They Don't Get It

Working for God can be hard sometimes, especially when your ministry is not exactly "traditional".    My wife and I are heavily involved in "geek" ministry through Fans For Christ.  We go to sci-fi/fantasy cons, speak to people who come up to our fan table, and when possible have panels involving Christianity and hold church services.  Because we enjoy the settings and the people, it is a lot of fun for us.  Frankly, we feel blessed that God can use us in this manner.  And we really feel that this is a needed ministry, as most Christians stay away from these events.  Where will the con goers find followers of Christ who actually understand them and won't condemn their hobbies?

However, we've run into problems with more traditional people in our church.  Thankfully we have a pretty open church that is modern and accepting.  But we've discovered that it seems like people accept our ministry but don't really embrace it.  We've had comments made that if we weren't so involved in all of the other things in our life we might have more time for our home church.  It also seems that some may believe that we go to cons more for the entertainment than to be a light for Christ.  Frankly, they don't really get it.  They don't understand why we do what we do.

I guess that I shouldn't be really surprised.  The people in Jesus' time, especially the religious leaders, didn't understand Him either.  Jesus spent time with beggars, lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes, and other dregs of society.  He was actually condemned for His interest in them and His caring.  The Messiah actually wanted to be around these people!  But people in the church told Him that He shouldn't be doing that.  But Jesus persisted because He saw where the need really was.  He was willing to be quite strange and even rejected by religious leaders in His pursuit of sharing God's message.

When I go to cons I often bring up the "where would Jesus be?" situation.  If Jesus was back on Earth today, would He be more likely to be preaching every Sunday in a church, or would He be more likely to be going to these cons?  I think the latter would be pretty obvious to most honest people.  So that's where I will be.  No, I'm not giving up my "normal" church on Sundays, but I'm also not going to limit myself to it.

So people in my church don't completely understand.  I guess I'm okay with that, because Jesus understands and God wants my family to spread the Gospel at cons.