Lately I’ve been thinking about a danger we face as Christians in this world: isolationism. God has called us to be holy in our thinking and living:

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. (2 Cor. 7:1, ESV)

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14-16, ESV)

The world around us presents a significant challenge to pursuing holiness. For this reason, after becoming Christians many of us begin our move into the cultural ghettos of American Christianity. We spend our time in christian coffee shops and christian bookstores. We listen to christian music, watch christian television, and play in christian sports leagues. Now, I’m sure we’re well intentioned and to some degree this may help in the fight against temptation, but we effectively isolate ourselves from the culture in which we live. We become the “spiritual Amish”. We may not live in rural Pennsylvania, but in our day to day lives we have removed ourselves from the very world into which Christ has sent us. Worse still, this isolation is often accompanied by a degree of self-righteousness and disdain for the unholy people we would encounter if we were not so isolated.

Yet this is not the way we see Christ living in the world to which He was sent. Jesus lived among sinners.

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:27-32)

Jesus and the sinners reclined together at the table sharing food and conversation. Jesus, the Holy One, dwelt among us sinners to such a degree that He was accussed of being our friend (Luke 7:34). Think about it: our Lord spent His time in mundane activities with unholy people because they (we) were the ones who needed to be healed. When we consider that Jesus has sent us into the world as He was sent (John 17:18) into the world can we neglect the implication that we too must dwell among sinners? The danger of being isolationists is very real. We must humble ourselves and confess to God the self-righteousness that leads us to isolate ourselves from the very people He has sent us to. I challenge you to spend some time outside of the christian ghetto this week not as a tourist or politician, but as a missionary.

Earthquakes, traffic, Bible studies, traffic, breakdancing, traffic…that’s what has been going on around here over the last two weeks or so. A couple of Sundays ago we had a good size earthquake right before the worship service started. It was the first earthquake my oldest son had really experienced. I think he liked it. Then a week or so later we had another earthquake which I believe was stronger but just didn’t last as long as the previous one. As usual I’ve been spending a lot of time in traffic. I spend between 45 minutes and an hour on the way to work and an hour plus on the way home. Last Sunday evening I preached on 1 Peter 3:13-17. It was a good time. Last night I talked at our church’s college group about being missional people. At the end I gave a challenge to consider how we as a group could seek to be involved in the lives of those around us who do not know the Lord. There seemed to be a positive response and I hope some good things develop out of it. After the Bible study last night everyone stuck around to talk. A few of the guys were discussing their plans for the weekend and we found out that one of the guys was heading up to a breakdancing event today. He has been breakdancing for several years and we were able to convince him to dance a little for us. So room was made for him to dance and he spent a few minutes providing us with some great entertainment. Bible studies and breakdancing…I never would have thought to put the two together!

As a result of being shamed (well, sort of) in a private email by a fellow blogger for not having read The Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll I used a gift card to purchase it. I plan to post a few of my thoughts on what I’m reading as I work my way through the book. So far I’ve only read the introduction and first chapter. I’d like to briefly comment on the following quote from the introduction:

Since the mid-1990s, the conversation among young pastors has evolved from reaching Generation X, to ministering in a postmodern culture, to a more mature and profitable investigation of what a movement of missionaries would look like, missionaries sent not from America to another nation but from America to America (p.18).

I’m not quite sure about all that’s behind the question as Driscoll poses it, but it does appear to be born out of the conviction that the Church is a missionary entity, movement, whatever you want to call it. When we lose sight of this we become, well, the present-day American church (yes I’m generalizing). I think that it is safe to say if we desire to follow Jesus in this world then “mission” must permeate our thinking about the Church in this world. There is so much more that could be said, but that’s why others write books and I just post comments on them

The June Giveaway at Challies.com is up. This time the prize is two CDs from Indellible Grace and the book TwentySomeone by Craig Dunham and Doug Serven.

Joe Thorn has begun to post his thoughts on the question “What is the Gospel?”. This first in a series of posts is a summary answer and Joe concludes:

It is about finding forgiveness of sin and peace with God, but that fits into the picture of God saving a people for himself, redeeming creation from the fall.

I’m looking forward to future posts.