Dangerous Christianity

Matthew 28:16-20

The Great Commission

The pastor drove to the church early on Sunday morning. Today was going to be a tough one. He had worked on this sermon for more than a week. In fact, it was been spinning around in his head for a month or two. It is a very important message and he wanted to make sure it was delivered and received in the right way. "The right way", he thought. "There is only one way to deliver it". He pulled into the parking lot and went directly to his office. He had some work to do. He needed to "polish the stone" before the eight o'clock service.

As the first members wandered into the church building, some had coffee, some visited, and a few sat in pews and prayed. The service started, and the pastor waited until the first hymn was finished. Before the liturgy began, he looked out over the congregation and greeted them. He then looked directly at the center of the church and said the following - "Folks, I have a very important message to share with you today. As we go through the liturgy, please prepare your hearts and minds. I don't want anyone to miss anything this morning".

The liturgy completed and the sermon was about to begin. The pastor cleared his throat and said, "Folks, is it not a blessing that we are gathered today to listen to the Word"? Many nodded their heads in agreement. The pastor continued, "Don't you feel blessed that we are gathered in fellowship to worship with our Brothers and Sisters"? Again, many nodded in agreement. Then he said "Don't you think that the safest place God intended for us to be was living in His Word"? This time almost everyone nodded in agreement. The pastor then said, "Well folks, it is not, and was never intended to be. In today's world, just like yesterday's world, and in all probability, tomorrow's world, we might have to practice 'dangerous Christianity'. Christianity is often times not a safe place to be".

Even though the story above is fiction, my former pastor gave a riveting sermon similar to this years ago. Today, just like when the Apostles were given the Great Commission, Christianity can often be a death sentence. Jesus knew that - it was a death sentence for Him. But the mission is so important to God, that He asks us to risk it all to spread His Word.

Today we see Coptic Christians being slaughtered in the churches in which they worship. We see Christians being thrown in prison in Muslim countries for proselytising. A church I worked at had to go on the internet and misspell the name of a youth pastor to protect him when he was on a mission trip in the Balkans. When he wrote home, he needed to refer to people he was working with by either initials or code names. To be discovered to be Christian could be fatal.

The next time you go to a comfortable church for worship and fellowship, ask yourself this one simple question - is this what the church is suppose to be today, or is it too comfortable? Are churches suppose to be a safe harbor, or they meant to be a training center for outreach, both near and far? Are churches suppose to be insular, or are they meant to be ecumenical with other believers? Not all of us are cut out to practice the kind of dangerous Christianity that some brave souls do today. However, in many churches, the comfort dial could be turned down and the mission dial turned up. For the world to see churches as different than the world, they need to look and act different than the world.