Yesterday when I left church after worship I tuned into NPR and caught the middle of an interview with an author named Chuck Strand. At the time I tuned in, Strand was advocating what he believes is the future of religion in America, an idea that he called "iReligion." He described Religion in terms of iTunes. The iTunes phenomenon has allowed us to pick and choose what songs we want to buy from a particular album. We no longer have to purchase an entire CD just to hear the song we like - now we can just buy that song and do without the rest. Strand thinks that this is the best way for religion to move forward. He believes that people can create their own "iReligion" by picking and choosing those beliefs and practices from different religions that are "most useful to them."

He actually said this - that we should make up our own religion by choosing whatever is most useful to us.

I have been so bothered ever since I heard this interview. It makes me wonder if most people believe that religion should be useful to them. I'm not a religious scholar, so I can't speak to the "usefulness" of Judaism or Buddhism or Islam, but I know that in my life and the lives of many I know, Christianity is far from "useful." The religion I practice calls me out of my comfort zone, demands that I think beyond myself and my selfishness - it is anything but "useful."

I am fearful if this is where we are headed - down a path where religion is all about me and my needs and has nothing to do with my neighbor.

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Has this ever happened to you: you are driving along on the highway, minding your own business, listening to your favorite station when out of nowhere someone in a huge hurry flies around you and cuts you off so that they can continue to drive 20 miles over the speed limit without hitting their brakes? For some reason, I feel like this happens to me often and it drives me nuts. What really really bothers me about many of these encounters however, is the subtle car jewelry that some of the speed-crazed drivers have attached to their cars. You know what I'm talking about. Sometimes the worst drivers have a shiny Christian fish glinting off their back bumper.


What's the deal with that! What kind of message can someone possibly think they are sending by professing to be one way but acting in a completely opposing manner?


I was reading a post by Dan Dick about such things as putting shiny fish on your bumper. He says that doing this is a form of "passive evangelism," a display of faith that doesn't require any type of dialogue or discussion. Just an obvious symbol of affiliation. Most people like this kind of evangelism - it doesn't require anything of them. It allows them to say stuff like "yeah, people know I'm a Christian because I wear this cross necklace all the time." Um, maybe . . .


Another type of evangelism that he talks about (you can read the whole article if you want http://doroteos2.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/evangelisnt/) is representational evangelism, which basically means that a committee or group at a church does evangelism on behalf of the whole group.


It seems like most people think evangelism is a bad word. To be honest, I used to think so too. It made me think of the people who stand in front of the movie theater in Sundance Square and hand out tracts.


But I've learned that there is a difference between evangelism and evangelicalism. Evangelism is about sharing good news. Its about habits and speech and action. Evangelicalism is a certain group of Protestant Christians with particular convictions. Evangelicals are often really good at doing evangelism, they aren't scared to speak their minds, but sometimes they are way too pushy, which gives most of us a bad taste in our mouths for evangelism.

But evangelism doesn't have to be pushy. It doesn't have to be passive either, like putting a fish on your bumper. It can be authentic and transformative. It has the potential to change lives and change hearts. The hard part is getting to this point, moving from "representational evangelism" to authentic evangelism that one engages in without even trying. The kind of evangelism that happens when you simply live and act and speak from the heart of your Christianity. For this, I think there has to be a cultural shift in our churches. I'm just still trying to figure out how we can help get the ball rolling.

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When I was trying to decide what to name this blog, I kept going back to a line in 1 Corinthians 13. "Through a mirror dimly" is where I constantly find myself on my faith journey. Usually, I'm somewhere between faith and doubt - in a muddy area where I can't help but ask questions that lead to more questions. And from what I've learned so far, this a usually a good place to be though it is frustrating at times. We don't and can't know all there is to know, yet. But to me that doesn't mean we don't stop wondering. This blog will probably be full of questions that I will never quite answer, but I hope you will have fun questioning with me.

1 Corinthians 13:11-13

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

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