Defender of the Faith

As you may know when a monarch of the UK is crowned one of the statements they make is that they will defend the faith, although it is widely rumoured that if and when Charles takes the throne that he will become defender of (all) faith as opposed to defender of the faith i.e.) christianity, but that is another debate entirely!

My point is this, too many times the church and Christians are on the defensive, we become as our monarch does,  defenders of the faith.

I would much rather we become offensive of the faith. This is not that we become offensive i.e.) rude, obnoxious etc but that we become proactive and active with how we live our lives. We stop waiting for something to happen and make it happen.

Our faith does not need defending, it will speak loud and clear when it is active.

This once again brings me to the point of our faith being offensive....there is a reality that if we are active with our faith it will be offensive to some. We cannot hope to be active with our faith and nor upset one or two people. Our faith requires and in fact demands change. Mark Stibbe has a great quote to sum this up, he says Jesus declares come as you are but don't stay that way.

An active faith will challenge many,  their attitudes and beliefs.  Jesus did the very same in the temple. We cannot hope to gently woo everyone into the the kingdom, sometimes confrontation will be involved. It is how we confront, that is the issue.

Our faith should not be about hanging in there but about being out there.

Andy