{"id":481,"date":"2011-05-20T17:46:06","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T21:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fearofwhales\/?p=481"},"modified":"2011-05-23T16:39:15","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T20:39:15","slug":"alli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2011\/05\/alli.html","title":{"rendered":"Allie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night I came downstairs at camp to find two girls talking \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about proclamations of faith\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh cool, have you come to any sorts of conclusions?\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the girls, Allie, responded after a brief pause. \u201cI think I\u2019ve concluded, that I\u2019m not ready to make one\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right. Why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I just feel like I still need a sign\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh okay, what sort of sign?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA sign from God\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo signal what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat he\u2026 Exists, that he sees me. I just feel like nobody out here really gets me\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Allie went on to talk about how she had been an occasionally homeless girl from California, her father had been a pastor, but no longer, and she knew about the church and didn’t feel she was ready to commit to a system which she found to be less loving.<\/p>\n

I sat and talked with her for a long time. I agreed with her about the church and the Christian subculture, we’ve been an embarrassment frankly, and a stumbling block to many people in my generation. We’ve been hypocritical, elitist, consumerist, and dogmatic. We’ve been anti-intellectual and politically problematic At times we’ve even been racist, sexist,\u00a0classist, and violent. But I also challenged her that none of those things should stop her from pursuing Christ<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus didn’t like religious people much either, and he disapproved of all of those same things in the church. I understand the struggle, but don\u2019t let things the two of you agree on keep you guys apart.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Allie decided that meeting another Californian misfit pastor’s kid was a pretty compelling sign. She prayed with me that night, and told Jesus for the first time that she had decided to follow him with her life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On this blog, Fear of Whales. I don\u2019t spend a lot of time extolling the virtues of accepting Jesus. I don\u2019t run through the gospel over and over again. I don\u2019t give “turn or burn” speeches. On the other hand I do spend quite a lot of time criticizing the church. I make fun of Christian game night<\/a>, Christian dating habits<\/a>, and Christian treatment of other Christians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I just want to make it clear, in case somehow one of you wandered onto this site without having first made a commitment to Christ; that I do heartily and sincerely recommend it. and I do heartily and sincerely think the church has issues. But those are problems with Christians, not Jesus.<\/p>\n

\u201cdon\u2019t let things the two of you agree on keep you guys apart.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I came downstairs at camp to find two girls talking \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re talking about proclamations of faith\u201d \u201cOh cool, have you come to any sorts of conclusions?\u201d One of the girls, Allie, responded after a brief pause. \u201cI think I\u2019ve concluded, that I\u2019m not ready to make one\u201d \u201cAll…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,40,10,311],"tags":[330,331,88,328,329],"class_list":["post-481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-ministry","category-christian-culture","category-inspiration-2","category-my-life","tag-conversion","tag-decision","tag-evangelism","tag-new-christian","tag-subculture"],"yoast_head":"\nAllie - A Fear of Whales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2011\/05\/alli.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Allie - A Fear of Whales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last night I came downstairs at camp to find two girls talking \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re talking about proclamations of faith\u201d \u201cOh cool, have you come to any sorts of conclusions?\u201d One of the girls, Allie, responded after a brief pause. \u201cI think I\u2019ve concluded, that I\u2019m not ready to make one\u201d \u201cAll…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2011\/05\/alli.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Fear of Whales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-20T21:46:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-23T20:39:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fearofwhales\/files\/2011\/05\/Prayinggirlphoto-199x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rgaffney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Allie - 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