Christians Need To Be Born Again
Posted by Jim on Sunday, August 24th, 2008
If the recent Saddleback Special with Barack Obama and John McCain tells us anything it’s that the evangelical wing of Christianity is in search of its soul. As I see it Rick Warren held his theologically conservative credentials masterfully in check the entire time and refused himself the pleasure of comparing Barack’s best with McCain’s worst and vice versa. I vote for Rick to become Billy Gs heir apparent as America’s pastor.
The Evangelical church is looking for its heart. Now that everyone knows we’re here what shall we do with all the attention? Like it or not if you fancy yourself a follower of Jesus, care about scripture and think church matters - America basically thinks you’re an evangelical. And while my good friend George Barna may have the ability to parse the difference I still find myself unable to distinguish between an evangelical and a born again. Nor do I think that Outsiders really know the difference either. For better or worse (and usually it’s the latter) we are called by both names. And as they say in the marketplace of ideas - perception is reality. Check out our recent blog post Saddleback Showdown: What happened to religion being a private matter? for more on this.
Speaking of The Barna Group - Their new thirty three year old President David Kinnaman is making quite the splash by selling over 100,000 copies of UnChristian What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity in less than a year. Fortunately David will be speaking at all three Born Again Church Tour conferences.
Which reminds me - some have asked why we are calling this the Born Again Church Tour. Well first off it just sounds cool doesn’t it 
and secondly we like to use self deprecating humor as part of our spiritual practice. And since we’ve done such a bang up job of selling being Born Again to our culture I think they have a right to ask us to return the favor, especially when we fail to live up to the very standards we so loudly advise them to adhere to.
It seems to me that this is one of those times when repentance needs to begin with us! We have to find our soul again. We have to locate the heart of what Jesus really wants us to be about. Before we attempt to remove the splinter from the Outsiders eyes we think we should spend some time pulling the log out of our own.
We think that young followers of Jesus and young Outsiders deserve a much better effort from those of us who have gone down the road a ways. We need to tell them the truth about our struggles. We need to stop the spiritual cover ups - using religion as a cover for our personal insecurities and as a way to gain power and control.
Our Lord and Master said and lived this saying. “If you lose your life you’ll find it”.
We need to be born again.
Bring a group of young people to the Born Again Church Tour.
Young people bring your pastors, youth group leaders and parents.
It will change something inside of you.
August 28th, 2008 at 7:23 am
“It seems to me that this is one of those times when repentance needs to begin with us!”
Dear Jim,
I love that line. As a matter of fact, I have quit viewing people as Christian or non-Christian. For the last ten years many of my friends (and me) have been trying to decide if I have been in a perpetual state of backsliding or if I have managed to rejoin the sinners in order to be better at presenting the gospel. I think the latter.
When did we ever arrive at a place when repentance was not necessary? I live in Mississippi and a couple of weeks after Katrina I was in what was left of a friend’s house in Biloxi with about twenty people gathering to pray for mercy and direction from God to help families recover from the storm. One of the countries better known preachers learned we were there and came with his private jet and his entourage to pay us a visit. His first comment was that the storm was the judgment of God on Mississippi and the coast. Well, as I recalled there were a lot of hurricanes that season and I asked why the other dozen or so hurricanes were not the judgment of God. Besides, I didn’t think God was in the strong wind (1 Kings 19:11 & 12) and we were gathered there to hear a still small voice.
Since 9/11, Katrina, and Iraq, I have heard a lot of talk about the “judgment of God.” I have concluded that the scriptures are correct and worth noting by one and all. First, we need to be careful about thinking we are above repentance, and looking to God to judge America; especially in light of “judgment must first begin with us” (1 Peter 4:17). Also, I have become clearly familiar with, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” (1 Corinthians 11:31 KJV) We are so quick to remind others not to judge us but very reluctant to judge our own behavior in any fashion.
It seems to me that if we would like the world to repent, then as you stated, we should be leading the way by example. You be the judge.
Randall M. Mooney
August 28th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Hi Randall, I am sad that someone actually said to you that Katrina was the “judgment of God.” I blogged about this topic earlier this year while I was reading David Kinnaman’s book. You can read it here: Act of God or Natural Disaster? In that blog I wrote,
I agree, Randall, we need to lead the way in repentance and we need to follow the way of Jesus by offering mercy instead of pronouncing judgment. Thanks for your thoughts.
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:55 am
Jim — This is good. I also think this sort of language helps us expand the conversation beyond individualism. It isn’t just monadic persons that get to get saved — it is families, communities, world-views, religions…