What Christians Ought to Be Known

I just love this picture, that's all... 

Question: What Christians should be known for in thirty years from now?

Simply put, I thinks Christians ought to be known for loving people outside of their social comfort zones. Today we’ve become pretty good at loving people like ourselves, but the kind of love I hope Christians are known for in thirty years breaks our social love boundaries.

Of course, love is too difficult a word to define. But let me try listing what I think the future of Christian love ought to involve:

§  Loving without putting our acts of kindness on a pedestal. What happened to giving in secret? Glamourous charity is not charity at all.

§  Loving without strings, unconditionally, no bait and switches.

§  Being unconcerned about being unnamed, rewarded, or repaid.

§  Prioritizing the other, even in the midst of personal discomfort.

§  Advocating for the undefended.

§  Being a voice for the voiceless.

§  Being better listeners to those who need to be heard.

§  Being a church without walls – simple church, organic church, megachurch – it’s all good. We’re one church.

§  Seeing the church as a home of the fringe, the misfits, and the marginalized, where these same people lead with real authority.

§  Being willing to die for others, laying our lives down like the first-century Christians did when pandemics struck their cities. They would stay to serve the afflicted while others left.

§  Responding immediately to any global crisis.

§  Thinking of long-term commitment to radical and sacrificial compassion for the poor.

§  Being a gentle conversationalist with the world.

§  Showing love for Christ more than love for Christianity as a culture.

§  Creating a place where all are truly empowered, led and seen. A place where the next generation finally reflects the majority, multicultural world. Jesus really didn’t have blue eyes! (or did he?)

Dave Gibbons

Pastor of New Song Church

Quote from Unchristian by David Kinnaman and Fermi Project (Baker Books, 2007) pg. 228-229

Original title as ‘Love’

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.