Thursday & Friday I was in Drulingen in Alsace (eastern France) with my colleague Charles for a gathering of the ministry partners of France pour Christ. Charles got invited & asked me to tag along as another set of eyes & ears for these meetings. FPC is a French ministry with the objectives of evangelizing France from the north to the east, forming disciples & extending the church in places where it isn't known to exist.
I appreciated being with my visionary European brothers & sisters. I think Charles & I & 1 other couple were the only Americans present in a group of at least 60. Many of them are working in places that would seem hard to me.
I learned more about a work among university students called LE FEU. It is based in 5 cities in France, including Lille & Grenoble. It sounds like a good ministry that I would love to see develop in Paris sometime.
One quote that has stuck with me is that "Our youth will grow up & take responsibility to the extent that we allow them to." I suppose that in every culture & generation, there is the challenge of helping young people to discover their calling(s) & take responsibility.
I was lodged by a family who run a dairy farm with 60 cows. It was a very different world than my Paris one. But we share the same faith & Lord and that's what is the most important.
When I hear cities mentioned like Verdun & Lille now, I'll have some faces & ministries in mind.
vendredi 30 avril 2010
samedi 3 avril 2010
Easter Sunday
It's still dark & cold & even a little windy outside. Somehow I picture it being like this the morning when the women were walking to the tomb where Jesus' dead body had been buried. They had prepared spices to anoint His body. They were worried about how to move the stone away from the front of the tomb, as well as perhaps how to work around the guards who had been posted in front of it.
Matthew's account tells of a violent earthquake, for the angel of the Lord came down from heaven, went to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were white like snow. The toughened guards were so afraid that they shook and became like dead men. The angel announced to the women that Jesus was not here, for he had risen, just as he had said. They were not be afraid, but to go quickly & tell His disciples.
Matthew describes the women's reaction as being afraid, yet filled with joy. As they were running to tell the disciples, Jesus met them and greeted them. They clasped His feet & worshiped him.
In Mark's gospel, there is a note that most reliable early manuscripts & other ancient witnesses don't have Mark 16:9-20. Verse 8 says, "Trembling & bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid." I find this an interesting way to end his account. It's not necessarily the ending where everything is resolved, like in many older American Christian stories. It leaves some things hanging.
But the reality of this account is something I find appealing. It reminds me that Almighty God can handle our messy feelings of bewilderment & fear when things aren't going as we expected around us. The story continues.
Matthew's account tells of a violent earthquake, for the angel of the Lord came down from heaven, went to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were white like snow. The toughened guards were so afraid that they shook and became like dead men. The angel announced to the women that Jesus was not here, for he had risen, just as he had said. They were not be afraid, but to go quickly & tell His disciples.
Matthew describes the women's reaction as being afraid, yet filled with joy. As they were running to tell the disciples, Jesus met them and greeted them. They clasped His feet & worshiped him.
In Mark's gospel, there is a note that most reliable early manuscripts & other ancient witnesses don't have Mark 16:9-20. Verse 8 says, "Trembling & bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid." I find this an interesting way to end his account. It's not necessarily the ending where everything is resolved, like in many older American Christian stories. It leaves some things hanging.
But the reality of this account is something I find appealing. It reminds me that Almighty God can handle our messy feelings of bewilderment & fear when things aren't going as we expected around us. The story continues.
vendredi 2 avril 2010
Easter Saturday
All is currently quiet in our home, as everyone is asleep. From my office, I hear a few birds chirping, as well as a little snoring from Jason in our living room. Jason is an artist from Kansas who is currently in Paris to help w/ an art exhibit about the events of Passion Week. It's being held yesterday & today @ Genesis in downtown Paris. We've been involved in several practical ways in supporting this exhibit, including letting Jason crash on our sofa at night.
The 4 gospels don't say to much about what happened between the death of Jesus Christ that we commemorate on Good Friday and His Resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday morning. There is concern for his dead body, both from His followers, as well as His enemies.
Certainly the overall mood of His followers includes despair, disillusionment, hopelessness & bewilderment. All that they had placed their hope in for 3 years seemed to be for naught. There was likely fear for their lives. Would Jesus' enemies now come looking for them? They were good candidates for Traumatic Stress Disorder.
