Growing up I remember reading a quote that has stuck with me. Satan's most powerful tool is not an active sinner, but in an inactive Christian.
But maybe that's not entirely true. Maybe one of Satan's greatest tools is not an inactive Christian, but an over-active Christian...or an active Christian involved solely in things that are in the Christian subculture. I call this Christian entrenchment.
It seems that the longer one is a follower of Jesus the more entrenched (maybe other ways to say it could be insulated or lulled to sleep) one is prone to be. The Christian Bubble can be very hard to identify in our own lives and even more difficult to burst. Christian entrenchment is not often talked about, but it does need to be addressed.
I realize I am stirring the pot of the age-old question of what it means to be in the world, but not of it. Though I am not wanting to get into that question directly right now, I figure its important enough for each of us (me included) to think about how we can assess ourselves as objectively as possible (as hard as that may be) regarding the level of our own entrenchment.
There are at least five indicators of Christian entrenchment - a spiritual/cultural litmus test of sorts - that might give us some things to chew on - me included.
(1) Our language: oftentimes conversations that are saturated with Christian cliches are a good indicator of Christian entrenchment. There are lots of good Christian cliches out there that may sound good to the faithful, but can create an "us/them" mentality. It also risks coming across distracting, inarticulate, confusing, narrow-minded or even arrogant to those who do not have a relationship with Jesus. (It is amazing how often we use the phrase "accepting Jesus into our hearts" and yet that language is never used in our Bibles).
[Q]: If a person who had no context of God or faith or church followed me around for a week would there be anything I say that they would not understand or would find distracting?
(2) Our social circles: Speaking of someone following us around for a week... Our oikos (a Greek word meaning "family," or household or even circle of influence) is extremely significant, but we don't often think intentionally about it. Think about the people you spend a lot of time with. Christian fellowship and community is important, but in healthy balance.
[Q]: Are those in my social network (work excluded) mostly/all followers of Jesus?
[Q]: How do I spend my weekends/free evenings - and with whom?
[Q]: Who are we inviting over to dinner? When was the last time I had someone in my home who did not talk like, look like, act like or believe what I do?
(3) Our mindset: our worldview is important. But we have to consider how we think about culture.
[Q]: Do I have a mindset that we are to retreat from the evil of the world or impact the world for the better?
[Q]: Do I see culture as good, evil or both? Is it neutral?
(4) Our schedules: sometimes we can become so busy with our schedules that we have no time to even hang out with those outside of the Christian bubble (see story of the Good Samaritan). Nobody is intentionally shunning our neighbors or co-workers...no, we think our neighbors and co-workers are fine people. Its just that we're so dang busy with church on Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings and Wednesday nights and Awana and the three bible studies and two small groups that we're involved in (whew!) that we're just so busy...and tired.
(5) How we spend our money (Entertainment): Oftentimes we can realize our entrenchment by looking at our credit card statements and our checkbooks.
[Q]: How much have I spent on Christian books, CDs, concerts or T-shirts in the past month? six months? year?
[Q]: How much of that is spent with people who consider themselves followers of Jesus?
[Q]: How much money is spent in an intentional effort to spend time with those who are not yet followers of Jesus?
After we're done with this test, we could take our answers and compare them with the life rhythms of Jesus that we read about in the gospels.
Then we need to ask "Do my language, social circles, mindset, schedule and how I spend my money reflect the ways of Jesus?"
After reflecting on this I realize that I have a long way to go to be freed from this entrenchment in my own life...
Thanks for the great post J.R. It is very timely for me. I am going to print this post and reflect on the questions. It's a "keeper".
Posted by: Melb | October 30, 2008 at 08:06 AM