Terry Crist is a husband, father, pastor, and the author of the new book, “Loving Samaritans: “. He has a heart for inspiring people to follow Jesus and love others well, and that comes through really well in our conversation today.
What We Chat about in Today’s Episode:
~Terry’s new book, what led him to write it, and what readers can expect
~How a love for the church does not negate our passion to call the church up to be her best - that that is actually an important part of loving the church well
~Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4 and what we can glean from it
~How Jesus’ whimsical, loving, gracious interaction with the woman at the well enabled Him to touch on the tricky topics of sexuality, religion, politics, power, cultural identity, and more in a way that caused her to open up to Him in conversation; how this is a model for us for cultural engagement
~The folly of making assumptions about people as opposed to asking them questions and getting to know them and why they do what they do; getting to know them as individual persons as opposed to groups; the wrong decisions we make when we fail to do this
~Jesus’ model for us that all people are worthy of love and respect, time and attention, of being heard, and of hearing truth without insult
~Asking the question of who the samaritans are in our world and what we may have gotten wrong about them
~Divisiveness now being viewed as a virtue in our day; what our call is instead - to love people on both ends of the ideological spectrum
~Fear and the Pharisaical problem of a “fragile righteousness” and how it can lead to the dangerous desire of eradicating the “other”; understanding that our righteousness is not our own but rather the gift of Jesus’ own righteousness and will not be tarnished when we go into the world as He has called us to
~Asking “Where does the Spirit want me to go today?” as a way to model the way and ministry of Jesus; walking through your day with your heart and eyes wide open to where Jesus is already at work and joining Him there instead of thinking it’s all on us
~Going from religious, dogmatic strangers to compassionate, understanding neighbors and why this change is so important
~Being in it for the long game and understanding that people are worthy of love and affection even if they never come to Christ
~The importance of having both biblical orthodoxy (truth) and biblical orthopraxy (how we’re living out that truth)
~What Pastor Terry would say to those who are afraid that their children will become corrupted by the culture
~The power of the ministry of “withness”
~The problem with being a culture warrior and how it keeps us from from being kingdom ambassadors sent on a mission with a message of peace
~Daniel as a model for cultural engagement
~And more!
Resources Mentioned
Offer for a free audiobook and 30 day trial membership from Audible: www.audibletrial.com/HomeandHearth
QUOTES TO REMEMBER:
“I love the church. I’m not blind to the problems seen in the church in our day, but I love the church, and I want what is best for the church. If we truly love the church, then we will want her to be the best she can be.”
“The longest recorded conversation in the gospels is Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well. This is very telling, and this conversation actually represents and embodies the most provocative issues of the times - things like cultural identity, religion, politics, power dynamics, and even sexuality. These are the very topics Jesus discusses with this woman at the well, and the beauty is that He is able to navigate this conversation with her in a way that does not rebuff or repel her, but instead opens her up to the love and grace of God. She becomes inquisitive and open to exploring Jesus’ identity and belief system. This then leads to her conversion and the conversion of her town.”
“Jesus does not see the samaritans as His enemies or as the ‘other’. He sees them as His friends and loves and serves them. His interaction with the woman at the well is a model for us for cultural engagement.”
“We must refrain from making assumptions about people as opposed to asking them questions and getting to know them and why they do what they do and getting to know them as individual persons as opposed to groups. When we don’t, we make the wrong decisions in how we treat them.”
“Jesus’ model for us shows that all people are worthy of love and respect, time and attention, of being heard, and of hearing truth without insult.”
“We are to love people on both sides of the ideological spectrum - this is what Jesus shows us Himself. He sits down with both Nicodemus, a Pharisee, as well as with the Samaritan woman, a progressive. He sees them, loves them, and shares His life with them. And it makes all the difference in their lives.”
“Fear and a fragile righteousness like what the Pharisees espoused leads to ‘othering’ people, which can ultimately lead to a dangerous desire to eradicate them. If we see that our righteousness is not our own but instead is the gift of Jesus’ righteousness, then we will be able to go into the world as Jesus called us to without being fearful that our righteousness will be tarnished. It is a clever ploy of the enemy to keep the salt in the salt shaker, to keep us holed up out of fear in an us vs. them mentality, instead of out in the world.”
“Are we more interested in winning arguments or winning people to Christ? Because sometimes you can’t do both. Our gospel is a show and tell gospel, and when our showing is not like Jesus, our telling will then become ineffective. We have the truth of Jesus but have largely forgotten and left behind the way of Jesus. People are worthy of love and affection, and we leave the outcome up to God.”
“I don’t see any place in the gospels, I don’t see any place in the epistles, I don’t see any place in the entire New Testament where the church was called to engage in the culture wars. We are in a conflict, but not with flesh and blood. We are in a conflict that has been won by Jesus and is to be reinforced in the realm of prayer and of worship. But we don’t see the early church engaging in the culture wars. We see them taking the gospel and allowing that to, over time, season the communities they were engaged in.”
WHERE YOU CAN FIND TERRY ONLINE:
Website – Terry Crist
Instagram – @terrycrist
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