Friday, April 8, 2011

Dinner With Jesus and Attempting to Be A Non-Idiotic Christian

I'm getting braver about talking about Jesus with non-believing friends.  In fact, the last few times I've been out to dinner, I've talked about him.  I'm not talking about some kind of full-on testimony.  I guess it's more that I've stopped forcing myself to NOT mention him.  Even though most people I know think his name is a swear word.

Range, the scene of one of my recent crimes
Now you might think this is baby stuff if you're a big, brash, testifyin' Texan or someone who freely holds hands and says grace at Chili's or just a Christian from anywhere outside the San Francisco Bay Area.  For me, being this bold is a big deal.  And the most amazing thing is that I wait for the stunned, perplexed look, the scoff, the incredulous scowl I would have given myself not so very long ago when I shared my friends' worldview...and it never comes.

Instead I encounter gentleness, curiosity, love. 

Barbacco, another site.  No restaurant in San Francisco is safe.
After each dinner, they send the same emails we always do: "That was so fun.  We should do more often.  Love you!"

Yesterday I read a great New York Times article Tim Keller's ministry that was published a few years ago on.  Someone paraphrased Keller's approach by saying "You need to enter into a person's worldview, challenge that worldview and retell the story based on the Gospel.'   I hope to get there someday.  But maybe it starts smaller than that.  Maybe it starts, as Keller himself says, with being one of "two Christians I don't think are idiots" for our non-believing friends.

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