Are we too Christian? Are we loosing opportunities to serve because of it?

Are we too "Christian"? 

More and more, I've heard from people who say things like "I don't want to go to church, they're just there to talk about Jesus".

That sounds good on the surface to most Christians. But take it deeper. 

As I ask what they really need and want... I find:

They want to do life as human beings with other human beings. They want to talk about life, struggles, hardships, successes, and do life together. They want real community. 

There is absolutely a truth to having a shared worldview, and shared commitment to The Word and to Jesus Christ our Lord and His Father. I'm not negating that.

But... 

#1. Are we SO dedicated to doing Christiany Things that we actually create a fake community? 

If every time we get together we open the Bible and talk scripture like a book study, making sure we don't say anything that will get a rebuke, making sure we look and sound a certain way... We end up in a place where we don't just do life together, I think we run the danger of building an inauthentic community.

#2. Are we so fortified in our Christiany Things that outsiders who haven't met Jesus yet don't want to be with us? 

We will absolutely turn off those dedicated to darkness. If someone hates the light, they'll hate us. Nothing we do will change that. 

But what if the people who don't like us aren't dedicated to darkness, they're actually making an astute observation about us that we're blind to. We're inauthentic as a community and therefore unsafe.

We should be the safest, freeest, most authentic, most vulnerable, most raw, most willing to be imperfect and let it show, of any community on planet Earth. 

But we're not. We're known for being plastic. One way on Sunday and another way during the week. We're known for being stingy, judgmental, mean, holier than thou, and hard to be around.

The communities the Church wrestled against are the ones being real, raw, authentic. True, they're embracing life choices that are destructive to them. There's no call or ask to be a better version of themselves. But they're real, and the world is drawn to them. 

How could we begin to craft community that is BOTH authentic and calls us to more?

#Selah