June 14, 2004
What's Your Sign?
An excerpt from Bumper Sticker Christianity, an article on RELEVANT magazine by Jason Barr:
"What is bumper sticker Christianity? It’s a method of Christianity enabling us to bypass personal, intimate relationships. Instead of influencing the lives of others by loving and serving people as Christ did, we attempt to influence others with our bumper stickers; we wear Christian t-shirts, we carry our bibles to work and school, and who can forget the most famous bumper sticker of the past few years: the WWJD bracelet. Are these things wrong? Of course not, but when you become defined by your bumper sticker, when your bumper sticker says more about God’s love than your actual life does, then it’s a problem. When we hide behind our bumper sticker, when we convince ourselves that it’s okay not to reach out because our bumper sticker tells everyone that we love God, then we have a problem. Now before we go any further let’s be honest, we’ve all been there."
Here at SALT, we've spent our last two Saturday's evangelizing at Navy Pier and Grand Park. As a group, we've gotten a chance to share with dozens of people. One man received Christ as his Savior, and another reaffirmed his faith and became confident of his salvation. Praise God!
Going out and sharing is a stretching experience for me. I often wrestle with the question of "Why are we doing this? Does it even make a difference?" These questions may be justifiable, but they mostly arise from my sense of self preservation. Which itself is something to deal with. Taking it to an extreme, I'm already dead physically (unless Christ comes in my lifetime, I'm guaranteed to be someday) so why not take more "risks", evangelistically speaking?
I'm not trying to attempt to be deep and meaningful (ok, maybe I am), but I thought I'd pass on the article, as it made me think of my own ways of tipping someone off to my Christianity, hoping they bite and I don't have to do anything uncomfortable to show them the love of Christ.
I love pictures. This is Eryn enjoying a turkey leg & Aaron feeding my Cheez-It's to the birds.
Have you noticed Aaron is in a LOT of pictures?
I should mention I had a "Chicago Style" hot dog a few days ago. Amazing! A dog on a poppy seed bun, covered with a dill pickel spear, onions, celery salt, sliced tomatoes, and a pepper. Mmmm. Worth the $3. Eating plain dogs will never quite satisfy again.
I get kind of depressed whenever I go to a Christian bookstore because of all the junk, dust collectors and pop psychology books that are for sale. You can hardly find a decent Bible sometimes.
Christian culture is so consumeristic, I think for the reasons your article points out. It's easier to listen to the music, wear the t-shirt, put the bumper sticker on our car and go to the concert or worship service seeking to elevate our spiritual selves self-indulgently than to actually engage people and invest in their lives.
Not that I'm not also guilty. Just reflecting.
As for elongated pieces of meat that fit nicely in a bun. If you come up to Miller Park in Milwaukee, try a bratwurst with sauerkraut and Secret Stadium Sauce. It's a religious experience.
Bob Costas picked Milwaukee for the best baseball park food in the country. I think he's right. You can also bet on the Sausage Race and we sing one chorus of Take Me Out to the Ballgame, followed by two of Roll Out the Barrel, fyi.
Zing boom tararrel, ring out a song of good cheer
I've had the same experiance at some bookstores. I did once come across one in Estes Park, Colorado that was fairly empty of "stuff".
As for Brewer food, our SALT staff is going up to a game on July 28th (i think), I'll definately be enjoying the food!
Posted by: dan at June 14, 2004 10:38 AMOooh. To see the Cubs. Should be good.
Posted by: Different Dan at June 14, 2004 11:41 AMSo, do you work, or just eat?
Posted by: Angie at June 14, 2004 01:47 PMGood call on the bumper sticker Christianity.
I think another thing we hide behind is feeling like, because we are Christian, we are okay and don't need to worry about anything else. And therefor completely forget about the fact that there are hundreds of perishing people all around us every day. Thus we are decieved into doing things like sitting around and drinking beer at night, rather than meeting people to influence with the gospel...
Posted by: Matt at June 14, 2004 02:07 PMdill pickle, onion, celery salt, tomatoes, pepper... I'll stick with my plain hot dogs.
Posted by: vos at June 15, 2004 12:18 AMI'm sticking with Vos on this one. Plain and simple. I might have nightmares and long nights if I took too many chances. But, don't get me wrong, stick with your tastes. God set aside a purpose for everyone.
Posted by: Morse at June 16, 2004 05:02 PMBest Code,
check out the blog about the wack gyro dreams some of us have had lately. *shudder*