“T-Shirts” from the I See Things Upside Down Album:

they’ll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
they’ll know us by the way we point and stare
at anyone whose sin looks worse than ours
who cannot hide the scars of this curse that we all bare

they’ll know us by our picket lines and signs
they’ll know us by the pride we hide behind
like anyone on earth is living right
and isn’t that why Jesus died
not to make us think we’re right

chorus
when love, love, love
is what we should be known for
love, love, love
it’s the how and it’s the why
we live and breathe and we die

they’ll know us by reasons we divide
and how we can’t seem to unify
because we’ve gotta sing songs a certain style
or we’ll walk right down that aisle
and just leave ‘em all behind

they’ll know us by the billboards that we make
just turning God’s words to cheap clichés
says “what part of murder don’t you understand?”
but we hate our fellow man
and point a finger at his grave

chorus
they’ll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
they’ll know us by the way we point and stare
telling ‘em their sins are worse than ours
thinking we can hide our scars
beneath these t-shirts that we wear

Consider this visual:

The big circle in the middle represents the Kingdom of God.  The small circles represent the various cultural belief groups: C=Christians, M=Muslims, J=Jews. (you could substitute others)  With the traditional model, we’ve tried to get the people from the other small circles to “convert” into whatever circle we’re in.  This is where I believe we’re misguided, and it is rarely effective.

Let’s take another look:

In this model, the outreach goal is refocused on guiding people into the Kingdom of God, not one another’s smaller circles.  The idea is that a Jew or Muslim can be in the Kingdom of God and still be a Jew or a Muslim.  They don’t have to look like “us” in order to be loved by God and invited to live in the Kingdom.  The common bond between all people that enter the kingdom is that there is ONE way in.  This is represented in the picture by the arrows pointing to the Kingdom circle.  Think of all three arrows representing the same thing: the “straight path”; the “way”.

If you ask a Muslim believer to define what the straight path is, “Jesus” probably won’t be their first answer.  But, if your conversation starts with the Qur’an and fill in the gaps using the Old Testament/Psalms, it becomes increasingly clear that Jesus is the messiah and more than just a prophet.  As more questions are raised about who Jesus was, the gospels can be introduced into the conversation.  Then you encounter a passage where Jesus says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me…” (John 14:6).  To a Muslim, this passage might be paraphrased: “I am the straight path...  No one enters into the Kingdom except through me”…

Once a person accepts Jesus as the way, the messiah, the savior, they move into the Kingdom.  That doesn’t mean they have to start attending your church, speaking “christianese“, and go on a steady diet of Tomlin and Hillsong worship music.  In fact, Muslims can still go to Mosque and continue the traditional prayers 5 times a day.  (I’ve heard stories of entire Mosques becoming Muslim followers of Jesus.)  Jews can still celebrate the traditional feasts and customs of their heritage.  After all, the goal of most (all?) of these traditions is to honor God.  Who can argue with that?

The goal is to engage people in love, honoring instead of insulting, building relationships using common ground to launch meaningful conversations that get straight to the heart.

Next up – “Israel: EPIC”

First of all, I really dislike the word “evangelism”.  It brings to mind memories from my fairly conservative upbringing of gospel tracts, door knocking, and awkward, forced conversations that consisted of trying to shove the “good news” down the throats of some poor unsuspecting neighbor. (who was probably a member of the local Baptist congregation anyway)

Ok, so I didn’t really do much door knocking and handing out of tracts, but I know a lot of people who did.  And I’ve had conversations with people who have a distaste in their mouths from having those conversations forced on them.  I’ve even been the guy on the receiving end of those conversations, and they’re never fun.  Who wants a stranger to approach them uninvited, only to insist that you’re a sinner and a terrible person, and that if you hear/believe/repent/confess/be baptized you will be saved?  Heck, that’s hard enough to do if you have an actual relationship with the person, but to a complete stranger it’s pretty ludicrous.

The main problem with this model (and variants of this model) is it divides the world into those you consider “saved” and those that are “lost”.  The goal is then to somehow get the “lost” group into the “saved” group.  In order to do this, churches throughout the years have developed all kinds of formulas and methods on how to “reach the lost”.  My issue with this is that it tends to produce a mindset that views the “lost” as a project to be won.  When people start thinking this way, they tend to be so devoted to “saving” the “lost” person that they often forget to love them.  They miss the matters of the heart, the needs of the individual, they often fail to see that instead of forced theology, the “lost” person might just really need a FRIEND.  After all, the greatest commandments (according to Jesus – Matthew 22:34-40) were to ‘Love God’ and ‘Love others’ (my paraphrase), NOT ‘go force your beliefs on people so that they might be saved’.

