A disciple’s study

Evangelism — are we Chameleons?

I came across this challenging review:

Dick Keyes Chameleon Christianity
by: Matthew Hundley

Reflections on Dick Keyes, Chameleon Christianity

At first blush the Dick Keyes’ book Chameleon Christianity had me doing a lot of head nodding as he presented the descriptions of the Chameleon and Tribal church models. Then as he moved into further descriptions of people who represent “saltless salt” and “hidden light” I found myself going, “Wait! I’m a bit like that.” The book really pulled me in as Keyes treaded into defining what a church community should look like, something that has been a hot topic at many “let’s meet for coffee,” conversations I’ve had with people lately.

For me apologetics has always been something I’ve seen falling outside of church walls: reserved for debating Christ at the local coffeehouse or in the student unions at our local colleges and universities. Keyes presents a compelling case for putting apologetics, theology, and history at the center of our church teaching. He stresses the importance of “making truth known” both in our churches and as we witness to the unbelievers in public settings.

“How are we doing reaching unbelievers?” I ask myself thinking of our present church community. The word “community” is actually in the name of our present church, but we still have a ways to go before we model the Christ-centered community that Keyes describes. We fall short in a number of key areas, and while the salt and light model is central to our church mission, we often fumble into “saltless salt” mode. Our teaching staff recognizes this and certainly desires to build deeper Christians, but they err on the side of caution when presenting Sunday sermons often leaving out the bedrock of faith — the Gospel message — opting instead for more humanistic themes.

I ponder how these challenges will impact my own future ministry. How will I avoid the pitfalls of my someday church ascribing to chameleon Christianity; how will I make sure we do not fall into the musk oxen model? I love the idea of preaching and teaching using the model of Paul and opening up the channels for dialogue, questioning and discourse each Sunday morning. While our congregations do not need to be seminary trained; I do think they need to understand the central teachings that lie at the foundation of our faith.

Our faith is being challenged by academics, politicians, media and the non-theistic minority. It is important that we understand where this wave of thought is coming from. It is important that we understand the fallacies and mistruths that emerge from not just the moderns and post-moderns; but, also in many left-leaning churches. We hear way too often of the improper use of some of the terminologies presented in Keyes’ book: modernism, relativism, pluralism, postmodern, tolerance and so on. It is important that Christians educate themselves on key social and philosophical themes that are prevalent in the culture of the day. It is important that we strive to be salty salt and strongly glowing lights.