Posted by Mike O on: 10.19.2006 /
Earlier this year , Hemant Mehta reviewed a service at Willow Creek Community Church, and in early October I attended a small groups conference at Willow. The speaker for one of the sessions was Randy Frazee, the man who was speaking the day Hemant did his survey. His topic was how the church needs to understand people who don’t go to church if we ever want to connect with them and he opened with a ‘man on the street interview’ they had put together with Hemant. I already knew the story, of course, yet found it interesting that Willow would use Hemant, an atheist, to teach Christians at a large conference with church leaders from around the country. Frankly, I was curious how it would be received, and it was received very well. (As a side note, I already had coffee scheduled with Ir that afternoon, so this provided a great ‘get-to-know-you’ topic for us!)
Hemant later did a survey on Parkview Christian Church and consented to a series of interviews with them. I’ve seen the first one, and I found it very, very interesting. Here are some blog entries related to those interviews.
It’s been very helpful to me to see examples like these of how churches have given atheists a voice. In a recent discussion here at eBay atheist, I asked for your help in working with my church to set up opportunities for Christians and atheists to talk to each other.
Comment by: Julie Marie
1Yes. I also think it is a very brave step because it opens the door to questions that aren’t usually asked, and examination of things taken for granted. Pastoring a group of people who have then started asking hard questions and illuminating conflicting parts of doctrine will be the next challenge for the church leadership. I also think its the only way to grow though - strip away the layers placed over the message, and see what is at the core.
This is bound to help Christian/Atheist relations as well. One of the big gripes that I’ve noticed is that As observe that Cs do not apply the same critical thinking skills to their religious life that they use to function in all other areas of life. Which results in a knee jerk rejection of As snd a presumption of immorality. Listening to each other with open minds can only help relations.
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
2Mike, I enjoyed meeting with you very much and it was fun to hear from you that day that Hemant was mentioned in your conference - what a surprise!
I think the benefit for atheists is that they get a chance to undo misconceptions Christians might have, by being there in person so Christians can see what they are really like and what they really think. I do believe many Christians have misconceptions about atheists and I’m in favor of anything which helps undo those!
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
3One other thing…when we met, Mike shared with me some comments Randy made about what he preached on when Hemant was there. Randy said, had he known Hemant would be there he probably would have preached on something like “The Case of Christ”. That was interesting to me because I’ve read and heard Hemant’s comments about that book and I know he didn’t feel that it effectively addressed his objections to Christianity. So I don’t think that sermon would have done much for him. On the other hand, if you read his review (linked to in Mike’s blog entry) you can see that Hemant did quite like the message Randy actually preached.
I think this is a fascinating example of how sometimes less planning produces better results. If I were still the evangelical Christian I used to be I suppose I’d be saying “this shows God knows best - God was in control of the situation and caused Randy to preach a sermon Hemant would like”.
My thoughts about it, based on where I’m at today, are: it’s interesting that Randy would have chosen to preach on “what I think Hemant needs to hear” (ok, that’s my interpretation) rather than preaching on “what would connect best with Hemant”. Whereas Hemant’s response was favorable because the sermon Randy preached did connect well with him.
Comment by: Mike O
4Yes, that is interesting. I really walked away with the feeling that Randy was basically admitting that, in his humanness, he would have tried to control the situation and done the wrong thing. Hey, Christians can overthink things just as well as the next guy :)
I concur, to a point. While I don’t think God “caused” Randy to preach this or that, I do believe God was in control of the situation and that Randy didn’t “get in the way” of what God had in mind for that day. Not just for Hemant, but for the other 20,000 people (or whatever they’re running now!) who were there that weekend.
Comment by: Friendly Atheist » Willow Creek
5 10/19/06 11:24 AM | Comment Link |[...] Mike O. wrote about how pastor Randy Frazee talked about my visit during the conference (in a lecture on how pastors can understand those who do not attend church in order to talk to them), opening his talk with the video. You can see Mike’s comments here. [...]
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
6Mike O wrote:
I enjoyed hearing about it - as you said, it brings out his humanness. And it was interesting to hear a comment from the speaker whose sermon I’d read Hemant’s review of some months ago.
Comment by: Mike O
7Not that it matters, but he also mentioned that he purposely didn’t respond here on the blog because he didn’t want to sway the conversation … he just wanted to see Willow was perceived from the outside. I’m guessing that he was out here reading, though. And the mood he gave was positive. Apparently he liked that it happened.
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
8This is just my opinion - I wish he had responded here. I don’t see how it could have hurt anything. Whenever pastors did respond they were very well-received and they were respected for taking the time to stop by.