An ongoing theme of the Catch of the Day has been a Christian’s place and testimony in the world. Much has been done in the last 20 years to damage a credible and trustworthy image of Christians in society. The attempt of Christians to gain an influence in culture using tools and weapons that are not of the Spirit of God has been costly to the gospel in that those who so desperately need the hope the gospel provides have been driven away by the fear and anger of those who should be carriers of that hope.
We know that Jesus did not come to condemn the world (John 3:17), but most of those who are not Christians today are convinced his followers did. We have exchanged the good news of the gospel for the bad news of a culture war, and the battle continues to rage in many sectors and in many minds. In light of this, The Catch is seeking to help advance a different worldview and redefine a Christian’s role in society.
Today I share with you a work in progress—a new manifesto for global change. Reflect on it. Comment on it. Pray over it. We will be looking more deeply into all 10 of these as the days go by, but this will get us started.
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) What you think ultimately effects who you are.
10 Prerequisites for Being Effective in the Marketplace
1. A personal understanding of my own sinfulness
2. An overwhelming sense of God’s grace for me, and for everyone else
3. A heart that forgives and forgets
4. An absence of agenda
5. An expectation that God is already in the world (I am joining Him there, not taking Him there.)
6. A sense of the church as the Body of Christ Universal
7. An insatiable curiosity for all that is not yet known to me
8. A belief in the intrinsic value of every human life
9. An assumption that I have something to learn from everybody
10. A deep and abiding desire for everyone to know what God has done for them through Christ
John Fischer The Catch 
Amen to many Christians unloving response to the culture wars. I love you ten points.
To me, a defining issue in the culture wars is that over homosexuality. The Word gives very little guidance in how you love a group of people who have made what the Bible says is a sinful life choice. I have never encountered an example of how you love someone who is not permitted full membership in a church due to his “choice” to be a practicing homosexual. What kind of message is God sending to the world? What kind of message are we Christians sending to the individuals who don’t feel this is a sin, but that their sexual orientation is intrinsic to who they are?
I just don’t see how we wiggle out of this one. Ordination of women and non-whites was pretty straightforward, no overt biblical reference. Homosexuality is very plainly condemned in all the translations I have read.
How do you see your ten points addressing this?
This will be forthcoming.
John,
Some time ago I was deeply impacted by an article I read on your web-site, which you wrote for CCM Magazine’s June 2001 issue. The article, “Those Who Would Be Christians”, is one I’ve re-read countless times — to remind myself why non-Christians recoil when I identify myself a “Christian”. That article, and today’s “Catch”, explain very well how the present-day cultural war, with it’s condemnation and exclusiveness, has become the mark of “Christian”.
I have been deliberately trying to remove that mark from myself and my life….trying to be a follower of Jesus Christ with love, grace, compassion, non-judgment, acceptance, and so on. I no longer use the “C” word casually, as I used to do. It turns people off. It turns them away. It closes their minds to the radiance and peace of Jesus.
So, thank you for stepping out with your new manifesto for global change . I look forward to further discussion about the 10 Prerequisites.