At a crossroads...

The Church is living Christianity out of context and I am at a crossroads.

Let me explain.

Say you were to fire a gun and miss the target you were aiming for. I mean, you may only miss by a couple milimeters, but you missed. Now imagine the path of that bullet has enough force and energy in it to continue on it's mis-guided path without losing speed or velocity (all you physics freaks out there live a little!!!). Also, imagine the intended path that the bullet was supposed to take that would have led to the bullseye extending through the target and on out into infinity. The farther the bullet travels, the more off-course it gets. Pretty soon what was initially a miss of only a few milimeters, is now a few feet... and the farther it goes, the wider that gap becomes. Eventually that gap could be a few hundred, even thousand feet off course... I mean, without ever losing its momentum it could eventually get to be a few miles off course! All because of a few milimeters.

I believe the Early Church had it right. They understood what Christ had taught them, and they knew what they needed to do in order to start the new Church after He was gone. But after a while, something started to change. I am not pointing fingers to blame any specific generation or historic event. But somewhere down the line we started to veer off-course. At first it didn't seem like much, in fact some people may not have even noticed they weren't "right on" anymore.

But the longer time went on, the farther down the historic timeline of the Church things started getting more and more off. But at that point, it had been such a slow and gradual change, no one was really noticing. (Kind of like the frog in boiling water... if you drop a frog directly into boiling water, it will jump right out. But if you put it in cool water and place it over a heat source, the frog will never jump out, but rather allow itself to boil to death.)

I can't help but feel that's where the Church is right now. The water is boiling around us, and no one seems to notice, or to care.

Somewhere down the line we have twisted and perverted the original Gospel. I mean, how else can you explain the polar opposite Gospels that Christ and the Early Church preached as compared to the "gospel" that is now preached in America today? I mean one is pro-hate, pro-judgement, pro-condemnation, pro-moral police, pro-America and anti-everyone else... and the other one? The other one is pro-love. Nothing more, nothing less.

How did we get to this point? Where did we lose our path? But more importantly... how do we get back?

That's where I am today... at a crossroads. I feel as if I can no longer associate myself with American Christianity and continue on the path that it is going. To call myself a "Christian" to the secular world already handicaps me from sharing the good news. As soon as someone hears the C-word, they are flooded with preconceived ideas and emotions based on what they have seen from a small, but intensely vocal minority. And it makes my job harder.

I have a good friend who has told me on more than one occasion that he has never felt judged as much as when he is around Christians. Is that what Jesus said when he sent the disciples out on their first missionary journey? "They will know you are my disciples by your judgement?" Ummm... the translation I have says "LOVE." They will know we are His disciples by our love.

That is the path we need to get back on. That is where we are supposed to be. And if the Church is going to continue on a path that takes them further and further away from that, then I guess I need to go off on my own.

I am at a crossroads and need to start forging a path back to the original intention of the Church and I need to distance myself from American Christianity pronto.

The question I have for you is this: Will you continue on the path that is comfortable and familiar? Will you stay with what you know best? Or will you join me?

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry that I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost