Family of God: Modern March | a Christian blog

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Modern March | a Christian blog

Posted: 27 Nov 2010 08:31 PM PST

To the detriment of many church services, Christians tend to be either over-charismatic or over-stoic during worship. I suspect that this is pride on both sides of the scale. The over-charismatics are in competition (albeit with themselves) to appear super spiritual and the over-stoics are too proud (whether intentionally or not) to show real emotion due to the fear of “looking weird.” Sadly, this spills over into our daily lives. We all know the Ned Flanders at the office that seems almost fake and the guy who you’d never expect as a Christian simply because of his lack of excitement about anything.

Though most Christians are used to this dynamic, non-believers visiting your church and watching you live your life are not. Though not always as skeptical or jaded as many Christians are toward each other, outsiders can often tell whether or not the Christian is authentic in what they believe and how they show it. As a former agnostic, I can confirm this to be true. The postmodern world is looking for authenticity, not a show (or lack thereof).

The key is not to be critical of or encourage anyone to “work on” how they worship or present themselves, but rather to plead with you to be real when doing it. Contrary to popular belief, your faith is not about you.

Day-to-day and week-to-week, do non-believers see a lover of Jesus or a thespian?

Filed under: Church, Daily Life, Gospel