Jesus Wouldn't Blog

Those of us who have collided here in this online world are often talking about what Jesus would or wouldn't do.

I am certain now more than ever he wouldn't do what I am doing... blogging or podcasting. He also wouldn't be writing books, or traveling on the Christian speaking circuit at our finest conventions. He wouldn't be on "Larry King". He would be doing something of value... real value.

Donald Millar put it this way in his book, "Searching For God Knows What":

Perhaps the most comforting characteristic of Christ is that he liked people. Were somebody to ask me to begin a religious system, I would sit down and write a book the way Muhammad and Joseph Smith both did. This would seem the most logical way to communicate new ideas. Writing in scrolls, however, was not something that interested Jesus. He never sat down and wrote a mission statement. Instead, He accumulated friends and allowed them to write about Him, talk about Him, testify about Him. Each of the Gospels reveals a Christ who ate with people, attended parties, drank with people, prayed with people, traveled with people, and worked with people. I can't imagine He would do this unless He actually liked people and cared about them.

And then Millar says this... and I hope you get this because this is the BIG IDEA that has been running around in my head. Don't miss it.

Jesus built our faith system entirely on relationships, forgoing marketing efforts and spin. Not only that, but one of the criticisms of Christ was that He was a friend of pagans. Not that he hung out with pagans, but that he was their friend.

Ok... so here's the quick two-part application.

First, if those of us who are outside of church and are thinking we can make it on our own without sincere face-to-face connections with other Christ-followers... we are wrong. We just can't. Christ was our example as he gathered around him those who he could share his life with, encourage, challenge and then they learned together what it meant to to do the second part, which is...

As a church, those in leadership better get serious real quick about sharing how vital it is to build relationships and be friends with those who don't go to church. And I don't mean to become their friends with an agenda or a means to an end to get them to your church functions. Pastors need to ask themselves how many friends they have, real friends, that aren't Christ-followers and don't attend their churches. To be succinct, how many "pagans" or "notorious sinners" do we have as our friends?

So as those of us here begin to ask the question "now what", I am a certain of one thing... we need to be involved with the things Jesus would be involved with... and one thing I know, Jesus wouldn't blog.