A friend of mine here on the blogosphere and in Tweetsville (twitter) made me think today. His name is Tyler. He is the “Man of Depravity” and he lives in Portland (my third favorite city on the west coast). He posed the idea of the Christian bubble. The Christian bubble is the seperation of the sacred and the secular in our lives. We see it all the time when christians go to christian stores to buy christian albums or christian books of christian artists written specifically for christians. This is the bubble that we live in. We live in it and when we do, we lose touch of the world outside of it.
When I was going to Trinity Western University, I saw this bubble first hand. I would drive on campus and see all of these students who knew each other, took classes together, had bible studies together, went to games together, and went to chapel and church together. The students were all stuck in the trinity bubble together, but had no need or even want to get out.
So Tyler had two questions:
- Does this apply to you?
- How can Christians avoid this happening (practical ways)?
I saw this happening in my life. It’s hard not to when you work in a church. I wanted to get away from the bubble. I wanted to have “normal” conversations. I say normal because christianity is such a sub culture that we speak a whole different language. I wanted to converse with my friends who spoke with a native tongue that I once spoke before I met Jesus.
I got a part time job outside of the church. I did this for two reasons. 1) we needed money and 2) if I taught guitar lessons part time instead, my only clients were going to be references from churches. and so I donned the green apron and began pushing caramel machiatos to the masses. This is the idea of the bi vocational pastor. Though I do not hold the title pastor, I do work inside of a church and am therefore thrusted into the bubble.
I think the bubble is a sad place to be at times. Non Christians (NC) are uncomfortable being there and Christians try to be hospitable but their language and culture is so foreign that the NC’s feel even more awkward. Another thing is I feel that the Christians sometimes feel that their job is to make sure that the NC’s must leave having made some sort of progress toward becoming a Christ follower. This is just wrong. Now they are a project not a friend.
But if the Christian has lived in the bubble for so long, they may have nothing to talk about. They have seperated themselves from the culture. They couldn’t talk about things that may matter to modern day culture. again, awkward conversation. The bubble must be popped.
Now I am not saying to join the culture and abandon all that matters to you. What I am saying is that if we are to pop the bubble, we must no what matters outside of the bubble. Have an opinion but don’t think that it is the only one that matters because God is on your side (this drives me bonkers when Xtians pull this one out).
thoughts on the bubble?
