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Are Christians Still Salty?
This morning, I went with my daughter’s church youth group to a local farm to harvest sweet potatoes. The farm’s name is Serenity Farms. The man who ran things, Bernie Fowler Jr., told us the the farm’s story after we’d finished taking our turn digging in the field. He’d been a developer who hit a very low spot in his life during the housing market crash. In addition to his business collapsing, he went through a long and bitter divorce, and his daughter ran off with a heroin addict, had a baby, and became an addict herself. He contemplated suicide, but instead turned to his faith and found solace in helping others.
On what he described as a prompting of the Holy Spirit, Bernie stopped by the farm to talk to the owner about an idea he had. The farm was on the verge of bankruptcy, and he and the farmer began working together. Bernie’s initiative is called Farming4Hunger. They grow crops, assisted by inmates from the local pre-release detention center. Volunteer groups harvest the vegetables, and it is immediately delivered to local food banks, soup kitchens, and — on occasion — directly to poor families in the area. Since 2012, they have grown and delivered millions of pounds of food.
The inmates receive mentoring while working at the farm. There is a 0% recidivism rate among the inmates who’ve worked there. Several of them spoke to the group about what work at the farm has meant to them. For most, it was the first time they had anyone take time to teach them anything of worth and show them a better way. They spoke of the acceptance and lack of judgment they received at the farm and what it meant to them, and how they, too, have found fulfillment in helping others.
As we left, I pondered why Christians could possibly be losing the culture war given success stories like this. Is it because we’ve largely sequestered ourselves away inside our Christian world and left the unsaved to themselves? I know there are many, many ministries doing great work like this one, but they are a small number compared to the number of Christians.
We feel like we’re doing the Lord’s work when we teach a Bible study or serve on a committee at church. We tell ourselves we’re being obedient by going to church and worshipping weekly. But these are things we do to grow our personal relationship with Christ. These things only equip us to do the Lord’s work. They’re a means to the end. We huddle together and complain about the lack of acceptance for our beliefs when the reality is that if we were out there living our beliefs, actually doing the Lord’s work — feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and those who are in prison, and clothing the naked — we would be making a difference in our communities.
The truth is, we’ve largely opted out of action, choosing instead to talk. Most unchurched peoples’ experience with Christians is listening to them complain about things they think are wrong with everyone else. Other Christians tend not to view things in this light because they understand the context and agree that the behavior being called out is sin. Unchurched people are left wondering why Christians are so angry and judgmental. We rail against our culture rejecting us, but I wonder if that is not a two-way street, with the culture at large watching us hunker down into our stained glass bunkers and wondering why we think they are something to be hated and feared.
I know that I am guilty of these things. I feel convicted. I have hidden behind my family and excuses about not having time for years. It remains to be seen whether I heed the call.
Thoughts? Am I on to something, or am I overly pessimistic?
Published in Culture, Religion & Philosophy
To clarify, the goal of the prison ministry is not teaching the prisoners to farm. The goal is to mentor them and show them a better way to live; to help them understand that where they came from does not have to determine where they go in the future. That is where the energy of the ministry is focused and not becoming farmers when they are released
But yes, I agree wholeheartedly that the generous soul who gives away so much he ends up in need himself isn’t necessarily worthy of praise!
So, for the past hundred years or so, as Progressives were upending our constitutional order with their fanciful legal interpretations and kept busy night and day building today’s gargantuan administrative state . . . were all those Christians with all their fervent good-works just slackers who coudn’t get their messaging right? How do you explain the path our civilization has taken if all that needed doing was more good works?
I’m not certain I’m going to be able to bridge the gap here, because I am not looking at this the same way you might be, and I don’t profess to be a theologian. First, I never suggested that doing good works is the end-all be-all of an ordered, Judeo-Christian values-based society. The Christian life, and the impact a Christian can have on the lives of others cannot simply be reduced to “messaging.” It is more than that.
My point in the excerpt you quoted is to convey that believers ARE commanded by Christ to do good works, as motivated by faith. I was overly simplistic, perhaps, but in the context of the OP topic of “saltiness”, I felt I was more or less clear. It’s not just the works, but the manner in which we do them, the motivation which drives them. Because such opens the door to a different conversation, to evangelism, to eternal salvation. Not everyone goes through that door, granted, but the opportunity is there.
And yes, a lot of Christians don’t have their messaging “right”. The most sincere believer is a fallible being, and can lose sight of the forest for the trees. No denying that.
One point further. There is no doubt that Christians as a group are all over the map, politically speaking. Far left to far right, the spectrum is wide. Do I believe our society would be “healthier” if a majority truly subscribed to a Judeo-Christian set of values and ethics? Sure I do. But that is not, I think, the present reality.
When everything is viewed through a political lens, what you see is always … political. And far too many Christians are indeed a judgmental bunch. And far too many are conditioned to think that the culture war is the final battle ground to saving our society. So they rail against the onslaught, to limited results.
I don’t know that our society can be saved, although I’m fairly certain it can be prolonged.
What I took from Sheila’s original post, however, was a personal conviction that goes beyond what is put on display in the public sphere, and I wanted to encourage that. It is those things, that I submit will have greater impact on those who receive them, than any vote we could cast.
I’m probably not communicating well. For that I am sorry. As I grow older, I have simply come to recognize that some things are as chasing after the wind. I’d rather pour my energies into things that might actually make someone’s day, someone’s life, just a little bit better. And to offer them a hope that is eternal.
I agree and hence wish for Christians to focus less on salves and more on substance. I can’t improve upon this:
Mar 14:7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me.
Unless we wake up and fight the culture war as though it really were a war of survival, we will not always have the one nation with the wisdom to create (and the power to defend and extend) a society based upon freedom of worship.