Had an interesting experience last night. There is a local church which hosts a basketball game once a week as an outreach. Christians from the church and the area (if they have a “membership”) have the opportunity to bring their friends to play basketball and to hear a short devotional. Enter the interesting experience.
The gentleman who shared the devotion for the evening passed out papers to all the players - maybe 25 of us or so and then pointed to people and had them read King James Scripture verses in sequence. I actually didn’t get a paper, but that didn’t stop him from pointing to me and asking me to read. I asked for the paper from the guy next to me who showed me where we were and I read my sentence. The passage we were reading was Romans 12 about the renewing of minds, but somehow the devotion went from there to, “all that matters is whether or not you know Jesus Christ because if you don’t and you get hit by a car on the way home tonight, you won’t be going to Heaven.” As the words came out of his mouth I gazed up and down the bleachers we were sitting on to see if others were hearing the same thing I was. The looks I saw were ones of complete immunity and numbness. It scared me.
But it didn’t stop there. After the guy finished the devotion he spent every bit as much time threatening to kick people out who refused to play “team basketball.”
It was about the most ungracious and off-putting outreach scenario I had ever been exposed to.
So here’s what I have been processing. I am sure this guy loves God and really wants others to know God, but I seriously founding myself praying that no non-Christian would ever have to be exposed to this sort of presentation. Not only do I think it would be incredibly damaging for them, but I found myself deeply offended as a believer. On top of that, I began wondering to myself… “If this is an acceptable expression of the Christian faith in this context, I am in for one heck of a time.”
11 responses so far ↓
1 Eric // Mar 27, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Welcome to the Bible belt brother…
2 JR Rozko // Mar 27, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Right… I suppose I shouldn’t be all that surprised, but man it was just surreal to actually experience it first hand. I suppose the upside is the utter dependency I will need to have on God, but bottom line, I’m pretty darn nervous.
3 Christian // Mar 27, 2008 at 10:15 pm
That sort of thing isn’t really my style either, but it might reach some people who have a harder shell and who wouldn’t be comfortable discussing their "faith journey" or whatever. Maybe this guys knows his audience?
4 Emily Jones // Mar 27, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Yes, welcome to the South. =)
5 Dad // Mar 28, 2008 at 7:28 am
Scary
6 Alex Rozko // Mar 28, 2008 at 8:43 am
Unfortunately ignorance or naiveness is everywhere. I imagine even in our tiny nation the diversity of experiences and differences in communities are as foreign as any other countries. I pray this is only a small example of the Christian believers you encounter and I pray you have the strength for the challenges ahead.
7 JR Rozko // Mar 28, 2008 at 1:04 pm
@ Christian - I appreciate your optimism here, and hey, I am brand new so what do I know, but man I find it had to think that style for the sake of a certain crowd should ever eclipse things like love and grace, and this isn’t even to mention a sorrowfully distortion of the gospel - might be one of those, "you just had to be there sort of things."
8 Emily Jones // Mar 28, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I’d rather just let you discover it on your own and then read about it here. =)
9 JR Rozko // Mar 28, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Wow, that’s probably just what I would have said. Happy reading.
10 Alex Rozko // Mar 28, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Glad my older brother can laugh at my expense
but check it homeslice:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/naiveness
11 JR Rozko // Mar 28, 2008 at 1:33 pm
you can’t trust web dictionaries, they’re dumbness
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