A key to living a “sent” life is to understand one’s context.
My buddy is a Pastor in Northern California. Shortly after he moved out West, we were talking on the phone about our local Church settings. I told him how proud I was of him and that I would be praying for his ministry since being a Pastor in a place full of wackos like Northern California has to be quite the challenge.
He laughed and said, “man…you have it much harder than I do here.” I jumped in and basically told him he was crazy because there is a Church on every corner (sometimes 2 per corner) in Tallahassee.
My buddy said that everyone where he lives knows they are lost and they are proud of it. They laugh at the idea of God, Church, or the suggestion that the Bible has any validity or authority.
“People where you are think they are fine because they have some Church exposure and can come close to naming all of the ten commandments.”
“That is a much more difficult mission,” he insisted.
Our College Students probably live in a combination of the world that is closer to my California buddy and the southern religious mindset. Our Tallahassee locals encounter more of the Bible-belt, southern values while I live however I want and say “yes sir,” culture that thinks it is just fine.
At the Well, we try and speak to both.
Everywhere is challenging in its’ own way because we are sheep among wolves and following the very One the World hated and rejected. Our job is to be prayerful, and faithfully active wherever God has placed us.
I am in Tallahassee. A town that would insist it is “religious,” and many claim a Church they have not been to since Easter of last year. Being a “good person” and not Muslim basically makes you a Christian in the mind’s of the Tallahassee, unchurched yet religious, local.
That is an interesting conversation. That is a crucial mission.
Matthew 7:21-23: Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Romans 3:20-23: Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
