Confession?   I struggle to NOT over-react when I find something I violently disagree with.  I don’t offer others a ton of grace in those moments, instead of just taking a deep breath and moving on. With this awareness, I have begun to set some blog posts, talks, and response emails aside until I can come back with a fresh perspective that is hopefully a little more processed.  Translation: this blog has been in process all week.

I was scrolling through my Twitter feed on Monday, when I came across a statement from someone I don’t follow but the statement of this Christian celebrity had been re-tweeted by someone I take seriously.  This person asked the question, “Can the gospel spread when the Church has a bad name?”

And this question is especially relevant.  The research Dave Kinniman and Gabe Lyons presented in the book, UnChristian, left little doubt that Christianity not only has an image problem, but a substance problem.  When people who do not follow Jesus get close to people who do, they don’t get a strong wiff of Jesus; instead they get “anti-homosexual, hypocritical, judgmental, sheltered, too-political, proselytizer”.  So, for so many of us that have regular contact with people who do not follow Jesus, we live with the reality of the Church having a bad name.

Yet, the response this person gave to the question “Can the Gospel spread when the Church has a bad name?” was “Like Wildfire.”  He cited Acts 28:22 as proof of this fact.  Well, I looked that verse (and its surrounding context) up.  This passage comes as Paul has come to Rome, based on his appeal to Caesar when faced with charges by the Pharisees and religious leaders in Jerusalem.  Here is his dialogue with people in Rome:

Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death. But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar—not that I had any charge to bring against my own people. For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of the brothers who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you. But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”  They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet:

” ‘Go to this people and say,
“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’

“Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay, you have now read what I read. And here is my point made simply: this passage has nothing to do with the Church having a “bad name” because of the things UnChristian and other research has outlined. In Paul’s day, the Church had a bad name because they were introducing a counter-cultural way of life that conflicted with the way of the Roman Empire.  Followers of Jesus wouldn’t worship Caesar and they celebrate their life as a community of faith in ways that were misunderstood and bizarre, in the eyes of outsiders.  However, it was Christians who took care of widows and the poor.  It was Christians who entered areas affected by infectious diseases and plagues, when others were taking flight.

I agree with the heart of the person who Twitter-ed “Like Wildfire!” – he wants to share his unwavering faith that God is larger than the Church having a bad name.  However, using this passage as a time when the Church had a bad name is not accurate.  Having a “bad name” is not an accurate picture of Acts 28.  In those moments, the backlash was as a result of Jesus-followers being true to who they were, along with the life and teaching of Jesus.  The “bad name” we have today is because of incongruity between Jesus and the lives of people. I am the first to recognize that there will always be an incongruity, but our unwillingness to come to terms with the fact that it exists (and not sweep it under the rug or push it out of our mind as unimportant) is NOT HELPING!

Friends, let’s get down on our faces before God and repent.  Let’s commit to follow Jesus with humility and meekness, being accountable to others when they see us flirting with arrogance or hubris.  Let’s trust God to be bigger than our weaknesses and failures, but let’s face our fears and take a good long look in the mirror.  Even if that mirror is the words of others that can sting and hurt.  Sometimes we need that sting to arrest our attention.