal difference in the lives of those who will come. Obviously not all people in the Kingdom agree on the exact approach in sharing the message of hope. But we should all be active to do something.
I don't expect you to agree, but at least I hope this will help you understand our intentions. We simply long to see people come to embrace the Savior who loved us so much that He gave His life for each and every one of us. What a great and awesome God we have!
Mike
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