Before I begin, I feel I need to make some unnecessary disclaimers. I, Alan Ng, am a conservative born again, evangelical Christian with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. After you read this and the other blog entries, you can call me whatever name you want, it will just fall off my back.
I became a Christian in the 1980's just before graduating from high school. I was swept up and took part in the popularity of evangelicalism. I loved my Christian t-shirts and listened to only Christian music. I drank milk from Christian Cows (Steve Taylor Reference). I listened to Focus on the Family, Chuck Swindoll and Chuck Smith. I protested abortion (as I still do today) and The Last Temptation of Christ. And like all good evangelicals, I'm a Republican.
These last few years though have been trying times, not for my faith but for my faith in the church. My faith that the church can remain relevant and paint an accurate picture of Christ.
Much of my attention today has moved away from church and church involvement to the ministering to the needs of those abused and discarded by the church. The song They Will Know We Are Christian By Our Love comes to mind. What does the world see, when they see Christians.
What I see today from Christians has little to do with showing Christ's love to a fallen world, but more about maintaining a pure and godly lifestyle and forcing others to live that way too.
When I talk to people who have turned away from Christianity, I hear stories of the Church letting them down and the Church constantly judging them. The reason rarely have to do with Jesus Christ himself.
In future blogs, I hope to get into detail with this topic, but before then I would direct you to my writings about Homosexuality and Christianity. All of the criticism that I've received never once treats a gay person as a person in need of Christ, but as a person whos lifestyle will prevent them from ever become a Christian and now their sole goal is to destroy the family. This is a huge leap to take.
As an evangelical my life's goal is not to protect America's legal definition of a family. My goal is to be salt and light in this world and share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
More on this later.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The "church" will not save anybody. It is Christ within us who believe in Him, and profess with our tongues we believe in Him that we shall be saved. A "church" is a building, with chairs, a pulpit, rooms to fill, hallways, where people gather to do their religious thing. Any building, just like a church, will not save anybody. Your living room can be where your followers gather to read the bible, sing worship music and fellowship. You don't need a building to hold services, as your group of followers grow you will need a better place, but don't put your faith in that building, it will crumble and burn when Jesus is finished with it. Once again, a building will not save you from hell. Only your faith in God the Father, God the Son, & God the holy spirit. Jesus.
Post a Comment