We all have gotten hit or will get hit with situations that really knock us out of whack. For my family, the death of our stillborn daughter was one of those. I wrote an e-mail a few minutes ago to a friend whose husband of many years (and a well known leader in another country) left her for another man.
Even with the hope of Christ, there still are times when we're between the despair of death & the hope of the resurrection. We each react differently to situations that shatter our life & ruin our plans.
I believe that there is a need to go through these valleys of Easter Saturdays. To rush through this process is not in our long-term best interests. For these valleys, though painful & lonely & often misunderstood as we go them, can produce greater depth & fruitfulness in our lives. We can become deeper in our thinking & view of the world.
Of course, if we just say in the valley for the rest of our life, this isn't helpful either. We know people who are bitter & depressive & suicidal & curl up inside because of tragedies from the past. Time doesn't necessarily heal all wounds. The balm of Gilead needs to bring healing to a sin-sick soul, as the song goes. The Holy Spirit needs to work in our lives so that the joy of the Lord becomes our strength. Healing isn't denying the difficulty of losing this person or job or relationship or object or whatever. But it's being able to grow & move on & hope in the Lord to work all things together for good according to His purpose.
The 4 gospels don't say to much about what happened between the death of Jesus Christ that we commemorate on Good Friday and His Resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday morning. There is concern for his dead body, both from His followers, as well as His enemies.
Certainly the overall mood of His followers includes despair, disillusionment, hopelessness & bewilderment. All that they had placed their hope in for 3 years seemed to be for naught. There was likely fear for their lives. Would Jesus' enemies now come looking for them? They were good candidates for Traumatic Stress Disorder.
We all have gotten hit or will get hit with situations that really knock us out of whack. For my family, the death of our stillborn daughter was one of those. I wrote an e-mail a few minutes ago to a friend whose husband of many years (and a well known leader in another country) left her for another man.
Even with the hope of Christ, there still are times when we're between the despair of death & the hope of the resurrection. We each react differently to situations that shatter our life & ruin our plans.
I believe that there is a need to go through these valleys of Easter Saturdays. To rush through this process is not in our long-term best interests. For these valleys, though painful & lonely & often misunderstood as we go them, can produce greater depth & fruitfulness in our lives. We can become deeper in our thinking & view of the world.
Of course, if we just say in the valley for the rest of our life, this isn't helpful either. We know people who are bitter & depressive & suicidal & curl up inside because of tragedies from the past. Time doesn't necessarily heal all wounds. The balm of Gilead needs to bring healing to a sin-sick soul, as the song goes. The Holy Spirit needs to work in our lives so that the joy of the Lord becomes our strength. Healing isn't denying the difficulty of losing this person or job or relationship or object or whatever. But it's being able to grow & move on & hope in the Lord to work all things together for good according to His purpose.
lundi 29 mars 2010
Palm Sunday weekend reflections
Last week ended up being a busy week.
We did 3 egg coloring events: 7 kids from the Wed. morning English Club did eggs on Wed.; 8 kids & 1 sister from the Sat. English Club colored on Sat.; and 6 kids came over yesterday to color. We have 1 more egg party for this Saturday.
Our younger daughter had 2 birthday parties over the weekend. Both events provided opportunities for us to connect with the families hosting them.
We had the first annual meeting of le Pavé d'Orsay on Thursday night. It's amazing how well things have developed over the past few years. This year will have some new financial challenges, but we have a good team working together.
Yesterday we ate lunch at church. Several of us parents noticed a nice ambiance among the kids that come. The church hardly had any young children a few years ago, so it's a healthy sign to see children. Now that our kids are older, we'll probably should eat Sunday lunch there more often.
Tonight is the monthly gathering of artists of la Fonderie. There are 34 signed up, which is a record, at least for the last year since we started up again these gatherings. It's another encouraging sign.
As we think about another HMA, we see some of our sponsoring churches facing significant challenges. Some are struggling financially. Perhaps a bigger challenge for some is coming to grips with the culture that they are living & working in. The U.S. is not really a Christian nation today. Arguing about whether it ever was or not is rather pointless IMO.
One term that helps me understand the situation is "post-Christendom." This means that, while the country was heavily under the influence of Christianity in many of its cultural forms, this influence is rapidly decreasing. It is no longer the majority religion.
This concerns some people, the loss of this perceived privileged position. Living in France, I've gotten used to the stronger official practice of the separation of church & state. For me, it seems different now to have the American flag in a church or to say the pledge to the flag right after the pledge to the Christian flag. That just doesn't happen in France.
