Why not say something?
A busy, very busy week. The memorial service for Lewis Brandon will be Saturday, 11 am at St. Mary's. (Lewis and Margaret have columbarium niches at St. Mary's.)
Why not say something?
Through this week I have been challenged with the question of why so many of us are so hesitant to say anything about God, much less our faith. Well, at least anything positive about God!
Don't give me that "I don't want to offend" stuff. I see people driving around with signs for their football team or NASCAR driver. People will get in a fist fight over whether the school with royal blue or the school with washed out blue is the better school! (OK -- that was a deliberate attempt to get people excited!)
Or offend someone by our political stands? We are willing to speak favorably about this or that candidate even if it offends -- but about God? Why is that so hard?
We make excuses --- "Oh ,that is private." but I am not asking why we don't insult someone else's faith, just why we don't mention our faith.
"Oh, I don't know what to say." --- OK, that one may be fair, at first glance anyway. But if we have nothing to say about God than --------- I am not sure what! But I am sure it is not good.
Maybe it is easier to say something about our church than about God. OK. But we seldom do that anyway. And when we do we normally mention the non-religious factors. They are important, just not necessarily religious. "Oh, everyone is so nice." --- OK, but I can get that at the civic group. "Oh, the music is so good." --- OK, but I can listen to a CD while driving my kids to soccer practice.
Don't mis-understand ! You would not want a group, especially a church, where the people are nasty and the music stinks!!
But a church needs to offer something else so we need to speak about other things -- too. Did the Bible lesson speak to you? Did the sermon touch you? Did the music touch you?
When we get the question: "How was your weekend?" can we respond: "Good, went to the kids soccer games on Saturday. Then at church heard a fascinating talk on forgiveness -- that's hard! Then watched Dallas and Buffalo. Good stuff." If the person wants to follow up, they can. Most likely they won't but maybe after a time or two they might trust us enough to ask a question.
Or when something special goes on at the church respond: "We had 'First Responders Sunday' with fire fighters, police, sheriff, ambulance ... just lots of people!"
Or mention the Christmas carrol sing or Easter Egg hunt or youth group mission trip. None of that is insulting to the other person but it might open the door for some conversation.
Of course, none of that actually speaks about OUR faith but it does open the door.
Final reason why we don't say something --- "What if they ask me a question I cannot answer?" Actually, nothing would be better !!! Say, "Good question and one I wonder about. What don't we get together and ask about it?"
Why not say something?
Through this week I have been challenged with the question of why so many of us are so hesitant to say anything about God, much less our faith. Well, at least anything positive about God!
Don't give me that "I don't want to offend" stuff. I see people driving around with signs for their football team or NASCAR driver. People will get in a fist fight over whether the school with royal blue or the school with washed out blue is the better school! (OK -- that was a deliberate attempt to get people excited!)
Or offend someone by our political stands? We are willing to speak favorably about this or that candidate even if it offends -- but about God? Why is that so hard?
We make excuses --- "Oh ,that is private." but I am not asking why we don't insult someone else's faith, just why we don't mention our faith.
"Oh, I don't know what to say." --- OK, that one may be fair, at first glance anyway. But if we have nothing to say about God than --------- I am not sure what! But I am sure it is not good.
Maybe it is easier to say something about our church than about God. OK. But we seldom do that anyway. And when we do we normally mention the non-religious factors. They are important, just not necessarily religious. "Oh, everyone is so nice." --- OK, but I can get that at the civic group. "Oh, the music is so good." --- OK, but I can listen to a CD while driving my kids to soccer practice.
Don't mis-understand ! You would not want a group, especially a church, where the people are nasty and the music stinks!!
But a church needs to offer something else so we need to speak about other things -- too. Did the Bible lesson speak to you? Did the sermon touch you? Did the music touch you?
When we get the question: "How was your weekend?" can we respond: "Good, went to the kids soccer games on Saturday. Then at church heard a fascinating talk on forgiveness -- that's hard! Then watched Dallas and Buffalo. Good stuff." If the person wants to follow up, they can. Most likely they won't but maybe after a time or two they might trust us enough to ask a question.
Or when something special goes on at the church respond: "We had 'First Responders Sunday' with fire fighters, police, sheriff, ambulance ... just lots of people!"
Or mention the Christmas carrol sing or Easter Egg hunt or youth group mission trip. None of that is insulting to the other person but it might open the door for some conversation.
Of course, none of that actually speaks about OUR faith but it does open the door.
Final reason why we don't say something --- "What if they ask me a question I cannot answer?" Actually, nothing would be better !!! Say, "Good question and one I wonder about. What don't we get together and ask about it?"
Labels: speaking about faith
posted by Ken | 1:29 PM
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