Driving around the other day I was following a car with a license plate frame that read, ‘If you’re living like there’s no God, you’d better be right.’ I had two reactions to that. My first, sarcastic reaction was wondering if anyone seriously thinks that license plate frame has ever caused a non-Christian driver to pull into the first church they see and repent. I mean, really. What that frame is really saying is, ‘I think you’re an idiot–you just haven’t realized it yet–but since I’m so busy going somewhere in my car, I don’t have the time to build a relationship with you and tell you this in person so you’ll just have to settle for this cheap piece of plastic.’ Effective ministry, right?

My second reaction was disappointment. Much for the same reason, it saddens me that Christians feel like we have to define the world in terms of us and them, secular and sacred. I was in a class once at Vintage Faith where the teacher pointed out that there is no such thing as ‘secular.’ The whole idea of ‘secular’ is that it is something outside of God’s creation. Certainly there are evil and bad things in the world that God did not create Himself, but God didn’t create Christians and non-Christians. God created all people and He loves all people. If you’re going to have a license plate frame that proclaims your belief in something why not say ‘God loves you’? Cheesy for sure, but really, who can argue with that? I mean, you’re just reminding them that the all powerful Creator of the universe knows their name and even loves them!

Walking around downtown Edmonds today I saw the above sign outside of a Christian Science church. ‘All Are Welcome.’ Not, ‘Only those who believe,’ or ‘Only those who have it all figured out,’ but ALL. Why do Christians so often make Sunday morning about being right? The right church, the right mission statement, the right pastor… We don’t need church to remind us that we’re right, we need church to remind us of the amazing grace that covers our sins. We need church to remind us of the humility of a Savior who came and took on flesh, bled, and died so that we don’t have to be perfect, so that we don’t have to have it all figured out, so that we don’t have to be ‘right’. If we were perfect and right, we wouldn’t need the Church. We wouldn’t need God. And if we don’t need God, then really what does it matter if we’re right or not?

Filed under: life by Jonathan