Lunch break is always an adventure around the offices of Grace Church.  Anywhere from 11:30 to 1, the cars, trucks, and minivans that sit along the front line of the parking lot rev their engines and make haste out of the parking lot heading in one of two directions.  Some cars are driven to their owners' homes, where my colleagues will sit and enjoy a homemade meal or sandwich and a rest from the busy atmosphere.  Other cars are driven a few minutes south, into Mishawaka, where their owners meet with friends or business acquaintances for lunch at one of the many restaurants on Main Street.  Yesterday, Valerie (my 2001 Dodge Ram) was driven to Logan's Roadhouse, where I was blessed with the chance to eat with my friend, colleague, and brother, Kyle Pierpont.

The good times didn't wait until we arrived at the restaurant, however, to get underway.  Our conversation was blessed with humor, truth, and insight from the very moment we stepped out of the office and out of "Church-World."  It is one of the truthful insights that we shared in the midst of our car ride to Logan's that spurs me forward in writing today.

Have you noticed how taboo the word "religion" has become?  In churches all over the United States, we are actively putting to rest the term religion, because the word does not encompass what we're really about.  Religion is an outward form of expressing the faith that we have in our hearts.  So, why deal with religion when you can cut straight to the heart of the matter and speak on faith?  It seems Christ-followers all over the world are "done with religion," tossing it aside for a matter of the heart better expressed in "faith."

Now, I'm not seeking to start a new trend in wording, but I'm starting to have problems with the single word of "faith" being used in the same manner that religion was in recent years.  In all honesty, I feel our rebellion against religion has caused a dramatic verbal adaptation by those "religious" people we sought not to be.  Have I lost you?  Let me give you an example.  I speak a little bit of everywhere, every time I get the chance to.  I speak at churches, schools, social events, and functions.  Every event at which I speak blesses me with countless opportunities to share my relationship with Jesus Christ with anyone who will listen.  I've actually found though, that at such events, I'm met with a disconnect at the word, "faith."  Where as my "faith" is in the power, love, justice, wisdom, and grace of God, and the ultimate expression of those in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, I am met with people whose only knowledge of the word "faith" comes from the phrase, "My faith is very important to me."  Beyond those words, they don't even know what they have faith in.

We've reached a falling out of faith.  We have replaced the taboo of religion with a word that is grammatically closer to what we're looking for, but still not what we're seeking to attain in expressing where we stand in our relation to Jesus.  I don't know that our personal relationship with Him could ever be expressed in one word, so why do we portray ourselves as men and women "of faith?"  Why can we not take the 3 extra seconds and however many syllables it takes to explain how Jesus has dramatically altered our eternal destination, and explain how that effects us today?  I just hate to see a word that once was so powerful being made unimportant by its overuse and often its misuse. 

Look at it this way:  At one time, Christians used the Ichthys as a way to identify one another despite severe persecution.  Today, it sits on the bumper of a car whose driver knows nothing of its origins and acts nothing like one represented by such a symbol.

Big Bob