In my readings of church history, the Church grew the fastest in the first 3 centuries when it wasn't in a privileged position. It was Constantine that made it the State Religion and the Christendom model. This form had its pros & cons.
May God grant U.S. churches the ability to understand the times they are living in and to proactively morph as they need to in order to impact their neighborhoods, particularly the growing number of "outsiders" in them.
We did 3 egg coloring events: 7 kids from the Wed. morning English Club did eggs on Wed.; 8 kids & 1 sister from the Sat. English Club colored on Sat.; and 6 kids came over yesterday to color. We have 1 more egg party for this Saturday.
Our younger daughter had 2 birthday parties over the weekend. Both events provided opportunities for us to connect with the families hosting them.
We had the first annual meeting of le Pavé d'Orsay on Thursday night. It's amazing how well things have developed over the past few years. This year will have some new financial challenges, but we have a good team working together.
Yesterday we ate lunch at church. Several of us parents noticed a nice ambiance among the kids that come. The church hardly had any young children a few years ago, so it's a healthy sign to see children. Now that our kids are older, we'll probably should eat Sunday lunch there more often.
Tonight is the monthly gathering of artists of la Fonderie. There are 34 signed up, which is a record, at least for the last year since we started up again these gatherings. It's another encouraging sign.
As we think about another HMA, we see some of our sponsoring churches facing significant challenges. Some are struggling financially. Perhaps a bigger challenge for some is coming to grips with the culture that they are living & working in. The U.S. is not really a Christian nation today. Arguing about whether it ever was or not is rather pointless IMO.
One term that helps me understand the situation is "post-Christendom." This means that, while the country was heavily under the influence of Christianity in many of its cultural forms, this influence is rapidly decreasing. It is no longer the majority religion.
This concerns some people, the loss of this perceived privileged position. Living in France, I've gotten used to the stronger official practice of the separation of church & state. For me, it seems different now to have the American flag in a church or to say the pledge to the flag right after the pledge to the Christian flag. That just doesn't happen in France.
In my readings of church history, the Church grew the fastest in the first 3 centuries when it wasn't in a privileged position. It was Constantine that made it the State Religion and the Christendom model. This form had its pros & cons.
May God grant U.S. churches the ability to understand the times they are living in and to proactively morph as they need to in order to impact their neighborhoods, particularly the growing number of "outsiders" in them.
samedi 20 mars 2010
Sunday morning reflections
It's the end (French calendar) or the beginning (U.S. calendar) of a new week. It's interesting where Sunday is placed in different cultures.
In Paris, Sunday morning is one of the best times to drive, as nearly everyone is in bed. It's a time where many families go to the park, at least in the later morning. Sunday lunch is one of the rhythms in France where many families get together for a longer meal & hike to help digestion. It's actually a healthy rhythm, a weekly time of rest & relationship building.
Many people here don't include a communal worship time at a ch*rch as part of their weekend schedule, either on a Sunday or Saturday. Of course, if one doesn't follow Chr*st, then why would one carve out time in the midst of a busy week to do so?
Today we plan on going to the Sunday morning worsh*p service at the ch*rch we're currently part of. Neither my wife nor I are doing kids ch&rch, so we'll both actually hear the sermon.
The bulk of our week takes place in the neighborhood where we live. It's only a couple of miles distance wise from the ch&rch building. However, our time & relational priorities are in this neighborhood.
This past week, we empathized with many other families, who like us, sent off their 1st grade child from Monday morning to Friday afternoon to a center in Normandy for "classe de mer" (class at the Atlantic coast). Last Monday, there were many tearful eyes as parents said goodbye to their 6-7 year old "babies." Our daughter was excited to go, so we were glad about that. But we did miss having her around here.
We received a call on Wed. night from her teacher, who said that she had a 39.7 C / 103.4 F. degree temperature. Obviously, we were concerned & got the word out to some friends. Thankfully her temperature dropped the next day and her energy returned. Then on Friday, she got back to Paris. It's nice to have her back under our roof.
One of our friends is struggling with the diagnosis of lung cancer of his mother back in Germany. She apparently has resigned herself to an imminent death. We've known him for nearly 5 years, as his daughter & our son have been in the same 2 schools & class level for that long. We know him & his family much better than we know anyone at the ch&rch we attend.
