Welcome to a flood of thoughts:
I just had some amazingly honest conversations with a couple of co-workers as we drove back from a day of shadowing out in a Philly store. As we approached the 3rd hour of travel time the awkward social conversations had finally ran their course and we were talking more like friends and less like strangers.
The topic of religion seemed to come up, not by me but by them.
One of the guys who made it very clear through his comments that he was not into this “christian stuff” asked me what church I attended. Now I didn’t see this as my “golden opportunity” to share my faith but more of an opportunity to let my faith be more of a “it’s just who I am” part of conversation and less like an invasion into his personal space.
There was a lot of small talk about church. His experiences were shared and mixed with interjections from the girl in the back both sharing about their dislike of close minded Christian who claim to love people and the church in general.
Well, after a couple minutes of this type of conversation I felt strangely empowered to ask a very vulnerable and awkward question.
I asked their permission to ask something venerable, and as the car quickly filled with tension I reassured them that it was I who would be venerable and not them. They nonverbally sighed a sigh of relief and knobbed a yes to continue.
I started by stating that I never want to be seen as “that Christian Guy”, you know the one who’s always shoving his faith on others, talking way too much about God, and generally being the annoying personal of faith in the corner.
I then ask them to be honest. I said I had spent the past 3 years in the “vocational ministry bubble” and deeply desire to not be “that Christian Guy” and I wanted to know how I was doing. Was I annoying? Fake? Do I make people uncomfortable? Be honest.
Well I’ve got to give them credit, they were honest.
They shared how they had me labeled as “a Christian” before I ever spoke.
They shared how they where afraid of riding to Philly with me due to the fear of me being a “Bible Belcher”
But they then gave me a huge compliment and said they where wrong. That I was safe to talk to, that I talked a lot more about other things then my faith, that I never pushed my faith or made then fill imposed upon, and that in general I’m doing ok and being well received.
Wow, honest.
I appreciated their comments, as compliments and stingers all in one.
I was super glad to know that I was “getting it right” and not being “that Christian guy”, that they felt safe around me and that I could be accepted as a friend (which is huge because all other christians they talked about where far from being allowed into the friend club)
But I would be lying if I said was not surprised a little by their honesty.
fear of me being a Bible Belcher
Fear of me shoving my faith on them
Not wanting to ride with due to my faith expressions
And now remind you, I have tried VERY HARD over the past 3 years to debunk the drippings of Christian culture from my life.
But it was still there and still obvious .
So there’s a lot to take from this conversation for me
Like:
People need us to talk a lot less about God and a lot more about life
We need to learn about good music and movies cause that’s what they wanted to talk about
People feel like they “know about our faith” and they don’t need us to share about it more with them, let them ask if they care to know.
The young adult generation has a general distrust and dislike for those of use positioning ourselves as “Christians” so let’s relearn to just be humans and friends who happen to have a strong belief system.
So how would your co-workers label you?
Would they be afraid of riding in a car due to your Bible Belching?
Do you know what it means to be human and not just Christian?
So how do we live with deep faith and convictions, yet respect the culture around us and be able to engage in meaning relationships building trust for faith conversations?
I’m sitting at starbucks trying to get some work done before going to my real job.
