Voices of Experts

On one hand, when you meet someone who is supposedly a guru or expert in a particular field, you can usually get them to say something along the lines of “I don’t know why these people are listening to me, I have no idea what I’m doing,” — but on the other hand, they usually know a lot more than they think.

www.stanway.org

We now have better access to experts than ever before. I’ve put up a fence around and painted my house because YouTube tutorials give my wife the confidence that I’m not going to completely destroy our property. I can take a deep learning course from people who invented the field for $50 and come out relatively well versed.

But, when it comes to spreading our Christian faith, I’m not sure that the people who need the experts are getting the guidance that they need.

It is true that we are called to spread the Gospel, and our love for Jesus should radiate through our daily lives and lead others to want to learn more about that truth that we know. However, when I sent out a simple survey earlier this year where I wanted to know what the top 3 questions respondents would ask a Pastor if they were having dinner together, far and away the most popular question was along the lines of “why are Christians so (take your pick) arrogant/judgmental/self-righteous?” — not exactly the feedback I was expecting.

But it makes sense. Non-believers may have one bad interaction in high school with a Christian and it may form a worldview that influences that person for the rest of his or her life. For someone outside of a Christian community bubble, he or she may see an extreme view that is not well explained on TV that puts Christianity in a bad light.

There aren’t 8 steps to becoming a Christian videos like there are on painting a house via YouTube. There are some outstanding 8 part sermons, but our faith is so much deeper than the solving of a simple problem like painting a house or putting up a fence.

My wife recently came home crying. It had been a difficult and busy day. There was a convicted rapist and murderer on the run in Pittsburgh within miles of our house. I would skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to hear the graphic details of his crimes… but he had been charged with raping a 13 month old girl. My wife was crying because she didn’t understand how something like this could happen in a world created by our all powerful and all knowing God.

What explanation can you give?

There were 26 people killed in a Church in Texas this past week. Why did this happen?

“Why do bad things happen?” was the second most popular question that my survey group would ask a Pastor at dinner.

If I give the wrong answer to my wife, or if a new Christian councils someone at a time when their heart is in the wrong place, it can be detrimental.

There are Pastors, Associate Pastors, Assistant Pastors, Youth Pastors, and more — all devote their lives to the Lord and all are skilled councilors. We need to find a way to connect them to those who are hurting.