One of the lifeguards at our local pool lost his sister to cancer last month. He has taught our older 2 kids how to swim & we've gotten to know him for 4+ years.
Our foci has shifted in the last several years from those who are established in their fai*th walk with Chr*st to "outsiders" who aren't part of a Chr*st*an fai*th community nor would they necessarily see themselves as Chr*st*an.
This shift wasn't a deliberate decision made in one fell swoop. It rather has been a journey that has taken place in the midst of friendships that have grown naturally. Our kids have played a big part in this, as it's often been with others with kids or with people involved in our kids' education & recreational activities.
In the next couple of weeks, we will have a number of events to which we are inviting neighborhood friends to come to our home. This Tuesday (March 23) is our 2nd event for mothers. While the first one relied heavily on a team of 6 women from California, this one is pretty much coming from my wife & a neighborhood friend.
We also hope to do 2-3 Easter egg coloring parties in the next 2 weeks. It's a little complicated figuring out dates because we're getting invited by neighborhood friends to do things at their homes. Our younger daughter has been invited to 2 birthday parties next weekend, one on Sat. & the other on Sun. This is the life season of birthday parties for us. They are nice because we get to connect w/ friends at their homes, without having to clean up our place.
My kids are now all awake & watching cartoons, so I need to wrap this up for now.
In Paris, Sunday morning is one of the best times to drive, as nearly everyone is in bed. It's a time where many families go to the park, at least in the later morning. Sunday lunch is one of the rhythms in France where many families get together for a longer meal & hike to help digestion. It's actually a healthy rhythm, a weekly time of rest & relationship building.
Many people here don't include a communal worship time at a ch*rch as part of their weekend schedule, either on a Sunday or Saturday. Of course, if one doesn't follow Chr*st, then why would one carve out time in the midst of a busy week to do so?
Today we plan on going to the Sunday morning worsh*p service at the ch*rch we're currently part of. Neither my wife nor I are doing kids ch&rch, so we'll both actually hear the sermon.
The bulk of our week takes place in the neighborhood where we live. It's only a couple of miles distance wise from the ch&rch building. However, our time & relational priorities are in this neighborhood.
This past week, we empathized with many other families, who like us, sent off their 1st grade child from Monday morning to Friday afternoon to a center in Normandy for "classe de mer" (class at the Atlantic coast). Last Monday, there were many tearful eyes as parents said goodbye to their 6-7 year old "babies." Our daughter was excited to go, so we were glad about that. But we did miss having her around here.
We received a call on Wed. night from her teacher, who said that she had a 39.7 C / 103.4 F. degree temperature. Obviously, we were concerned & got the word out to some friends. Thankfully her temperature dropped the next day and her energy returned. Then on Friday, she got back to Paris. It's nice to have her back under our roof.
One of our friends is struggling with the diagnosis of lung cancer of his mother back in Germany. She apparently has resigned herself to an imminent death. We've known him for nearly 5 years, as his daughter & our son have been in the same 2 schools & class level for that long. We know him & his family much better than we know anyone at the ch&rch we attend.
One of the lifeguards at our local pool lost his sister to cancer last month. He has taught our older 2 kids how to swim & we've gotten to know him for 4+ years.
Our foci has shifted in the last several years from those who are established in their fai*th walk with Chr*st to "outsiders" who aren't part of a Chr*st*an fai*th community nor would they necessarily see themselves as Chr*st*an.
This shift wasn't a deliberate decision made in one fell swoop. It rather has been a journey that has taken place in the midst of friendships that have grown naturally. Our kids have played a big part in this, as it's often been with others with kids or with people involved in our kids' education & recreational activities.
In the next couple of weeks, we will have a number of events to which we are inviting neighborhood friends to come to our home. This Tuesday (March 23) is our 2nd event for mothers. While the first one relied heavily on a team of 6 women from California, this one is pretty much coming from my wife & a neighborhood friend.
We also hope to do 2-3 Easter egg coloring parties in the next 2 weeks. It's a little complicated figuring out dates because we're getting invited by neighborhood friends to do things at their homes. Our younger daughter has been invited to 2 birthday parties next weekend, one on Sat. & the other on Sun. This is the life season of birthday parties for us. They are nice because we get to connect w/ friends at their homes, without having to clean up our place.
