For all the talk that goes on in Christian churches today about reaching “the lost,” I would love to see a little more emphasis on reaching “the found.” When people who identify as Christian but are mired from month to month and year to year in pornography, gambling, addictions, and bad marriages (at nearly identical rates to those who do not claim to be Christians), something is profoundly wrong.
There are several directions we can go with this. 1.) We can say that the reason Christians are nearly identical to non-Christians in terms of how we actually live is because what we believe is not actually capable of bringing transformation; 2) We can say that we’re missing a critical piece of the whole thing — something upon which the promise of transformation itself rests and without which there can simply be no significant transformation; 3) We can say that the problem is that we just aren’t trying hard enough. (As some popular writers are in fact saying. See my post “Not Crazy about Crazy Love“.)
I think the answer is #1 and #2. I think the reason Christians en-masse are not experiencing significant life transformation is because we missing a critical piece of what Christianity actually is. Continue Reading…