Dichotomy

I was wondering on my bike ride this morning how we tend to communicate the Christian walk as a dichotomous, "lost/found" with nothing in between kind of thing and how this negatively effects our ability to minister to people that don't hold that same view. I think most people in our culture who the church community would consider to be "lost" don't think of themselves in the same way. Do we promote an us vs. them mentality in some of the language that we use by drawing a clear dividing line between being without Christ and with Christ? I think most people outside of mainstream, sub-cultured Christianity would tend to see their spiritual life as a life long process without a clear arrival point. There may be points in that journey that serve as clear defining moments, but is the point of confessing Christ the "finish line"? Obviously not if you believe Scripture and all it talks about the continued growth and shaping that takes place after that confession.

That sense of "having arrived" at conversion may be one of the biggest obstacles to the Christian walk. How many of our people have stopped in their spiritual tracks because they've "made it"? How many of them are sitting around waiting for heaven instead of really believing the words "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?" How big an obstacle will that be to reorganizing people in community if they seem content with settling for something less than all the benefits of the kingdom in the now? Will their comfort and their sense of having "got theirs" keep them from recognizing that conversion was merely an important marking point in their lives that should have changed the course of their destiny?

I'm going to keep thinking about this and about what terms we need to begin wrestling with and removing from our vocabularies so that we can engage in less divisive community with those that Christ desires relationship with.