My kids are now all awake & watching cartoons, so I need to wrap this up for now.
dimanche 14 mars 2010
This weekend: 4 British visitors + 2 bday parties + 1 English Club + 1 baptism = lots of fun, memories & connections
It's been a wild weekend. Friday evening Andrew & Sarah and their 2 sons arrived for a weekend visit. We hadn't seen each other in about 9-10 years and had no kids at that time. Now we have 5 kids between their family & ourselves. We hope to visit them south of London sometime.
Yesterday later afternoon & early evening, we attended the birthday party of a friend named Simone. Her son goes to our younger daughter's school. In fact, we and the other 3 families who came all have children at this school. 2 of the children are in the English Club. It was good to have some unrushed time to connect on a deeper level with all of them. Those are the kinds of crowds that we especially enjoy spending time with. To our knowledge, none of those present are followers of Jesus Christ. We are likely to be their closest personal connection to Him.
This morning we went to a special christening service of the son of our friends at a different church. We enjoyed seeing many of our old friends there. The sanctuary itself was redone since were last there. It was good to be in another place where people worship the same Lord & Savior as us.
Afterwards, we went to the Champs-Elysees and had lunch at McDos with our British friends. We wandered toward the Arch of Triumphe & came across the George V cinema where my wife & I had our first date. It's fun having Paris so tied in with our personal history.
Getting sleepier as I write, so I"ll close. Stay turned in the coming days.
Yesterday later afternoon & early evening, we attended the birthday party of a friend named Simone. Her son goes to our younger daughter's school. In fact, we and the other 3 families who came all have children at this school. 2 of the children are in the English Club. It was good to have some unrushed time to connect on a deeper level with all of them. Those are the kinds of crowds that we especially enjoy spending time with. To our knowledge, none of those present are followers of Jesus Christ. We are likely to be their closest personal connection to Him.
This morning we went to a special christening service of the son of our friends at a different church. We enjoyed seeing many of our old friends there. The sanctuary itself was redone since were last there. It was good to be in another place where people worship the same Lord & Savior as us.
Afterwards, we went to the Champs-Elysees and had lunch at McDos with our British friends. We wandered toward the Arch of Triumphe & came across the George V cinema where my wife & I had our first date. It's fun having Paris so tied in with our personal history.
Getting sleepier as I write, so I"ll close. Stay turned in the coming days.
mardi 9 mars 2010
Get Saved!
During 2010, I've enjoyed getting back into reading. During my single days, I used to read prolifically. One year, I averaged a book a week. Since kids came along 8 years ago, my reading dropped a lot.
Last year, someone asked me what I had read recently that was interesting. Sadly, I couldn't think of anything and responded that I had been reading some children's books.
One book I've gotten back to this week is by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons and features groundbreaking research from the Barna Group. It's titled un christian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity...and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007). It features research on "outsiders" (people outside of the Christian faith) of Mosaics (born 1984-2002) and Busters (1965-1983).
Chapter 4 is titled "Get Saved." The perception of outsiders born between 1965 and 2002 is that "Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting others." The ideal new perception is that "Christians cultivate relationships and environments where others can be deeply transformed by God."
I'll just quote some parts from the chapter.
The chapter then presents some results of research done during 12 years about evangelism and faith-sharing activities. This research identifies a number of myths about how and why people become Christians. These misconceptions enable Christians to be in a state of denial about their conversion efforts. Unfortunately, these myths often are barriers to the development of the kinds of relationships & environments in which people can be deeply changed by their faith in Jesus. Here are several of them.
Last year, someone asked me what I had read recently that was interesting. Sadly, I couldn't think of anything and responded that I had been reading some children's books.
One book I've gotten back to this week is by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons and features groundbreaking research from the Barna Group. It's titled un christian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity...and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007). It features research on "outsiders" (people outside of the Christian faith) of Mosaics (born 1984-2002) and Busters (1965-1983).
Chapter 4 is titled "Get Saved." The perception of outsiders born between 1965 and 2002 is that "Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting others." The ideal new perception is that "Christians cultivate relationships and environments where others can be deeply transformed by God."
I'll just quote some parts from the chapter.
Among young adults, process trumps the product and the journey is more important than the destination. The skeptical viewpoint affects how they think about belief and conversion. (68).
