what message are you sending?

A couple of years ago now when my wife and I lead the meetings for our young adults ministry in our home, we had one young man come visit our group for the first time. When I talked to him on the phone before he came over that night he made it clear to me that he was not a Christian, and really didn’t want to have anything to do with it. But…  he was making some changes in his life and was told about our group so he decided to check it out.

He came that night and our discussion for the evening was centered around Rob Bell’s BullhornNooma video. The idea of the lesson was centered around the perception that we (as Christians) give other people about Christianity. My first question to the group after the video stopped was, “what do people outside of the church think of people inside the church?” After a short silence from my regulars, this young man boldly stated, “WE hate them!” Wow…   did this young man just come to a Bible study in MY home, and make a statement about how much he hates everything that I stand for?

Amazingly then young man came back the following week, and God touched him! He surrendered his life to Jesus that night, exactly one week after making such a strong statement. This young man has an amazing testimony, and is still actively serving the Lord today. But I am not writing this to share his testimony. I am writing because of a troubling trend in society today where Christianity is loosing ground because Christians are not behaving the way that Jesus would have wanted us to. Check out this video about current perceptions of Christians…

YouTube Video :: Video :: Perceptions of Christianity

So my question to you us, “what message are you sending the world about Christianity?” Do people see a 1 Corinthians 13 Christian? How about a Great Commandment or Great Commission Christian? Or do they see someone who causes division and strife? How about a judgemental or hypocritical Christian? And if you are reading this and thinking about how someone else needs to change, then you probably need to seriously check yourself (or, take the plank out of your own eye instead of complaining about the speck in someone else’s eye).

Here’s a better question…  How can we change the perception of Christianity? What types of things should we all be doing right now, today, to send the right message?

opportunity: invest your talents

Matthew 25:14-30 provides an amazing teaching (in parable) from Jesus in which we learn that if we do not invest our ‘talents’ then we will loose them. Of course there is much more that can be said about this parable, but my emphasis on the “use it or loose it” perspective is intentional.

I believe that it is extremely important for every Christian to consider how they should be investing the ‘talents’ that they have been given. Hear my heart when I say this…  I know that many people reading this right now already are investing their time, energy, money, and wisdom into the Kingdom. But I wouldn’t be doing what I’ve set out to do (see bibledude manifesto for 2009) if I didn’t challenge you to find new ways to live out your faith.

Therefore, since a ‘bibledude’ (and dudette) should be ‘engaging in culture,’ then we should be regularly searching for ways that we can impact the world around us. And if you’ve been following the ‘children of microfinance‘ series, you’ll know that there is some great opportunity to help microfinance in the war on global poverty. Five Talents is a great Christian organization that is leading the way in this area, and they have an amazing opportunity coming available…

Business professionals, graduate students, seminarians and clergy can now lend their talents in a unique way to Five Talents International as a Five Talents Fellow.

Dedicated individuals with an interest in serving the poor through Christian microenterprise development can now apply to work as a volunteer fellow with a Five Talents partner in Africa, Asia or Latin America for six months to one year. Fellowships will start during Summer 2009. Applications are due Monday, March 2, 2009.

The Five Talents Fellows program was created as a response to the demand from both partners asking for assistance with specific projects and from volunteers desiring to lend their talents to serve the poor through microfinance. The program is designed to strengthen the work and mission of Five Talents to fight poverty, create jobs and transform lives by advancing the goals of its local partner institutions with meaningful projects or research.

Given the high demand for involvement in the rapidly growing field of microfinance, this program offers significant benefits for interested candidates, including substantial exposure to the unique mission of Five Talents.

For more information or to apply, visit www.FiveTalents.org.

Established in 1999, Five Talents International has provided funding for business training and thousands of loans, ranging from $50 to $300, in 15 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Each loan finances a microbusiness that, in turn, supports up to six other people. A majority of the loan recipients are women.

Five Talents’ ongoing work is supported by a staff based in Vienna, Va., an office in London, England, and a program office in Kampala, Uganda. Hundreds of volunteers across the United States and United Kingdom participate in the ministry.

If you check them out, then let them know that ‘bibledude.net’ sent you. And if you end up going, I would like to open up the opportunity for you to share your experiences here on bibledude.net either as a guest blogger or through recorded Skype video-call interviews. Let me know if you plan to pursue this great opportunity!