Barbarian?

This past Sunday, I concluded a sermon series at FOCUS that was based on Erwin McManus's "The Barbarian Way". (An excellent read, I might add.) Anyway, if you're not familiar with the book, you will probably ask the same question that so many asked about the series before it began: "Why 'Barbarian'?" And so, here's my answer: First, it's the word that the author of the book used, so that made it a good choice. But paraphrased and expanded in my own words, "barbarian", perhaps more than any other word, serves as an appropriate synonym for "Christ-like".

Think about the Biblical characters that lived, walked and conversed with God everyday. Moses, Noah, Abraham. Later John the Baptist (the one Jesus Himself declared the greatest of all men), Paul, pick any Apostle. Remember the key word for understanding Biblical (or really any) concept - context. Put these guys in proper historical context and they just didn't fit. Noah built an ark but he had never seen rain. Moses led an entire nation of people around a desert for 40 years. Abraham put his very son on an altar because the Lord told him to do it.

Flash forward to the New Testament. Here we meet perhaps one of the most barbaric characters, and also "the greatest of all men born of woman", to ever influence Christianity. Enter John the Baptist. This guy was wierd. He word camel hair and a leather belt, ate bugs and washed them down with honey. But that didn't make him a barbarian. By definition, John was a barbarian because he didn't fit into society. He was an outcast. He didn't conform.

Conformity is killing the Church's kingdom impact. We are so interested in fitting in, with not ruffling feathers, with not stepping on toes, that we are willing to sacrifice the advancement of the Kingdom of God to maintain the status quo. Barbarism might be a strong term; too strong, many would argue. But we have to do what it takes -- whatever it takes -- to break the bars on the religious prison we've built around ourselves. We have to break out into the world around us, living as barbarians among men. Erwin McManus got it right with this one. The church of today must once again return to its barbarian roots, overthrowing and rejecting a society that chooses conformity and comfort over the Message of Christ.