As human beings we are a confusing species. We are social creatures by nature, yet we do some very strange anti-social things. Most "social" people that I know are social doing things that are not very beneficial for Christians (drinking and clubbing). It seems that as Christians we tend to pull ourselves away from our community. We are not happy with what our community has become. We fill our days and nights with so many activities that we do not have time to be "neighborly" (guilty as charged, your Honor), build fences (sometimes quite tall) to keep our neighbors from looking in our yards (guilty again, your Honor), and refuse to take the time to get to know those who live right next door.
I have walked our neighborhood extensively and can tell which people spend time outside. It is easy. Look at the front door and see how many advertisements are attached or how many of the free newspapers litter their sidewalk and yard. Homes that have these same ads there day after day never go out the front door, they only enter and exit their homes via the garage (your Honor, I have stopped doing this. I am rehabilitated). The only way people are going to know we are Christians and see Christ's light in our lives is to interact with us and that is going to be difficult if they do not even see you.
I once heard a member of our church state that she wishes she could live in a town or community that was only populated by Christians. What a thing to say! There are so many things wrong with that statement, I am not sure where to begin. Do not get me wrong, I understand why she said what she did, she has been hurt and is becoming distrustful of the non-churched. I can relate, but we are called to witness to those who do not know Christ. If you lived in a Christian commune, how could you witness to others? While I do not have many "close" friends that are un-churched, I do have a few and I am witnessing to them. They see how I live and they have made changes. Not big ones, but changes nonetheless. I witness at work (I do have to be careful because of work policies) and have Christian and non-churched coworkers.
A while back I heard a Christian announcer comment that the Christian hard rock band POD has sold out because they are getting airtime on secular stations. How is that selling out? POD being played on secular radio is evanglizing to the unsaved. If they only played POD on Christian rock stations, some kids (and adults) may never get the message that THEY need to hear. If we are to witness to others, we need to let them see who we are and music is a great tool to witness with. I have known people say things like "I don't like praise music" or "I don't want to stop listening to rock music". That is when I pull out my POD, Day of Fire, Pillar, or Disciple CD's. Listen to those and you will not miss your secular music. If you want to really have some fun with music, go register on www. apologetix.com and download FREE mp3's from the best parody band around. Apologetix is sort of like a Christian Weird Al, but funnier.
I am sure I derailed this post but to be honest, I do not care. It is my blog :) .
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