Christian Isolationism

I don't really know where this came from but I was thinking about it in church the other day.... It seems to me that people in the church tend to fall into one of four categories:

1. Those who attend the church but live unrepentant lives. They feel no compulsion to submit to Biblical moral and behavior standards. Nor do they participate in any acts of service.

2. Those who acknowledge a Biblical moral code and strive to follow it, with mixed results. The live through cycles of success, failure, repentance and re-doubling of efforts. They are so consumed on this moral cycle that they have no emotional or spiritual energy to devote to serving others.

3. Those who acknowledge a pattern of living set forth in Scripture and try to keep this standard, also grappling with successes and failures, but without it being an all-consuming struggle, so that they also think about serving within the church. They actively pursue opportunities to serve other Christians. They are not, however, actively engaged in service to non-believers.

4. The last type is the type that not only seek to live a life after the model of Christ, but they are also active in service both to other believers and to non-believers. They believe in edifying and building up the body of Christ, but also intentionally seek out opportunities to minister to those not walking with the Lord.

I think a lot of Christians never get past this third category. I'm even encountering more and more people who want to do missions without ever leaving category three. They talk only about wanting to train and disciple national believers or teach theology in a seminary overseas. There's nothing wrong with that at all, and we need people to do those things, but I've started to wonder why there seem to be three people who want to do that for every one person who wants to work directly with the lost (a rough guess at the statistical trend I'm observing). Some are certainly just pursuing what they are most gifted to do. But I think others really have a hard time engaging non-believers. I think we have lots and lots of Christians who have no idea how to relate to non-Christians and try as best as they can to live good Christian lives without having to. But, of course, how can we be salt and light in the world without ever engaging those lost people that live in that world?

I struggle with this myself. Since returning from Austria I have almost no contact with non-believers. I believe without a doubt that what I'm doing is useful and strategic. I make an impact indirectly on non-Christians every day with what I do at PIONEERS, and Naomi and I are involved in a few ministries at our church, but I can't really say that I make a direct impact on any non-believers. So I'm pointing the finger at myself in this too.

I'm seeing this as I travel around to Christian college campuses as well. More and more I see a dichotomy between Christian colleges that are training students who want to learn how to engage the non-Christian world and those that are a haven for Christian students who want to be sheltered from that world for another four years. Our recruitment results as a mission agency are decidedly better with the former.

I'm concerned that, across our nation, there's a schism between our Christian sub-culture and the non-Christian world that is growing wider and deeper. We are, after all, better equipping our Christian bubble every year: we now have our own book stores, our own TV and radio stations, our own music, our own movie studios, our own yellow pages (so we can patronize only Christian businesses) and even our own breath mints!

Are we isolating ourselves to the point of complete irrelevance? Are we setting up camp in category three at the expense of a huge part of what Christ has called to do and to be?