Friendship is by definition a mutual arrangement, a two-way street. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of us all being bound up in an “inescapable web of mutuality.” They called Jesus a “friend of sinners,” which, for my money, implies more than that he was nice to bad people. He valued their friendship as much as they …
Vulnerability and Mutual Trust
My general rule of thumb is to convey the radical cost of accepting or rejecting the gospel at a level commensurate with the trust I’ve built with someone. Otherwise it feels like I’m shouting at them from across the chasm to come over to our side. Once they trust me they’ll be more apt to …
Nobody Likes A Condescending Spiritual Expert
“Befriending someone merely so you can tell them the gospel is a form of manipulation and a violation of trust,” says Christopher Heuertz. “Some of our approaches to conversion have earned the mistrust of the very people we want to reach.” Treat people as people, not like evangelistic targets. Nobody likes to be targeted. We’re …
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Restoring the “Good” in Good News
Identifying as “Christian” makes us complicit in the debacles committed by other Christians in the world yesterday, today, and forever. Object to it all you want but our track record is entwined with everyone else who identifies as Christian. Sure, we’ve contributed mountains of good to the world but we’ve also dumped a lot of …
The Necessity of Authenticity
Does it bother you that when they think about Christians a lot of people see us as angry, judgmental, right-wing finger-pointers with political agendas? You might not think this is a fair characterization; but it’s a reputation that, by association, is ours. Maybe it’s true that for every individual who earned the world’s mistrust there …
