“So,
you’re Christian…What type of Christian are you?” I overheard the conversation
of some high-school-aged people sitting next to me.
“Methodist,
Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic?” he questioned the girl sitting next to him.
“I’m not
really anything. I’m just Christian,” she answered back.
He forgot
to mention “Orthodox Christian,” I thought to myself. Did he know about
Orthodox Christianity? I didn’t feel like speaking up or barging into the
conversation. But something kept tugging at me. I will admit, at that moment, I
didn’t want to be the voice for Orthodoxy. I just wanted to be in the
background.
But I
said it anyway.
“You
know, there’s also Orthodox Christian.”
“Oh yeah.
That’s right. I’ve heard about them,” he said. “It’s like Catholic, right?”
“It’s
more traditional, like Catholic. But it’s the original Christian church, the
one all the other Christian churches came out of.”
“Oh,
that’s cool.”
“I’m
actually Orthodox Christian,” I said.
This was
totally out of my comfort zone, but I felt the need to plant a seed. Not in a
know-it-all, holier-than-thou way, but as a laid-back invitation. My hope was
that someone would think, “Hmmm…I’ve heard about the Orthodox church. What is
that all about anyway?”
And who
knows? Maybe one month down the road, maybe ten years later, they might walk
into an Orthodox church and experience it for the first time. And maybe, they
might choose to stay.
It drives
me nuts how much misinformation is out there about Orthodoxy. I can’t even
count how many times I’ve been asked:
“Do I
have to be Greek to go to your church?”
Of
course, I always say, “No,” and I explain the roots of the church and the Greek
influence.
A few
months ago, I took my children to an ice cream shop. Noticing that they were
playing Christian music, I commented to the teenagers who rang up my order.
“I like
that you guys are playing Christian music. You don’t see that very often.”
“Oh yeah.
The owners are Christian,” the young woman behind the register said. “Do you
guys go to
church
around here?”
“Yes, we
do,” I said, and told her we attended an Orthodox Christian church.
“Orthodox
Christian? I’ve never heard of that,” she said.
“It’s
basically the early Christian church, way back from the times of the Apostles,”
I said.
“Oh.
That’s interesting. The early church. Cool.”
It’s so
crazy to think that so many people still don’t know about Orthodoxy, or they
think it’s only a church for certain ethnic groups.
The way I
see it, it takes each Orthodox Christian going out there into the world and
living their lives as examples, sharing the treasure of our faith. If we do our
best to be loving, caring Orthodox Christians, contributing to our communities,
people will start to put a face to the words “Orthodox Christianity.” They will
begin to see it as real, not ancient buried history. And for those who have had
bad experiences with Orthodoxy, or are ignorant, maybe we can be the change
that softens their heart.
What are
you doing to put a face to your Orthodox Christianity? Go out there and plant
the seeds!
By Christina Pessemier in The Sounding Blog
Source: http://myocn.net/you-are-the-face-of-orthodox-christianity/
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