In/Out

I watched the Jesus Camp movie about 2 months ago and am still processing what I saw and how it relates to my own life growing up. One of things that struck me watching the movie that I have continued to think about was a scene in which the Mother of one of the kids is talking to the camera and she says "there are 2 kinds of people in the world; those who are Christians and those who aren’t." I don’t know that I actually heard that phrase growing up but I certainly subconsciously believed it. I have spent far too much time during my life deciding if someone was a christian or not and then deciding if they where "my kind" of christian or not. I spent far too much time deciding if someone was in or out. In fact I spent so much time determining the in/out factor that my learning about the person themselves was almost a secondary issue. The in/out factor means that I made judgements about if we would or would not be friends and if we did or did not have anything in common.

I recently had a conversation with someone who was defending the christian/nonchristian mentality or truth as they called it. As I listened I thought about something that I recently heard Brian McLaren say. He was talking about what’s next, after we have decided who is in/out what then, do we ignore them, do we try to convert them, or do we love them and show grace and compassion. Historically we have ignored then, tried to convert through reason or fear and, at times in history, to convert by the sword.

So this is what I have decided ………. drum role please…….. I am going to try to not decide who is in or out. What if what the Bible says is true – that God will ultimately decide, and last I checked God wasn’t taking suggestions from me on who is in/out. Perhaps my time will be better spent learning from people and their lives and experiences, loving, showing grace and compassion and less time deciding who I think is in/out.