The Safe Christian
Theme of the week: What's a "Missional Christian"?
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
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Key Bible Verses: God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. (2 Timothy 1:7-8) Dig Deeper: Matthew 10:24-33
Growing up as a somewhat fearful introvert in a family that moved every few years, I had developed a very careful, very circumspect posture toward this world around me and the people who crowded near me. To be honest, that posture didn't change dramatically when I became a Christian [in high school]. I still carefully navigated my days, still avoided most people, and still daydreamed about getting to live alone in a cabin in the woods someday. I was living life not as a missional Christian but as a safe Christian.
The safe Christian looks around at this world and mostly sees threats. Though I wouldn't have admitted it at the time, that's exactly what I was like. More than anything I wanted safety, space, and healthy margins between this world and me. That's just the posture I had learned growing up.
Within my new faith I found a fair amount of justification for this posture: the world was full of temptations and sin and, well, worldly things. And as a Christian, I was to isolate myself from these negative influences. In this way I took the wonderful gospel call to holiness as a license to retain my fearful posture toward this world and thereby walked through many days as a safe Christian.
—Don Everts in Go and Do
My Response: What justifications do I use when I avoid opportunities to share my faith? In what ways do I live as a "safe Christian"?
Thought to Apply: Isolation and the fear of man are close companions.—Edward T. Welch (counselor, writer)
Adapted from Go and Do (IVP, 2012) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.
Copyright © 2013 by Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Lord, teach me what it means to be a missional Christian; help me to do my part to obey your call to go and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19-20).
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