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“Go, And Make Atheists Of All Nations…”

I confess that I sometimes wonder if I would have any interest at all in becoming a Christian if I weren’t already one.

(Heck if I’m honest, many days I look around and wonder if I still want to be one now).

Today is one of those days.

It’s not that I think Jesus isn’t worth following anymore.
It isn’t that the Gospels don’t paint the picture of a beautiful life worth pursuing.
And it’s not that Jesus has lost a step or lost his luster or lost me.

In fact, some days Jesus is the only thing that keeps me from losing my religion. It’s just getting harder and harder to find him in The Church that bears his name.

Have you ever gone to a family reunion and gotten to see distant relatives you remember fondly from years past? There’s often that disappointing moment where the sweet memory of them, the idea of them that you once cherished gets overtaken by the cold, crushing reality, that well—you just don’t fit in anymore.

It’s not that you don’t still love them, it’s just that you no longer have anything in common other than blood and history. In fact, rather than making you feel at home or like you’re with family, they make you uncomfortable. So you sit there as they tell some bizarre story, and you smile awkwardly, watching the clock, biding your time until you can get in the car and get out of there before being literally embarrassed to death.

For many of us who really love Jesus, the Church is becoming that old, weird uncle who makes us nervous.

We watch the news and survey our news feeds and listen to talk radio and pass by the bumper stickers, and we get that queasy, disorienting family reunion feeling. We look at the over politicized, perpetually persecuted, fear-peddling, fight-picking, sign-waving, odd-talking presence that has become the face of American Christianity and we want to scream to the world, “These are not my people!”

Maybe you feel that way. Maybe you’re a Christian but you feel like a virtual stranger in The Church. (You’re not alone).
Maybe you’re not sure what you believe but you know that Christians generally freak you out. (Again, you’re in good company).

But please know that this wasn’t the plan.

As the Gospel of Matthew ends, Jesus is getting ready to leave the earth and he gives his students and supporters that grand, beautiful assignment:

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

This is known in Christian circles as The Great Commission and just about 100 percent of the churches in America claim it as their mission statement in one form or another; Jesus telling those who would bear his name, to aspire to his ways and his example, and to produce people who follow after him.

If I’m honest, I’m worried about what we’re producing anymore.

I know that we’re producing partisan networks and celebrity pastors and tricked-out megachurches and powerful lobbyist groups and predictable voting blocks, and lots and lots of books and blogs and sub par movies but beyond that things start to get a little hazy.

Are we actually speaking truth to the people outside of the building? Are we communicating the radical, loving message of Jesus, or have we simply commandeered him for our purposes, to serve our own preference? Have we just franchised out his name to say and do whatever we want?

Is our presence in this world drawing people closer to God or is it repelling them to the very precipice of unbelief? Is our religion setting the table for people to dine with Jesus or is it ruining their appetite altogether?

The truth is, though The Church is supposed to be making disciples, with our political agendas and our judgmental manner and our “us against them” mentality—we’re probably making more Atheists.

Am I taking a cheap shot here?
Is this the easy way out; vilifying my own family?
Am I guilty of the most horrible Christian-on-Christian crime by painting multitudes of believers with the same broad brush?

Maybe.

But after decades spent inside the Christian community and after 17 years as a pastor, I simply find myself trying more and more to stand in the shoes of the hurting and the searching and the broken people walking around out there and wondering, just what about the Christianity they see so often would make them want more of Jesus.

My greatest fear, is that The Church is becoming the biggest stumbling block to faith for the faithless—and frankly it tears me up.

I wish I had more solutions to offer, but right now all I have are frustrations and questions and those daily uncomfortable family reunions.

I still believe Jesus is worth following.

I’m just not sure that is where we’re leading people.

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