Tuesday, September 6, 2011

"Sunday Christians" (An Introduction)

Growing up, I used to hear the term "Sunday Christian" a lot. This is a type of person who goes to church on Sunday--though it can be on other days--participates in the service, and acts like a good Christian, according to his or her faith, for that day. When the next day comes, however, that person has a very different set of values than those displayed as his or her church.

The average person has many different personas. You probably act differently with your parents than you do with your friends. When you go to work, you behave differently than you would in the comfort of your own home. Your tongue might be a little looser, and you might speak your mind with a little less caution and a little less thought. It can be much the same with church. When in church, you're focused on God. You raise your voice and hands in praise, listen to the readings from the Bible, and try to learn to be a better Christian.

This is very easy to do when everyone around you is doing it too. Every person in that building with you is praising God and trying to better themselves as well. But what happens when we leave those buildings?

When we step outside, the world has a different set of values; it's a different kind of ball game. In church, we're told that we need to feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned, give to the poor, etc. Outside of church, we're told to work hard, climb that ladder of success, make as much money as we can, and be quick about it. So, instead of giving to the poor, we might hesitate, keeping our "belongings" close because society tells us that we're only as good as what we have. If we give away something, we might be giving away everything and join the homeless under the overpasses. Our reward of eternal glory in heaven is replaced with the vision of a mansion filled with many different comforts and servants waiting to take our commands.

Our focus shifts from how to be a better Christian to how to get that next promotion. With everyone around you focused on that same goal, it's easy to go along with it. This blog is meant to explore some of the difficulties of being a Christian in today's America, where there seems to be little room (and even less time) for God.

4 comments:

  1. I agree with you. It's very important that we recognize what values are the world's and what values are Christ's and then stick to our true allegiance.

    Due to comfort, we find that cannot be as consistent as we wish but for the purpose of setting good examples for each other we must strive to maintain our value no matter the place or the situation.

    - Aus-B

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  2. I am really interested to see what you write about over the next few weeks. Following Christ is not easy, but Christ never claimed that it would be. He even said that if we follow Him, we will suffer for His name. It gets difficult in a world where there are very few absolutes. People say that you can get to God any way you please as long as it works for you. The thought what’s right for you is right for you, but maybe not anyone else prevails in our society. Christians get called close-minded, old-fashioned, and prejudice. I think a huge part of this thought of Christians is that some “Christians” don’t quite understand Jesus. Is the Bible absolute? Yes. Are we to follow it? Yes. Will we be mocked, hated, scorned, and laughed at? Absolutely. If Jesus went through all of that, we should expect no less. There is a way to still sincerely love people through all of that. Just as He did, we have to focus on loving the person. You win more people with honey than with vinegar. However, we can never sacrifice truth for acceptance. It’s not easy. It’s not pretty. But if you call yourself a Christian, you have to do what’s right.

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  3. Let me say, this is very interesting and has been a topic that runs over my mind every so often.
    Now, I am not a devout Christian. I am finding my own way and figuring out what I believe in. One thing that strayed me off the path was what you were just saying here. My church in my hometown was filled with hypocrisy. I could not stand it. Why would I want to be like this person? They call themselves a Christian? Do they have any values at all? Not to mention, I disagreed with so many beliefs of what was right and wrong. My Sunday School teacher got on to me one time because I supported gay rights. I was confused and kind of hurt. Though I am straight, I have close friends who are gay. I care about them. I don’t want someone else who considers themselves to be a good person telling me my friend is going to hell because of his/her sexual preference. It’s silly and didn’t make any sense.
    What morals to true Christians have, anyway? What makes you a “good” Christian? I am learning that love wins overall. The people who actually think about others when they are outside of church and would rather lend a helping hand than help themselves. The citizens who go about not worrying about gain or profit material wise. Rather, they are surrounded by people who love them for who they are and how they impact others. I look forward to reading your blog and what you have to say!

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  4. By being the world's largest religion, Christians face the problem of having a religion that's divided into 12 denominations and further divided into 200 different sects, each with at least one detail that's different from the rest. Therefore, who's to say what constitutes a good Christian. At the very least, there are 200 different views on this and this is a conservative estimate. If we assume each Christian has his or her own idea of what constitutes a good Christian and one third of world's population is Christian, then you have billions of opinions of what constitutes a good Christian.

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