Eric Carpenter at A Pilgrim’s Progress posted one of the best videos I have seen in a while.

It’s called “Shoot Christians Say” which means “$#!t Christians Say”…. but you know, since we can’t say “The S Word” it’s “Shoot Christians Say.” That should give you a clue what the following video is about.

Have you ever wondered where we picked up all this Christian lingo? I have been trying to weed it out of my life for the past five years or so, but sometimes it still creeps back in. But every once in a while, I listen to other Christians talk and the amount of jargon and lingo we sometimes use is amazing! It sometimes sounds like gibberish, and honestly, if you really listen, they are not saying much of anything at all.

It is not at all uncommon to hear Christians have conversations like this:

“God bless you, Man!”

“God bless you, too! How’s your walk?”

“Still stugglin’ with the flesh, but there is victory in Jesus, praise God.”

“Well, just keep walkin’ by faith and not by sight.”

“Yep, and I’m stayin’ in the Word.”

“Oh, that speaks to my heart. I know it’s been a battle.”

“Yeah, but your accountability has been such a blessing.”

“Give Him the glory, man. I’m just a vessel.”

“Amen to that!”

And so on…

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I know that Christians often have different ideas on how to evangelize… but my family and I discovered a strange tactic recently…

Jesus Graffiti

We recently moved to Oregon and were taking a hike in God’s beautiful creation, standing in awe of the streams, and trees, and waterfalls in this area, and also enjoying communication with other hikers we met along the trail, when we came across this:

Nice, picture right? But look what someone wrote on the top railing:

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Christians often suffer from a terrible malady: We “should” on ourselves.

Pastors tell us that we should read our Bibles more, and so we feel guilty when we don’t.

Then we hear on Christian radio that we should be giving more money to the poor children in Africa, and we feel guilty when we don’t.

We read blogs, and they tell us that we should love the poor and needy more, and we feel guilty if we don’t.

Mothers hear from female speakers that they should be cooking more homecooked meals and reading books to their children at night, and they feel guilty when they don’t always do this.

Fathers hear from men’s leadership speakers that they should be spending more time with their kids and leading the family in daily devotions, and they feel guilty when they fail at this.

Others tell us that we should memorize Scripture, attend more Bible studies, stop studying the Bible to go serve our neighbors, spend more time with our families, get our children involved in sixteen activities,pray more, do more to be an answer to our prayers, be cheerful more, be more somber and serious, sin less, homeschool our children so they are not polluted by the world, keep our children in school so they can be lights to the world, and on and on it goes.

The end result is that we get buried under a pile of “should.” All that we should be doing or should not be doing.

I have been guilty of doing this in my own preaching, teaching, and writing, and I feel like I should stop.

Ha! See how that works?

Seriously though, I hope that as you read this blog and some of the things I recommend you do as followers of Jesus, you recognize that these are not necessarily things you “should” be doing (even if I said that in a post), but are things you can do.

Instead of telling people what they should be doing, I want to start encouraging people with what they can be doing. None of the things I say or write about are intended to make people feel guilty or like they are not living up to their full potential, or like they are disappointing God, or not doing everything they should be doing as a follower of Jesus. 

No, most of my posts are about things that interest me and which encourage me as I see the Kingdom of God expanding in my life and in the lives of people I know. But this doesn’t mean that you should be doing the same thing. No. Not at all! These are things you can do if you are looking for ideas on how to follow Jesus, but they are not things that you must do or should do.

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Based on some of the recent posts from Sam Riviera about helping the poor and homeless in our communities, many people have emailed me about how they can begin doing this in their own communities.

Here is one example of a message that was sent in:

I have been following your posts for some time. You present a freshness to “Christianity” that I rarely see.

The blogger who said that he had quit going to church but it still hurts I am afraid I share that same sentiment. My husband and I stopped late last year. He for different reasons than myself but both are the reasons you and this blogger mentioned. We are older believers and have seen much.

Since I was a little girl, I have been saddened by the Church’s response to those less fortunate. Today I am deeply disturbed by how much it has become a house of hate instead of love. I don’t presume to say that all Christians are like that. I only know that one is way too many.

I would appreciate any help you can give me on gaining the courage to do what you and your family does. How do I get others involved? Thank you for your daily inspiration and love.

I think that this is a question many people have, so I decided to write a post about it.

First, I am encouraged by emails and comments like this because it shows that many people are taking the courageous step of following Jesus wherever He leads. I am convinced that “leaving church” so that we can “be the church” is one of the most difficult–but important–steps a person can make in their life of discipleship. This step is not for everyone, but I think it is becoming more and more important for people today if they want to see Jesus at work among those in our communities who are truly needy.

Second, as to how to start, Sam included many practical suggestions in his blog series about how to get started, but let me share a little bit about what we are doing in my family.

My recommendation is this:

Begin small. Very small.

How small? The biggest small way you can start: with prayer.

Pray for opportunities to present themselves. Pray that Jesus would open your eyes and ears to see where He is leading.

Then, begin looking and listening.

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