swimming pool or river?

Some people say that Christianity is simply a crutch for people who need help dealing with the reality of life.  Yet, I believe one can argue that it takes a real man or woman to be a Christian because it takes courage to swim against the current.

So I have been thinking...Maybe the reason Christians are accused of using their faith as a crutch is that a lot of Christians don't swim against the current. In fact, a lot of Christians aren't even in the river of our culture. Instead they prefer to create safe swimming pools where they can swim with people who believe, think, talk, and act like they do. So when the world looks at Christians maybe they see people who aren't strong enough to enter the mess of our culture without losing their faith or compromising their beliefs. They see people who retreat to their Christian sub-culture where they hide out until Jesus comes back.

The Christian machine has created all kinds of these swimming pools. We have Christian bookstores. Christian coffee houses. Christian schools. Christian colleges. Christian radio. Christian television. Christian apparel. We even have Christian amusement parks (Check out The Holy Land Experience). And sadly some of our Christian churches are simply places where Christians go to hang out with each other instead of being a community centers that exist primarily for the people outside of the organization.

Why do we have all of these Christian things? There are, no doubt, some good reasons for why these things exist. But in having all of these things, are we withdrawing from the culture that needs the very thing we have discovered? Are we creating our own sub-culture so we can enjoy swimming in the safe, clean, chlorinated water of the pool?

How does this mesh with Jesus words about being in the world, but not of the world? I don't think Jesus intended for his followers to create a religion or a sub-culture. I think Jesus called people to join a movement that would intersect with every part of culture and change it. And the change Jesus had in mind was not that everyone would wear a Christian t-shirt to the next pro sporting event they went to. Jesus wants to see people changed at the core of who they are so they become more like Jesus in character and behavior.

This means that we cannot keep swimming in the sanitized little pools of our Christian sub-culture. We need to get back into the muddy, murky river of our culture. In this river we will encounter people who are broken, hurting, addicted, hungry, and troubled. We will engage individuals who do not believe like we do or talk like we do or think like we do. We will come across athiests, agnostics, new agers, muslims, buddhists, hindus, and many others. We will befriend people who are different - different beliefs, different worldviews, different sexual orientations, different lifestyles. But swimming in this river does not change who we are or who we are following. Swimming in this river simply allows to connect with people where they are. Only when we have truly connected with people will we have the opportunity to start a conversation with people who far from God. And in the course of those conversations, some people will connect with Jesus and be changed. And when people are changed heaven rejoices!

Jesus said that we are the "salt of the earth." Take it from someone who absolutely loves french fries and popcorn...salt doesn't do any good unless it touches the food it was intended to season. In the same way, Christians don't make any difference for Christ unless and until they start rubbing shoulders with the people Christ came to seek and save. And the bottom line is that you'll never rub shoulders with those people if you keep swimming in the pool. You have to go down to the river and dive in.