[...] Hiding Behind the Walls of the Church Posted by Susy Flory on Sep 22nd, 2008 | 5 comments “Too many Christians are hard pressed to give first and last names of a dozen unbelievers in their lives … Our absence not only removes the light from the lives of of people trapped in darkness, but it also limits the influence we might have in other parts of our lives, an influence God very much wants us to have.” –from Dan Edelen, responding to a comment on his blog at Cerulean Sanctum. [...]

[...] 9, 2008 by joederbes Today I commend to your attention this post from Dan Edelen in which he argues for the importance of social networking, an enterprise which has become something of a lost art among present day [...]

If you have read this blog long, you will realize that what you have me saying is not what I am saying. There is no blogger out there less likely to go to one end of the pendulum swing than yours truly.

In fact, what I am saying here is a rejection of a polar state, that of the cocooned nuclear family. Yet I will also argue that the cure is not to rush the other way and neglect family altogether.

Who allows us a happy medium on this issue, though? We have FamilyLife or Focus on the Family telling us that we must choose family above all else. But that’s a false dichotomy, isn’t it?

A quick look around should tell us one of the major reasons why the American Church is dismal in evangelism is that we eschew opportunities to be with unbelievers where they hang out. Instead, we withdraw to our parachurch-hallowed families and churches, rarely to interact with the lost. Yet for most of us, the only places we are regularly going to encounter the lost are at our workplaces and on the street where we live. How then will we reach those people if we punch the clock, make a beeline from work straight to our houses, lock the door behind us, and rest safe within our family sanctums?

What is wrong with choosing the happy hour and golf course sometimes and choosing family at others? Why have some Christians made this an either/or issue? The tragic end result is that some of us have made an accidental idol out of family to the detriment of any kind of connection to lost people.

Want to know something that seems crazy? Lost people have connections, too. And those connections may even benefit us. Those benefits may help us succeed in our work or they may open doors to further influence in the lives of other lost people. Yet how will we ever get those opportunities if we rush to the familial cocoon?

Too many Christians are hard pressed to give first and last names of a dozen unbelievers in their lives. This mantra of “family first” is partly to blame because of the either/or way in which that message has been sold to us. Our absence not only removes the light from the lives of of people trapped in darkness, but it also limits the influence we might have in other parts of our lives, an influence God very much wants us to have.