A couple of summers ago a friend of mine was coming to visit us at our centre in the westend. Some of the people he was sitting with just before he left to come see us said "Our you going to hang out with your christian friends?" he said "No, I am just going to hang out with my friends!"
In the past I have said or been in situations where people have been encouraged to bring the "un-churched friends" along to something or I have heard people say "we went out for a meal last week with our non-christian friends" whats that all about!!!!!
Whatever happened to just using the term "friends?" Why does it need a precursory label?
Doesn't the label further encourage a delineation between those who are in and those who are out? Labels can separate and segregate. Of course they can also be used to define and identify people which is helpful.
Maybe I am just a little averse to the terminology because for me it carries an intimation of exclusivity.
I have friends, some our christians and some are not, but they are all just friends.
1 comment:
True Brian : very stark and very revealing to distinguish between our friends, label them, sort them ! Esp in terms of whether they believe in Jesus or not - apart from anything, it's pretty simplistic, one-dimensional - half the time I'm not even sure about some of ours, where they stand - so isn't there a big risk of getting that badly wrong and excluding them inaccurately ?
Though didn't Jesus : "... who isn't for me / sheep and goats / many are called, but few chosen ..." Of course He could tell - we can't, and so should be more careful !
Maybe one way is to consider the labels that we apply, or indeed others apply, to ourselves, and see how they sound, fit, affect us ...
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