Last Sunday I participated in a series at my church, Waterbrook Bible Fellowship, that has been dealing with tough questions. Pastor Jeff Denton has been moderating discussions on difficult issues that every thoughtful believer must address. These topics have already been addressed and you can visit the website to watch or listen to the discussions.
“Isn’t believing Jesus is the only way arrogant?” “Does science contradict Christianity?” “Isn’t faith a cop-out?”
My assignment was a duck and cover topic.
“Isn’t the church full of hypocrites?”
My “bad Christian” response to that is simple. “Sure…but go ahead and join us. We can squeeze in one more.”
Inexplicably, Pastor Jeff wanted me to flesh out the topic a bit more. Over the next few days I am going to post Pastor Jeff’s questions to me and my answers. Some of this is bonus material because we ran out of time on Sunday. Here is how I was introduced on Sunday.
Pastor Jeff: When I think of “hypocrite”, I think of Dave Burchett.
Hmmmm. Nice rep I have on my home court, huh? He went on to explain that I came to mind because of the intro to my first book. Nice recovery Jeff.
Pastor Jeff: Why did I think of Dave? The opening paragraph to his book, When Bad Christians Happen to Good People. It reads: “I must begin with some words of disclosure. I am a hypocrite. I can be arrogant and selfish. I have been known to stretch, conceal, or slightly massage the truth. I am sometimes inconsiderate and insecure. I struggle with lust and impure thoughts. My ego often rages out of control, and I battle foolish pride. I can be lazy and foolhardy with my time. I get angry, petty, and ill tempered. I am sarcastic and cynical. I am a Christian.
After that considerable lowering of the expectation bar we began the Q&A portion.
JEFF:
When I think of a hypocrite, what comes to mind for me is someone who lives by the axiom, “Do as I say, not as I do.” What is a hypocrite?
DAVE:
Abraham Lincoln once defined a hypocrite as the man who murdered both his parents…and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.
The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word hyprokrites, meaning one who plays a part, an actor. Probably no word is more destructively used in describing Christians than hypocrite.
The book UnChurched is full of hard truths. One of the primary conclusions from the survey groups they interviewed is that Christians are perceived as hypocrites and this keeps people away from church.
The book reports that most Americans believe that the top priority of born-again Christians is, “doing the right thing, being good, and not sinning.” This “strive to be a good Christian” value topped biblical values like “relationships, evangelism, service and family faith.” In another survey, four out of five churchgoers said that “the Christian life is well described as, ‘trying hard to do what God commands’.” Such a primary focus on lifestyle and sin-management as a measure of spirituality leads to what the authors call a “false pretense of holiness,” which outsiders describe as hypocrisy.
We have done a very poor job in the church of clearly defining the distinctive of Christianity. Pastor Tim Keller says it quite well.
Christian theology also speaks of the seriously flawed character of real Christians. A central message of the Bible is that we can only have a relationship with God by sheer grace. Our moral efforts are too feeble and falsely motivated to ever merit salvation. Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has provided salvation for us, which we receive as a gift. All churches believe this in one form or another. Growth in character and changes in behavior occur in a gradual process after a person becomes a Christian. The mistaken belief that a person must “clean up” his or her own life in order to merit God’s presence is not Christianity. This means, though, that the church will be filled with immature and broken people who still have a long way to go emotionally, morally, and spiritually. As the saying has it: “The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”
It seems too often like we Christians are living for others’ approval and forgetting about grace. This isn’t lost on younger generations. “Like it or not, the term ‘hypocritical’ has become fused with young peoples’ experience of Christianity,” say the authors of UnChristian. Eighty-five percent of “outsiders” and half of young churchgoers say so.
Isn’t the church full of hypocrites?
Dave BurchettLast Sunday I participated in a series at my church, Waterbrook Bible Fellowship, that has been dealing with tough questions. Pastor Jeff Denton has been moderating discussions on difficult issues that every thoughtful believer must address. These topics have already been addressed and you can visit the website to watch or listen to the discussions.
“Isn’t believing Jesus is the only way arrogant?”
“Does science contradict Christianity?”
“Isn’t faith a cop-out?”
My assignment was a duck and cover topic.
“Isn’t the church full of hypocrites?”
My “bad Christian” response to that is simple. “Sure…but go ahead and join us. We can squeeze in one more.”
Inexplicably, Pastor Jeff wanted me to flesh out the topic a bit more. Over the next few days I am going to post Pastor Jeff’s questions to me and my answers. Some of this is bonus material because we ran out of time on Sunday. Here is how I was introduced on Sunday.
Pastor Jeff: When I think of “hypocrite”, I think of Dave Burchett.
Hmmmm. Nice rep I have on my home court, huh? He went on to explain that I came to mind because of the intro to my first book. Nice recovery Jeff.
Pastor Jeff: Why did I think of Dave? The opening paragraph to his book, When Bad Christians Happen to Good People.
It reads: “I must begin with some words of disclosure. I am a hypocrite. I can be arrogant and selfish. I have been known to stretch, conceal, or slightly massage the truth. I am sometimes inconsiderate and insecure. I struggle with lust and impure thoughts. My ego often rages out of control, and I battle foolish pride. I can be lazy and foolhardy with my time. I get angry, petty, and ill tempered. I am sarcastic and cynical.
I am a Christian.
After that considerable lowering of the expectation bar we began the Q&A portion.
JEFF:
When I think of a hypocrite, what comes to mind for me is someone who lives by the axiom, “Do as I say, not as I do.” What is a hypocrite?
DAVE:
Abraham Lincoln once defined a hypocrite as the man who murdered both his parents…and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.
The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word hyprokrites, meaning one who plays a part, an actor. Probably no word is more destructively used in describing Christians than hypocrite.
The book UnChurched is full of hard truths. One of the primary conclusions from the survey groups they interviewed is that Christians are perceived as hypocrites and this keeps people away from church.
The book reports that most Americans believe that the top priority of born-again Christians is, “doing the right thing, being good, and not sinning.” This “strive to be a good Christian” value topped biblical values like “relationships, evangelism, service and family faith.” In another survey, four out of five churchgoers said that “the Christian life is well described as, ‘trying hard to do what God commands’.” Such a primary focus on lifestyle and sin-management as a measure of spirituality leads to what the authors call a “false pretense of holiness,” which outsiders describe as hypocrisy.
We have done a very poor job in the church of clearly defining the distinctive of Christianity. Pastor Tim Keller says it quite well.
Christian theology also speaks of the seriously flawed character of real Christians. A central message of the Bible is that we can only have a relationship with God by sheer grace. Our moral efforts are too feeble and falsely motivated to ever merit salvation. Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has provided salvation for us, which we receive as a gift. All churches believe this in one form or another. Growth in character and changes in behavior occur in a gradual process after a person becomes a Christian. The mistaken belief that a person must “clean up” his or her own life in order to merit God’s presence is not Christianity. This means, though, that the church will be filled with immature and broken people who still have a long way to go emotionally, morally, and spiritually. As the saying has it: “The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”
It seems too often like we Christians are living for others’ approval and forgetting about grace. This isn’t lost on younger generations. “Like it or not, the term ‘hypocritical’ has become fused with young peoples’ experience of Christianity,” say the authors of UnChristian. Eighty-five percent of “outsiders” and half of young churchgoers say so.
To be continued….