In light of Fara’s birthday on Tuesday, how about a serious post? Yeah?
Talent Show was this past weekend, and I believe many prayers were answered -- not only with a great production, but with a great response.
The goal of the show was to dare people to move. We even had a speaker flown in from Chicago in order to share his testimony with the 1000+ in attendance.
I thought the show was a huge success.
Then I heard some comments about how people felt “tricked” to hearing a sermon, and an “offensive” sermon at that.
I've been thinking and thinking and thinking. The word "trick" is a very tricky word. But the more I think about it, the more I believe that this would only be true if we gave off the impression that we were some sort of talent agency that did nothing but put on nice talent shows.
But, alas, we are in fact Asian American Campus Ministry. Granted, not many people knew there would be a speaker, but the topic of the entire night was AIDS, and I think Christopher's testimony flowed seamlessly with the rest of the night.
So that brings us to the bigger issue. People were offended. Some non-believers were offended. Some believers were offended because some non-believers were offended. Some believers were offended by themselves. I can't say for sure what people's circumstances or feelings are, but I can only ask a simple, yet loaded question. Where should the line be drawn between being bold for Christ and being offensive?
Here's my two cents. Chances are if someone is sharing a story as powerful and life-changing as the one that was shared Saturday night, someone is bound to get rubbed off the wrong way. That's just how it is. With someone who came from a life of drugs, premarital sex, homosexuality -- three things which I'm sure most of the audience there could somehow relate to -- there will be one point in the story where a decision must be made. God, or the other stuff? Christopher shared that he chose God.
Yeah, I guess you could say that that was an overly simplified version of the circumstances, but so what? I think Christians nowadays are too scared to step across that PC line. The last thing we want to do is, God forbid, "offend" someone.
I believe the story of Jesus and what it takes to follow after Him is one that is never about being nice and getting along with everyone. Should we just skip the parts in the Bible where Jesus called people out? Where He overturned tables in the temple? Where He was angry?
A few weeks ago at large group we were taught to speak the truth in love, and i think Saturday night was a tremendous example of this.
Talent Show was this past weekend, and I believe many prayers were answered -- not only with a great production, but with a great response.
The goal of the show was to dare people to move. We even had a speaker flown in from Chicago in order to share his testimony with the 1000+ in attendance.
I thought the show was a huge success.
Then I heard some comments about how people felt “tricked” to hearing a sermon, and an “offensive” sermon at that.
I've been thinking and thinking and thinking. The word "trick" is a very tricky word. But the more I think about it, the more I believe that this would only be true if we gave off the impression that we were some sort of talent agency that did nothing but put on nice talent shows.
But, alas, we are in fact Asian American Campus Ministry. Granted, not many people knew there would be a speaker, but the topic of the entire night was AIDS, and I think Christopher's testimony flowed seamlessly with the rest of the night.
So that brings us to the bigger issue. People were offended. Some non-believers were offended. Some believers were offended because some non-believers were offended. Some believers were offended by themselves. I can't say for sure what people's circumstances or feelings are, but I can only ask a simple, yet loaded question. Where should the line be drawn between being bold for Christ and being offensive?
Here's my two cents. Chances are if someone is sharing a story as powerful and life-changing as the one that was shared Saturday night, someone is bound to get rubbed off the wrong way. That's just how it is. With someone who came from a life of drugs, premarital sex, homosexuality -- three things which I'm sure most of the audience there could somehow relate to -- there will be one point in the story where a decision must be made. God, or the other stuff? Christopher shared that he chose God.
Yeah, I guess you could say that that was an overly simplified version of the circumstances, but so what? I think Christians nowadays are too scared to step across that PC line. The last thing we want to do is, God forbid, "offend" someone.
I believe the story of Jesus and what it takes to follow after Him is one that is never about being nice and getting along with everyone. Should we just skip the parts in the Bible where Jesus called people out? Where He overturned tables in the temple? Where He was angry?
A few weeks ago at large group we were taught to speak the truth in love, and i think Saturday night was a tremendous example of this.
