An Atheist Goes To Church 2

In Part 1, I looked into how selling his soul on eBay landed Hemant Mehta in a roster of church visits which ultimately led to an interview containing his critique of them. The first article mentioned the good he saw. In this part, we look at the challenges churches face from the perspective of an outsider…

What could be Better

  • Many churches hide their social agendas. On Sunday they present as “seeker friendly” but on other days “when they think the non-believers aren’t watching”, they hammer evangelism and “how to fix those broken people.”
    Lesson: Perhaps Hemant missed the messages on The Great Commission. That said, how we go about it may be the real point he’s making here.
  • Some sermons, even the ones meant to connect with atheists, don’t. He felt that fact checking wasn’t done, common rebuttals were not answered and some were clearly not run by an atheist to see if they would be effective. Sometimes, problems were as basic as not checking the historicity of an anecdote.
    Lesson: To be fair, this is one atheist’s experience and may not be representative of all but it is still worth noting. Be aware that some are critically engaging with your message whether you’re delivering from the front of the church or in the front-lines of the world.
  • questionstochurchThere was no dialogue, the communication only went one way. There was no means of asking questions.
    Lesson: There was one church which had a room where the elders etc. would be after the message and people were invited to discuss such matters there. That’s not a bad idea though it may be a little hard to fit that in the usual packed Sunday schedule. Another suggestion was to have an online means of dialogue, though that would be limited to those who are happy talking online. That said, there may be many like that (you reading this website is an example of that).
    Ultimately, his expectations may be wrong for that setting. I wonder if he ventured into any home groups? This is what they are for especially if their studies are based around the church’s Sunday sermons as they are in my church. Perhaps the lesson here is to pro-actively point out on the Sunday that that’s where you’ll find the opportunity for further understanding? And for that matter, application. After all, Christianity isn’t a Sunday theory club.
  • Every church he went to didn’t seem to try to get to know him.
    Lesson: to some extent, that would be a fair point though if he was jumping from one congregation to another, could this impression be more a reflection of that?
  • Getting treated like a “someone to be converted” project was not nice. Just as atheist have nasty stereotypes of Christians, so do Christians of atheists. Don’t think of a non-believer as someone who’s broken and needs to be fixed. Don’t assume they haven’t thought about it and that they have bad family relations. Don’t immediately assume they are bad and not trustworthy. Don’t assume if they read particular book they will immediately change – it can take time. Treat them as a human being, get to know their story. If there’s going to be a change, it will come through relationship.
    Lesson: all valid points. I would say however that the non-believer is broken and needs to be fixed. That’s because this side of eternity, we all are.
  • Atheist are more religiously literate than Christians.
    Lesson: perhaps among circle of people he knows but it would probably be fair to say that overall world view literacy isn’t exactly high in the community. That said, the church community should be doing better than the average.
  • Hemant says that he has heard all the common arguments for Christianity now and says it would take a “personal experience” for him to believe. It’s great that he realises this isn’t just an issue of hearing a better argument. May we, the church as a whole pray and act in such a way as have him (and others) experience God in all the aspects of their being – their heart, soul and strength – not just the mind. As Pastor Randy Frazee pointed out in the video, this was how Saul became Paul.
    Pastor Frazee also reminds us in the video: It’s not our job to change hearts, its God’s. Our’s is to love people and be in relationship with them. In America, the largest growing group of people in regards to religious affiliation are the “nones”, those who do not have any affiliations. And most of them are the younger people. We need to provide an environment where doubt can be safely explored as a natural part of understanding what we believe.
    I would argue however that having a safe environment isn’t just one that allows people to ask questions. A truly safe one also provides thoughtful, biblical answers for them.

God is larger and more gracious than any of our doubts. Bring them to Him as part of all of us.

 

Many thanks to my Pastor, Jonathan Mok for pointing out the interesting and informative talk on which these articles are based.

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