Army of Priests

(From Emerging Grace)

“..In order for any two people – much less any two strangers – to really click, they’ve got to share something in common significantly more profound than working in the same place, or living in the same neighbourhood, or even being held captive together on the same alien spaceship.” – (John Shore in “I’m Ok, You’re Not”)

I went to the pub last night for a mates 21^st birthday. My conservative parents weren’t too happy about it but figured it would be ok since I had to drive anyway. The night was quite enjoyable. Fortunately, my friends were happy drunks rather than angry ones. As the evening rolled on however, I realised that a fair few Christians would disprove of my being there.

I’m not talking about being legalistic; I’m talking about being protected. In an effort to protect ourselves from the evil world we isolate ourselves into little Christian ghettos. By being at that party I was engaging in the world. I was putting myself within the range of peer pressure. I could have even sinned…

As Christians we often have a lot of trouble with associating with people “out there” – in the world. I know many Christians who socialize almost solely with other Christians. It is an easy temptation to fall into. Sure, we may work with non-Christians or see them at the checkout or on TV but we rarely invest ourselves into them (unless we are trying to evangelise them). Rather we form Christian sub-cultures so that we can stay protected whilst scratching our heads about why people aren’t flocking to us.

I have a flier in my hands for a Christian travel agency that gives the advice “let’s keep it within the Spiritual Body of Jesus Christ”. I want to puke. Why would we want to keep it within the body of Christ when there are plenty of good secular agencies providing the same or better service? Why would we want to use a Christian real estate rather than a secular one? Why would we want to put our movies on Godtube instead of youtube, myspace, facebook, virb, google video, or photobucket where everyone can see them? Is the secular world not “worthy” of us?

Matt Whitlock in Frequently Asked Questions suggests that we need more Christian bar tenders. Why? Because when a marriage is failing or someone’s had a bad day at work or can’t pay their bills where do they go? They go to the bar and talk to the bar tender. Of course, in the evangelical world jobs like bar tending are cursed. Evil happens in bars! Indeed it does, and that’s why we are needed there.

The Church is very defensive. We are more concerned with keeping things the same than we are in changing them. In my mind the church should be the primary motivator of change in the world. We repeatedly recommend that Christians not associate with people who sin incase it is contagious and we will catch their disease. Every time evil encroaches on an area we run from it. Instead we should be aggressively seeking out the evil in this world. Where evil is Christians should be so that we may fight it.

I strongly believe that Christians are meant to change this world. However, in order to change it you need to engage it. By “engage” I don’t mean hide in our church buildings and throw tacks at people who walk by. I mean enjoy the movies that non-Christians enjoy, frequent the places non-Christians frequent, do the things non-Christians do. Even befriend non-Christians just because you want to; not just to evangelise them.

The best example of contextual living I have heard of was set by Craig Gross who founded xxxchurch, a ministry to porn stars. Craig Gross goes to porn shows in order to be where he is needed. In one blog post he tells the story of how he had lunch with Ron Jeremy at hooters and then followed him to a party. It was not what you would call a “safe Christian place”. In the end though, after everyone had left, only Craig was there.

I knew eventually all the craziness would only last a few hours, it would eventually come to an end. It is all temporary, the fame, the sex, the girls, the life and eventually it all will go away not just for Ron but for everyone. Then what?

Ron looked at me and said, “Pull up a seat.”

… By 2:30 am the club was empty. I stayed. Why? because when all these things fade away what is left is only Faith, Hope, and Love. I gave back my all access pass and headed back to hotel, but realized we are on the same team. I don’t need the lanyard anymore to see that. The differences about porn we will leave to the debate, but in life, Ron Jeremy can not be an opponent. He must be a friend, and friends share friends and invite each other into their world. We’re more alike than different, we both have struggles, challenges, etc, but when it comes down to it, the only difference between Ron and I is that I have a relationship with Jesus that Ron doesn’t have that yet. But we’ll keep sharing dinner, sharing our friendship, and sharing our lives, and maybe one of these days we’ll have that in common too.

Craig is one of those guys who gets it. He understands that we are in this world not to run from evil but to fight it, to engage it. Where are meant to “be there”. Jesus also made a habit of seeking out the dark, evil places. He always found the sinners in an area and ate and laughed and loved with them. He met them where they were, not expecting them to reach a certain standard of holiness before they could talk. He didn’t need Christian spaces or cultures to hide in. He lived in the culture of the time because that was where the people were – where his mission was.

I have a fair few non-Christian friends. Do I want them to become Christians? Absolutely. Is that desire the prime motivator of my friendship? No. Will I keep being friends even if they never accept God? Yes. My friendship and love is not contingent on their accepting God. If it was, it would not be true friendship. I accept them as they are, even as I desire them to grow.

It’s not all this simple though. By attempting to engage and change the world we will soon see the world try to engage and change us. We are on the earth to battle and should expect evil to fight back. The more we engage the world the more we increase our chances of being compromised by it. But the more we distance ourselves from it the more we compromise with fear and passivity. This is where the balance of being “in this world but not of it” comes in. We belong to neither the evil world nor the Christian subculture.

We are made to be “salt and light” but salt is useless if not applied to something and light is pathetic if it is hidden. We could hate consumerism with such vigour that we go and live a simple life in the country and then influence no one. Is this what Christians are meant to be? We could be so pure that we flee from every sign of sexuality and therefore never spread that purity to the people who need it most.

But here is a question: is purity seen more in a protected conclave or a sex craved campus where a Christian holds firm to God despite constant temptation? Isn’t it the way we contrast with evil that makes us truly good? That’s what this world needs: contrast. If we hide in Churches amongst Christian friends doing Christian activities we are only white on white, if we mix in pubs amongst non-Christians’ sinning we are white on black – and appear all the more white for it.

That’s contextual living – being there. Being where the world is its blackest. Being where the pain is. Being where the people are. Being where the devil is. Being where Christians don’t dare to go.