Back to the Future

These are not good days for the institutional church. Interest in spirituality is up; interest in the church is declining.In the media Christian types are portrayed as homophobic, narrowminded and mean spirited. The media has enough anecdotal evidence of these traits to support their portrayal. I,for one ,propose that we give them no further ammunition. The early church was viewed as atheistic for not supporting the local gods. They were described as cannibals by those who misunderstood their Lord's Supper. The Romans even tried to destroy the church. However, within 150 years of Jesus former critics were coming to Christianity in droves. What happened? Many things but most notably people were won over by the love Christians had for each other (they shared posssesssions with each other) and by their love for the community (they shared possessions with the needy). One Roman official noted that they not only cared for their poor (the Christians) they cared for the Roman poor as well! If only that could be said about us as well.