Most reject the idea that Christians show genuine interest in them as individuals. This was one of the largest gaps in our research: most Christians are convinced their efforts come across as genuine, but outsiders dispute that...Showing general interest in someone is hard to fake...When outsiders question our motives, it neutralizes their interest in Christianity...Rather than being genuinely interested in people for their friendship, we often seem like spiritual headhunters.(68-69).
Many of the young people we interviewed also pointed out how hard it is to take Christians seriously in light of some of their tactics. In all of the interviews we did, we heard no favorable comments about so-called street witnessing, where Christians intercept unknown passers-by to share the Good News. "People stalk you and verbally berate you. I'm like, do I know you? Why should I care what you are saying?" was one comment. (69).
And outsiders expressed particular disdain for methods that "trick" people into paying attention. One respondent called this "the con of conversion." She said, "Christians want you to pay attention to their message about Jesus, yet somehow I don't think Jesus would be happy about being turned into a gimmick." (70)
Outsiders are skeptical and savvy. In the vast majority of cases, rather than creating spiritual depth in people, these methods create unChristian barriers--mental and emotional obstacles--to Jesus. (70)
The chapter then presents some results of research done during 12 years about evangelism and faith-sharing activities. This research identifies a number of myths about how and why people become Christians. These misconceptions enable Christians to be in a state of denial about their conversion efforts. Unfortunately, these myths often are barriers to the development of the kinds of relationships & environments in which people can be deeply changed by their faith in Jesus. Here are several of them.
Myth: The best evangelism efforts are those that reach the most people at once. (70)
Reality: The most effective efforts to share faith are interpersonal and relationship based. When we asked born-again Busters to identify the activity, ministry event or person most directly responsible for their decision to accept Jesus Christ, 71% listed an individual--typically their parent, a friend, another relative, or a teacher. A majority of those decisions were described as conversations and prayer, while about 1/3 were instances in which their friend or family member took them to a church service or an evangelistic event. In an era of mass media, it is easy to believe that the more eyeballs, the more impact. But radio, television, and tracts accounted for a combined total of less than 1/2 of 1% of the Busters who are born again. The clear implication is that most young people come to Christ because of people they know very well, usually in the context of "everyday" interaction. (70-71)
Myth: Anything that brings people to Christ is worth doing.
Reality: When you're talking dollars, there is no price too high for a soul. But the problem isn't just cost. In our research with some of the leading "mass evangelism" efforts, we found that often these measures created 3 to 10 times as much negative response as positive...If you create more barriers with outsiders because of your tactics, you have not been a good steward of the gospel. How we choose to share Christ is as important as our actually doing it. (71)
Myth: People embrace Christianity because of logical arguments. (72)
Reality: Most people, by personality, are not logical thinkers and are not likely to change their beliefs because of elegant argumentation or apologetics...Most people do not become Christians because of the overwhelming evidence. And since Mosaics & Busters are more likely to possess a nonlinear, fluid way of processing life, they are increasingly comfortable with subtlety, nuance, ambiguity, and contradiction. So even if you are able to weave a compelling logical argument, young people will nod, smile, and ignore you.
When we asked outsiders what the most important factor is in their faith, they said it is something that "feels right to them personally" (69% of outsiders said this was an important facet in their spirituality)...67% of Christians between 16 and 29 said this was important as well. Among young people, whether we like it or not, their sense of individualism, their loyalty to peers, and their emotional and experiential outlook on life guide their spiritual pursuits. (72)
Myth: Everyone has an equal chance of becoming a Christ follower. (72)
Reality: Based on extensive research on this topic, our data points out clearly that the faith trajectory of the vast majority of Americans is mapped out before they become adults, often befoe they even reach adolescence. (72)
Think of the implications of this. First, it underscores that Christians should prioritize the faith development of children, a unique time in human development when the vast majority of us "pick" a faith. Second, it implies that we must work hard to strengthen the often-tenuous faith of teenagers, because this is when their faith is gelling...Finally, it reminds us why respect for other people's faith is so crucial. We are not likely to change another adult's by a comment here or a small dose of Jesus there. If we really want to help outsiders see the unique freedom available through Christ, the simplistic get-saved message is an insult to their intelligence. We may think people just need a quick spiritual transaction, but this kind of overhaul does not happen without a person's permission and the activity of the Holy Spirit. (73)
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