My testimony

I recently read Sandya Jha's blog post calling on progressive Christians to think about how they become more proactive in sharing their message.  I'm not a particularly liberal Christians but, I belong to that group of Christians who believe that you aren't necessarily going to hell because you don't believe in Jesus.  To be clear, I belong to that group of Christians that believes its wrong for people to try to identify where people spend eternity.  How do we share our story?  How do we bear witness to the effect Christ has had in our lives?  Too much of evangelism goes astray in either promoting the church and church membership or in threatening consequences for people who don't believe.  The church isn't the Savior and we ought to quit promoting it as though it were.   And the authority to assign people to places in eternity has not been entrusted to us.  We really have to quit pretending that it is.  What we have is the power and truth of our experience. 
Here's a part of mine. 

I came to faith through the ministry of people who believe if you don't accept Jesus your in peril of eternal punishment.  However, my actual experience of confessing faith in Christ didn't come from a fear of hell.  As a ten year old boy, I struggled in school both behaviorally and intellectually.  I grew up in a family of very intelligent people with a strong commitment to good grades and good behavior.  I didn't measure up in either category. Needless to say, my self-esteem was pretty low at age ten.  My children's director, Mrs. Janet Erwin, did a class in February for fourth graders to introduce us to faith.  If we had been Disciples we'd would have called it Pastor's Class but we were Baptist and I can't remember what we called it.  I remember that Mrs. Erwin used the analogy of caterpillars and butterflies.  That we are like caterpillars and that baptism is a wrapping in the cocoon of Christ's death and burial and that we are raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).  That's what I was wanting when I walked the aisle and prayed a prayer and accepted Jesus into my heart.  About four years later, in the eighth grade, I went to a retreat.  I was in a really bad mood.  The retreat speaker was speaking from Ephesians 2:10.  He spoke of how "workmanship"(NIV) meant "poem," "work of art" "masterpiece."  He looked at me--in this crowded room of middle schoolers--and said, "you are God's masterpiece."  And I said yes again. I tell people sometimes that Ephesians got me through the 8th grade alive and in one piece.  That is the experience I am referencing. For me, the authority that James has comes from a foundational experience of deliverance.  When he speaks about how we treat those who come into our assembly, I am reminded that I felt worthless and out of place (it doesn't really matter why) and Jesus welcomed me.  Not the church, not the preacher, Christ himself.  I know that it is a sin to exclude or deny others because I know I didn't deserve acceptance.  I received it as a gift. 

I appreciate the recent TED Talk given by Ash Beckham.  She spoke about coming out of the closet.  She was using her own experience of letting her family know she is Lesbian.  But, she said that we all live in closets of some kind.  It's difficult to say aloud to others the realities that are defining us either in the moment or a long period of time.  She said that coming out of the closet may be admitting that you're going bankrupt or explaining to your five-year-old that you're getting a divorce.  We all have closets that we live inside at some time.  They are all hard to leave. She ends the speech encouraging the audience of come out of the closet--whatever closet they are in--because a closet is no place to live.  It's a good message.  But my message would be this:

Jesus Christ comes to the closets of our lives and knocks.  Like the woman who swept her house clean looking for one lost coin (Luke 15), Jesus says to each of us, "I have been looking everywhere for you."  Come out. Stay in.  Either way, know that I accept you and love you and will rejoice if you will simply open the door.