Rodney Olsen’s The Journey blog has an interesting post entitled, Is that all there is? It’s about a conversation between Bowden McElroy and a Christian teenager who is at a bit of a loss for words when asked what being a Christian means in the here and now. The best that he can come up with is, If you pray for things, you can get stuff.
The problem is, I think that a lot of churches don’t really provide adequate answers to the question of what being a Christian means in the here and now. A normal Christian is typically someone who goes to church each Sunday, puts some money in the plate, takes some minor voluntary role such as usher or car parking attendant to help keep the church wheels turning, offers an ongoing critique of the job the pastor was doing in running the church, and lives the rest of his or her life in pretty much the same manner as anyone who wasn’t a Christian.
There really are very few people out there who model what it means to be a fully committed follower of Jesus in an affluent society. How many Christian adults invest all of their money in kingdom work, rather than just giving God a 10% tip or less? How many Christian adults spend all of their time on kingdom work, rather than just giving God an hour or two in a week of self-obsessed pursuits?