Darrow Miller and Friends

Dangerous Christians Needed

“There seems to be something lacking in our churches these days. We have done a great job producing nice Christians, rather than dangerous Christians full of courage, ready to take risks.”

Tish Shelton is a dangerous ChristianThese are the words of my friend Tish Shelton in her fight for the dignity of women in Australia. Tish is a wonderful woman, but she is not “nice.” Her heart has been broken for the plight of women in Australia and she is fearless in leading Christians to stand against the injustice in their own communities. Tish is a dangerous Christian.

We have written on this blog about the need for Christians to speak the truth in love. (See also Truth and Love: It’s Not Your Father’s Pulpit Anymore.) Perhaps we need to be dangerous in our love. How many times in history has love of neighbor, love of family, love of community, love of the stranger, love of the nation, love of the enemy driven the “niceness” out of Christians and replaced it with courage to stand against injustice and fight for truth and justice?

Recently I posted at my Facebook page what the tyrannical California State Legislature is doing to end religious freedom for Christians at private evangelical colleges and universities. The post highlights a piece by Rod Dreher on this issue facing Christians in California, and soon the rest of the country and then the world.

David French, a lawyer and writer who is consciously Christian, has taken up the same issue in a challenge to the church.

David French calls for dangerous ChristiansThis is exactly the time when the Evangelical church needs to lay down a marker, to signal that it will not go quietly. But to do that it needs to do something that it rarely does: ask its members to take a stand. Oh, the church is good at asking them to do things that the world likes, such as volunteering at homeless shelters or digging wells in poor villages overseas. It’s good at helping repair broken homes and broken lives. It’s decent at transmitting the truths of the faith to the next generation. It’s terrible, however, at defending its own essential liberties.

As French points out, the world may tolerate us when we are nice and do “nice things.”

He says that we may be “decent at transmitting the truths of the faith to the next generation.” I might take exception with this. We may be good at catechizing the faith for the next generation – and even this is suspect in my mind –  but I don’t believe we are teaching faith as an act of obedience (Luke 9:23). I’m not sure we are transmitting to the next generation the concept of costly faith, costly as the word becoming flesh.

Only dangerous, courageous Christ followers will prevail in the culture

But if Christians speak the truth in love, challenging the assumptions and lifestyles of postmodern culture, we move from being nice to being dangerous.

French calls the church from its passivity and timidity to engage the culture.

If the church surrenders the culture without putting up a true fight — without fully exercising its right and obligation to defend its constitutional freedoms — then it will richly deserve its legal and political fate. A spirit of timidity does not come from God, but timidity grips the church. If we don’t grow bold today, we’ll only have ourselves to blame tomorrow.

We have been born for these times, let us now live for these times.

Go here to read French’s article.

  • Darrow Miller

 

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About 
Darrow is co-founder of the Disciple Nations Alliance and a featured author and teacher. For over 30 years, Darrow has been a popular conference speaker on topics that include Christianity and culture, apologetics, worldview, poverty, and the dignity of women. From 1981 to 2007 Darrow served with Food for the Hungry International (now FH association), and from 1994 as Vice President. Before joining FH, Darrow spent three years on staff at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland where he was discipled by Francis Schaeffer. He also served as a student pastor at Northern Arizona University and two years as a pastor of Sherman Street Fellowship in urban Denver, CO. In addition to earning his Master’s degree in Adult Education from Arizona State University, Darrow pursued graduate studies in philosophy, theology, Christian apologetics, biblical studies, and missions in the United States, Israel, and Switzerland. Darrow has authored numerous studies, articles, Bible studies and books, including Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Culture (YWAM Publishing, 1998), Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women for Building Healthy Cultures (InterVarsity Press, 2008), LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day (YWAM, 2009), Rethinking Social Justice: Restoring Biblical Compassion (YWAM, 2015), and more. These resources along with links to free e-books, podcasts, online training programs and more can be found at Disciple Nations Alliance (https://disciplenations.org).
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