Stupid Things Christians Say

Another peeve….

Now, I’ve warned you previously that I can be intolerant, and one of the things that irritates me are some of the stupid things I hear Christians say. Over the past few years, for example, I’ve noticed a recurring trend of people referring to the ‘marketplace’, particularly in relation to evangelical pursuits. Whenever I’ve heard the expression used, it is spoken about as though it is some mysterious and untapped mission field; a vast plain of unexplored riches, ripe for the picking, and that it is somehow our responsibility as believers to plunder it.

I’m pretty sure that normally for most people, marketplace just means the place where the market is; the place you go to buy or sell stuff; or the place of commerce. But it’s become an overused phrase that for Christians seems to embody something else, such as the dark arts of commerce or the domain of the devil, or pretty much anything that is not deemed as being acceptably ‘Christian’.

Manipulation

I’ve heard people come up with strategies and tactics for ministering in the ‘marketplace’, as though we’re being sent to a foreign (and possibly scary) place to deal with aliens rather than human beings. The very fact that we need to make such a distinction suggests that we see ourselves as different, or somehow above others. And it is to our shame. We are not meant to categorize people. We are meant to love them. Strategies and tactics might be useful in a battle when you are facing an enemy force, but people are not our enemy. The minute we begin engaging strategies and tactics with people, all we are really doing is manipulating.

If we spent more time being genuinely interested in any individuals we meet, wherever we meet them, and less time trying to chalk up notches on belts, or impressing others, or growing our churches, we wouldn’t need any strategies or tactics. Jesus gave us two rules: love God, love others. Why do we make it so complicated?

A better way

Wouldn’t it be better to just focus on loving others the way God does? Wouldn’t it be better to simply keep ourselves open to the leading of the Spirit of God, and to obey when we are prompted to speak or act? Wouldn’t it be better to allow God to determine our steps, and just cooperate with him? Wouldn’t it be better to quit trying to be something other than who we are, or trying to function in a calling we were not called to? Can we just be ourselves, and let others be themselves without our trying to make them like us? We’re not meant to be salesmen with slick scripts and sales targets. We’re meant to be sons and daughters of God that care about people. And if we’re in relationship with God ourselves, then won’t he naturally come up in conversation anyway – the same way other people we’re in relationship with do?

We’ve all been called to the ministry of reconciliation, so let us function in that as and when God requires. Our job isn’t to get people saved, but to introduce them to the One that saves. We’re meant to be making disciples, not converts, and you can only do that by investing yourself into others. Let’s not become like the Pharisees that “…cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!” (Matt 23:15 NLT).