Pre-Christians

It became popular a while ago to begin referring to people outside the church as pre-Christians. I have to say that the term, “pre-Christian” always made my toes curl. It seemed to assume too much. I happen to believe like a good Calvinist that there are people who will not follow Christ and that we don’t know who they are. So, to refer to everyone as pre-Christian lacked some form of honesty about the state of things.

However, I think I know in part where they were heading. There is another another theme among Christians that is possibly more dangerous than calling outsiders pre-Christians. It is assuming that the first step in a person’s spiritual journey is when they set foot on a church’s campus and attend a program. Another assumption closely related to this is assuming that the first step in a person’s spiritual journey is when they make a profession of faith. While I don’t often hear this articulated . . . no one says, “You don’t matter until you come visit us.” Churches program for this all of the time. Our programming and its emphasis on insiders, often states very clearly, you don’t matter until you participate in one of our programs. Then, inside those programs, the message is that you don’t really matter until you make a profession of faith.

I think the term, “pre-Christian,” attempted to convert those two themes. We need to realize that when a person steps on our campus it may not be the first step in their spiritual journey, but the first step in their spiritual journey with us. It may be the 5^th or 100^th step in the journey that God has been leading them on. The choice a person makes to set foot on a church campus is representative of a level of trust that God may be building into that person’s life. That step says “I think the church might have an answer to the problems of my life.” I fear too many churches then break that level of trust by programming in ways that either makes the next step a huge leap or by assuming that nothing spiritual can have been built into their lives except by the church. I can’t help but think that when that happens consistently in a church--when churches make the next step a huge leap, or ignore the work that God is doing in the lives of people outside the church’s walls and outside the church’s direct influence--that God loses interest in such churches. God stops bringing people to those kinds of churches. God is looking for churches that will partner with him. To put it in theological terms, God is looking for churches that can see his work of prevenient grace in the lives of people before they ever attend our church—then create environments that welcome them and help them take the next step.