Katherine Pershey, an ordained pastor in a mainline church, read my post yesterday and left a comment along with a link. The link is to a “letter” she wrote to evangelicals. Read it here: An Open Letter to my Evangelical Friends. Her thoughts are perceptive and full of grace. While I do respectfully disagree with Katherine on some things, I agree and relate with so much too! She’s found herself back in contact with evangelicals after being away from them, and notes that some of us seem to have “fallen off of different fences into the same field.” This describes where I have found myself too.
Pay attention to her encounters with evangelicalism in her youth. Too often we come across as arrogant, insensitive, dismissive, or even downright silly. Seriously, our intentions may be good, but we need to think about how we are coming across! 1 Peter 3:15 says “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” – We somehow seem to forget about the gentle and respectful part.
Which reminds me of another post I appreciated: Reformation of an Evangelical with the tagline “I began college as a know-it-all Christian. But I learned how to listen to nonbelievers and learn from them.” – Hope you’ll take a moment to read this worthwhile article too.
Thanks for sharing my post, and continuing the conversation.
I wanted to say that yes, many of my early encounters with evangelical Christians were troublesome, but I think it is important to note that not only was I young, but the evangelical Christians with which I was conversing were also quite young. These were my peers – kids in elementary school on up through college, when I started to actively detach myself from friendships with evangelical Christians. For a long time I believed that evangelicalism was ridiculously immature and superficial, but as an adult I’ve realized that part of that was absolutely a marker of our literal immaturity as Christians and, well, people. We were kids, with appropriately childlike understandings of the world.
Good point and clarification! And very gracious too. Sadly, though, I sometimes encounter similar troublesome things with adult evangelicals. But as you mention spiritual immaturity, I guess we need to realize it takes all of us time to progress in our faith. I have changed and matured considerably since my 20′s…when I was a rather legalistic and dogmatic Christian. The Lord slowly changed me in my 30′s and I sometimes look back at the Christian I once was and feel rather embarrassed…even mortified. I think your approach is exceptional. Evangelicals and mainliners can learn so much from each other and we need to be friends.
I think Paul gets at the same thing in 1 Corinthians 13:11 – “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” According to him, everyone who belongs to God continues to grow in Christ.
Cheers,
Tim
Good lessons for us all to learn. I was not brought up christian, but when I first believed in my teens, I suffered from an excess of zeal over wisdom too. Hopefully I have learnt and grown a little since then!
“Excess of zeal over wisdom” is a good way to put it! I suffered from that too, and I’m sure I slide back into it on occasion.