Christian Challenge at MSC

(This is a guest article contributed by Remy Currier, a student with us at ChallengeMSC, that was originally published on theooze.com.  Please, check out the original article HERE, and take a look at some of the comments left by readers there.)

 

Last year, my college had a big end-of-the-year party with a hypnotist, vendors, bands, food, and games. One of the vendors was a Christian clothing company, and their booth was set up right next to my Campus Crusade group’s table, so, at some point during the day, a friend and I wandered over to their table. The guy who owned the company was a young, seemingly cool guy with tattoos and a backwards hat – the kind of guy who looks just alt rock enough to be “Seeker friendly.”

So my friend and I started talking to the guy while we looked at some of the tee shirts he was selling. We had been visiting with him for a few minutes when my friend picked up one of the shirts, a black tee with a screen print of a gas mask on the front and a logo on the back, and asked the guy what the gas mask symbolized.

“I kind of had the idea of how, like, Jesus is like a gas mask that we put on to filter out all of the crap that’s in the world,” he explained.

Personally, I was shocked. Not because Gas Mask guy is anyone special, and certainly not because his view is unique or different. I was shocked only because of the absolutely ordinary opinion he held. It's an opinion of Jesus that we all run into, and some of us hold, for better or for worse.

I kind of feel sorry for the Gas Mask guy. For me, it seems as if his Jesus is awfully small. It seems to me that if all Jesus is good for is just to be our gas mask, then Jesus isn’t really worth very much.

And yet Gas Mask guy can probably back up his position with verses. And let’s face it, Gas Mask guy isn’t all wrong, he’s just missing huge chunks of the story. And, really, it seems to me like he’s really missing out on what makes Jesus so great – The fact that, in encountering the risen Christ, we begin a journey on a path of becoming one with Jesus. It seems to me like he’s too busy worrying about heaven and hell and the evil in the world to see the underlying beauty of the whole thing – the fact that it’s really not about heaven or hell at all; instead it’s about God coming into the world to reunite us to Him.

I guess I really feel sorry for Gas Mask guy because it seems to me like he’s just trying to escape the world. Like Jesus is just there to protect him from the world while he’s here and to be his ticket into heaven when he needs to get there.

For me, when Jesus says in John’s gospel that he is the Way, he doesn’t mean that he’s our ticket into heaven. For me, he’s saying that he is so much more than just a gas mask to put on. He’s so much more than just a bridge to walk over on my way to heaven. He’s so much more than just a means to health and wealth. Jesus is the Way. His teachings and his life create a Way, a path in which to walk, and a guiding companion for that path. But even more than that, Jesus is God. Jesus is the God who was willing to come down into a broken mess in order to restore that mess back to the way God intended.

And so I think that’s really the problem with Gas Mask guy’s idea of Jesus. He’s got Jesus, but it’s Jesus by the numbers. And that’s one thing that God always has tried to keep us away from. I feel like God’s real message for us, the message of the Gospel, is that religious pills don’t work. That God wants something other than right theology or religious practices or sacrifices or being moral. God wants to love us, and for us to love him back. God wants to reunite creation with Himself, and, ultimately, I think that’s what Gas Mask Guy is really missing out on – God’s mission of reunifying everything to Him.

 

 

 

 

 

On his blog "Into the Mystic" Alex McManus (brother of Erwin, pastor of Mosaic) writes about the 4 turnings of the Spirit. These are the four major kinds of repentances that a person goes through as they become a mature follower of Christ.

 
          The four turnings are these:

1. A turning to Jesus Christ as Lord
2. A turning to some form of Christ following community
3. A turning to the Scriptures
4. A turning back to the world on mission

These turnings can happen in any order. That these can happen in any order must be emphasized. Many will belong to the community of faith for a season before ever believing in Jesus. Others will be on mission to the world before reading and centering the scripture. Some will believe in Jesus but will hesitate to identify with a Christ following community.

What do these four turnings looks like?

Do you think it's possible to do #4 before #1? It seems like we focus on #1 so much (or #2 at ChallengeMSC) that we miss out on 50%-75% of the people out there who look to the other 2 or 3.

Jake is starting a scripture study in the dorms, and I believe Chick Church has the same plan for sometime soon too. This is a great way to lead people to #3 - a turning to the Scriptures. From here, it's easier to lead them to another, then another.

What do you think about this? What can we do better?

It helps orphans in Venezuela or something…

The Christ Center offers free coffee and Wi-Fi to anyone who wants it.  No one will come inside for free coffee…  Today I decided that if no one will come inside, I will take the free organic, free trade coffee to the people.  So I set up a table, cups, awning, and even bought donuts.

Then I waited.

and no one came.

It’s not like I’m in an alleyway away from traffic.  I’m on a busy street where tons of people park every day.  I’m across from one of the biggest parking lots on campus.  People walk by.  It happens. There were probably 40 people who walked by in the hour and a half I was outside.

I gave away two (2) cups of coffee.

One of those was to a person who already knew about the Christ Center. She told me she liked the idea of giving it away on the street, then went away to her class.  She is a nursing student, so
she must be busy.

The other person I gave one to was a friend of mine from when I was still a student.  He asked about why I was doing this and gratefully
took a cup and a donut.

No one else did.

As I was reading Blue Like Jazz, the chapter about Grace, and came to a realization; People look at grace like they look at coffee.  Even if it is free, even if it helps orphans, even if it is taken out of the scary building and given to them freely with sweet treats on the side, they don’t want it.  BUT they will go and pay $4.37 for a Starbucks Latte in an hour anyways, even if something better was available for free all along.

People are so sceptical of “free” that they will overpay for something inferior.  This is kind of how it is with God.  People are so sceptical of His free grace that they will reject it for something lesser that requires more work.  Mormanism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics, even some of the people in my own church are so wary of God’s “free” grace that they have to create a price to pay for it.  They will pay in works or worries way more than God wants, only to get something less than God offers.

The two people I actually gave coffee to are a great example too.  One already knew that the coffee was good.  She’d had it before.  She was on the “inside.”  She didn’t need to be told it was worth it, and that free is better.

The other I had a relationship with.  I wasn’t some random person offering something for nothing.  He took my coffee because it was from me, and he trusted that I wouldn’t be giving him something that was bad.

Figure out these metaphors for yourself.  Leave a comment about it.  Be a part of the discussion.
Coffee…. God…. Hmmmm….

I just found this article while surfing around... It's one normal persons reactions to a Evangelical message presented by some people from Campus Crusades. The people sharing the gospel seemed to have done everything right, but this guy chose to continue following his own path.

I told them that I enjoyed chatting with them and respect the message of love and faith they spread while I still don’t truly embrace Jesus as my savior. I embrace knowledge, love and faith as a way to higher truth and enlightenment; I don’t believe we have anything to be saved from other than fear and the former has proven a most worthy opponent to that. Jesus is my friend, my brother, my future and my past. Nothing more, nothing less. God/Goddess Bless.

Take a couple of minutes and take a read. Its great for seeing the perspective of a normal, everyday non-Christian. It's not attacking, not confrontational, but still insightful. Here's the link: My Encounter with Campus Crusade for Christ