| Plasticity |
Have you ever met a Christian and in the first few minutes you got the feeling that they were trying very hard to look like a Christian? You know what I mean? You meet them for the first time and there is a slickness to them that makes them come off like a snake oil salesman? On some subconscious level, something inside is nagging you with the growing conviction that you are witnessing something insincere. A facade that looks right, but seems wrong.
I remember attending a local church service in another church, and being greeted after the service by men who clearly found the idea of talking to strangers about as uncomfortable as imaginable. Their body language was screaming - I don't want to talk to you! but they were all smiles, smalltalk. I marvelled at what they were able to muster, not that I was impressed with how they were overcoming the flesh, because I didn't see men overcoming the flesh, I saw men suppressing the flesh for a few minutes in order to put on the Christian mask. No, I marvelled that they were so religious that they bothered to go that far.
By and large though, nothing makes me cringe more than this sort of plasticity; and this is magnified a thousand fold when I find it in a person that some congregation has called to be their pastor. I mean, if the pastor has to put on a mask, what does he possibly have to offer that congregation? Information without application can only carry you so far.
Anyway, no great point here, I am just putting a label on something that bugs me.Labels: plasticity |
posted by Daniel @
7:47 AM
11 comment(s)
 
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