For the wild ones!
Friday, September 08, 2006 by Sam
My mate Darryl just flicked me an email with a bit of a rant after we spent some time yarning about the infamous “I am not a Christian” article recently. Ive already mentioned the article in passing in this post, and there are some responses there. And so this is especially for those linking from the wild ones blog where darryl posted that rant. Darryl is a great mate who gives me a good kick up the backside every couple of weeks when we hang out, and has being a key voice that has shaped my understanding about what it means to follow Jesus. The crazy thing was that I was not writing this article to provoke, I was trying to point to Jesus as the centre of our conversations, not these labels. It has being good to yarn with the bald headed one and process my surprise about some of the reactions, certainly from a newbee who is only getting used to people being pissed off with him (whereas Darryl is suprised if people are not!). Just a wee excerpt from his email:
"The system and its language aren’t worth the time and energy they take up. I think its time that, Jesus followers, Christians, people of the way, (your choice) start focusing on the real issues. The recent UNOH Surrender conference did this. It focused us on Jesus and therefore indigenous peoples rights, fair trade, mission, micro enterprises among the poor, poverty and our responses to it…. ….and not once did I hear a discussion on terminology! Excellent stuff!"
And as much as I would love to go; “yeah, take that people that thought my article was dumb…” I also felt flippin challenged by what Darryl wrote. I really dont spend enough time thinking about the real issues of what it means to follow Jesus, I don’t care enough, I get really carried away with issues that don’t matter, a lot of my energy, finance and time is spent on myself.
I would love to give a big Justice rant now to justify myself, talk about my history, whats happening with Soul Survivor and some of our initiatives, but I wouldn’t be doing it for the right reasons, I would be doing it to impress (yeah right!) unoh and urban vision workers… so im going to shut up now… But to all those in UNOH and UV, thankyou for making me feel uncomfortable and deeply challenged about the way I live my life. And cheers Darryl for gently rebuking me yet again :)
"The system and its language aren’t worth the time and energy they take up. I think its time that, Jesus followers, Christians, people of the way, (your choice) start focusing on the real issues. The recent UNOH Surrender conference did this. It focused us on Jesus and therefore indigenous peoples rights, fair trade, mission, micro enterprises among the poor, poverty and our responses to it…. ….and not once did I hear a discussion on terminology! Excellent stuff!"
And as much as I would love to go; “yeah, take that people that thought my article was dumb…” I also felt flippin challenged by what Darryl wrote. I really dont spend enough time thinking about the real issues of what it means to follow Jesus, I don’t care enough, I get really carried away with issues that don’t matter, a lot of my energy, finance and time is spent on myself.
I would love to give a big Justice rant now to justify myself, talk about my history, whats happening with Soul Survivor and some of our initiatives, but I wouldn’t be doing it for the right reasons, I would be doing it to impress (yeah right!) unoh and urban vision workers… so im going to shut up now… But to all those in UNOH and UV, thankyou for making me feel uncomfortable and deeply challenged about the way I live my life. And cheers Darryl for gently rebuking me yet again :)
Labels: christian, justice, soul purpose
| »