Now, I’m not condemning all those that believe in this model, have handed out tracts, etc.  I don’t think anyone who decides to engage in outreach of any kind goes into it thinking that people are “projects”.  I’m sure that God, despite some not-so-friendly evangelistic models, still changed hearts through those efforts.  I owe much of who I am today to these very people who were extremely passionate about evangelism, and I have the utmost respect for their dedication and love for God.  But…

I believe there is a better way.  to be continued…

Many times we, as Christians, get so fixated on the crucifixion that we forget that His death and resurrection is only the beginning of our journey.  Jesus died so that we may have LIFE (John 10:10); we become NEW CREATIONS (Galations 6:15), children, if you will, of the faith.  How many parents have children and then never educate them?  Never teach them their alphabet, how to walk, how to act around other children?  How many people tell their children “now that you’re born, you should spend your entire life living at home and thanking me for birthing you?”  NO ONE!  That would be absurd, right?  When we spend our (spiritual) lives huddled at the foot of the cross, living in shame and guilt from our sin and constantly begging for forgiveness, that’s exactly what we’re doing.  God doesn’t want us to just “get saved”; Yes, He wants us to kneel at the cross, confess our sins, repent, and celebrate the resurrection, but then He wants us to rise from the cross and start our own journeys, growing and maturing in the faith, bringing the GOOD NEWS of the Gospel to ALL people of ALL nations. (Matthew 28:16, Mark 16:15)

Or in other words, proclaim the Kingdom of God wherever you go, just as Jesus, Paul, and Muhammad did.

Wait.  Muhammad talked about the Kingdom?  Ok, maybe he wasn’t preaching the Gospel in the same way as Jesus and Paul, but he did write this:  ”And Allah’s is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and Allah has power over all things.” (Surah 3:189, Shakir translation) “And Allah’s is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and to Allah is the eventual coming.” (Surah 24:42, Shakir) “And blessed is He Whose is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is between them, and with Him is the knowledge of the hour, and to Him shall you be brought back.” (Surah 43:85, Shakir)  The Kingdom of God is a familiar concept to people of the Islam faith.  With the concepts from part 1 in mind, if we are truly looking for common ground, talking about the Kingdom of God is a great start.

Next up: “The Straight Path: Entering into the Kingdom”

My journey started with a conference I had to work (and wanted to attend) that was centered around taking a fresh look at the Islam faith and the Muslim culture.  The people who presented spoke of The Kingdom of God, and how to engage people with a “Kingdom” mindset.  They spoke of the importance of finding common ground with those you meet, instead of focusing on the issues you disagree on.  How many friends have you made lately by starting a conversation with “everything you think you believe in is wrong; let me tell you why I’m right”?  It sounds absurd, but that’s typically what we western “Christians” do when we don’t take the time to learn about and respect the culture of the people we’re engaging with.  Paul (the apostle) knew the importance and value of finding common ground: “…I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22)

Unknown to many, the Qur’an (Koran) isn’t a how-to manual on how to build bombs and teach young men how to become radical terrorists.  If one would take the time to actually READ it, he/she would realize that there are a striking number of similarities to the Bible, with many of the same stories and people existing in both books.  The God of the Islam faith is the same God of the Bible.  (Allah is the Arabic name for God)  The stories of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, John the Baptist, and JESUS are all present in varying degrees of detail.  Most importantly, it talks about Jesus as the Messiah: “[And mention] when the angels said, “O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary – distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to Allah ].” (Surah 3:45).

Sound familiar?  ”The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” (Luke 1:30-33)

The point here is not to build a case for the Qur’an as a holy book or as inspired scripture.  Does it have passages I disagree with?  Sure.  But there is an immense amount of material that can be used to engage those of the Islam faith who use it as their guide to connecting with God.  Often, many stories the Qur’an only tells in part can be fleshed out by using the Bible, leading to more in-depth conversations about the Kingdom of God.  Dwell on what you have in common instead of fighting over the issues you disagree on.  By doing this and respecting the culture of those whom you are engaging, you will show them honor.  By honoring them, you open up the doors for rich, honest, straight-to-the-heart discussion, and that is where Jesus wants you to be.

In part 2 I’ll discuss the intentionality of using “Kingdom” language, instead of the more traditional “Christian” terminology.

“Now in a free country, people certainly have the right to choose their ideology. But Christians of all sorts, I think we all can agree, have a special calling – to increasingly harmonize our lives (including our lives as citizens) with the teaching and example of Jesus. My concern is that many of my sisters and brothers, without realizing it, have begun seeing Jesus and the faith through the lens of a neo-conservative political framework, thus reducing their vision of Jesus and his essential message of the kingdom of God. As a result, too many of us are becoming more and more zealous conservatives, but less and less Christ-like Christians, and many don’t seem to notice the difference.”

“God provided me with $3200 in cash, and I had divided it into 4 piles of $800–2 for the 2 baskets in early service and 2 for the 2 baskets in late service. Then, I invited people to give whatever cash or change they wanted to give, because today we were going to take care of one another.
Then, it got bizarre. Very bizarre.”