I recently spoke with someone who had a bad experience with church as a child. Now everything was strange back int he 80’s so I cut this pastor all kinds of slack on this one, but apparently this pastor made mention of the dangers of Transformers cartoons and toys because the face that symbolized the Autobots looked demonic. His parents,wanting to be not just hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word, dutifully went home and took all his Transformers toys out to the garbage bin.
So can you imagine the double dose of pain this little guy felt when the very next week he went to his friends house (who also happened to be the Pastor’s son) to find that the Pastor’s son was still playing with Transformers!? When he told his friend that he shouldn’t have Transformers anymore because his dad told the church they were evil, the Pastor’s son revealed that all the stickers had been removed . . . demonic face gone, problem solved!
So here I am having a spiritual conversation with a man around the age of 30 who has been put off to Christ because of one passing comment made from a pulpit many moons ago! Suddenly I feel very accountable for the things that I say. I am very sorry for this young man’s experience of “the Church,” but I am hopeful that he may yet come to realize that what he experienced as a child could not be further from the good news of Christ!
I am challenged to do a better job of focusing on the main point of the message of God. As a follower I have been granted the opportunity to speak words of joy and words of life. I can spend my time telling people my preferences, my rules and my concerns, or I can tell them about the amazing freedom from sin that is available through Jesus Christ. I am convicted that in my preaching and in my personal interactions with people around the topic of faith, I need to keep the main thing always in focus. Jesus loved us so much that he came and died to cover our sins so that anyone who believes in Him may have eternal life! He offers to exchange our sin riddled life, for the righteousness of God in Christ! If that is offensive, then I can do nothing but offend. But really . . . Transformers?!