The Balancing Act

One of the things I was hoping to accomplish this Christmas Break was plug into some new books that I had been wanting to read, but unfortunately had run into the buzzsaw that is reading for school. Thankfully, I have been able to plug into a couple books that have just been phenomonal reading for me. One is called the Truth War by John MacArthur, which focuses on the efforts of the PostModern Emergent Church to speak out against absolute truth, while the other book that I am reading is called UnChristian, written by the President of the Barna Research Group, David Kinnaman, as well as Gabe Lyons, who heads up the Fermi Project. That book was a 3 year research process surrounding how the "UnChristian" world perceives modern day Christianity and the Christians who subscribe to that name.

As I have been reading both books at the same time, I've been struck with looking at the reality of my conversations with those who do not profess the same Christian beliefs that I have. On one hand, when I read the Truth War, I feel the compelling of Scripture to contend for the faith that I believe in, but when I read UnChristian, I become accutely aware from what the research has shown as a very widespread perception in the USA that Christians are considered to be, "unwilling to engage in healthy dialogue, who are just looking to win arguments and convert souls than taking a real interest in caring for somebody with deep needs." In that same section that described alot of people's feelings towards modern day Christianity, the writers wrote about the response that a large portion of the Christian church has had to this perception,


"they respond to outsiders negativity by promoting a less offensive faith. The unpopular parts of Christian teaching are omitted or deemphasized. They hijack the image of Jesus by portraying him as an open-minded, big hearted and never-offended-anyone moral teacher."


As I read the Truth War at the same time, I realize thoroughly how important it is as a Christian to not water down or compromise the central message and tenets of my Christian faith, especially when I am communicating with somebody about my faith. Now, the hard part for me, well, the balancing act is that I know that I need to present the whole truth to somebody when I talk with them about Christianity, but oftentimes I am fighting the perception that I am a close minded, judgemental Christian who doesn't care about the person I'm talking with, but am just concerned with being right.


So, as I write this note today, I'm taking a journey to a place where I haven't been to really in my walk with Jesus. I hope and pray to learn through the two books, as well as through my experiences with other people who don't believe in what I do, how to balance communicating the truth of God's Word and the faith I hold dear, while doing that talking with many who have a wide range of feelings towards the faith that I am talking with them about. I'm excited to learn as I move forward with these new experiences, it's definately going to be different.