Most people are too chicken to witness, but the ones with a backbone will do it anyways.

Here’s another thing about MECCA-style evangelism:  there’s this really compulsory quality to it.

As in, if you’re afraid to witness to someone, by golly, you’d better buck up and do it or you’ll disown Jesus. And you know, if you are ashamed of Jesus on earth, He’ll be ashamed of you in Heaven. The same goes for when you’re debating whether or not you should do something crazy for Jesus (like jump up on a fire hydrant and start preaching to the people on the sidewalk). You don’t really want to ‘cause it’d be really awkward, but by golly, this must be the Holy Spirit talking to you, so hop on up there and just open your mouth, let the words flow.

It’s kind of like those ever-popular Facebook statuses which say something like “3 million kittens are murdered every 15 seconds by mousetraps. If you care about saving the rainforest, ending world hunger, or rescuing the polar bears trapped on floating blocks of ice, you’ll repost this status. 99% of people are too chicken to do it, but the 1% with backbones will do it anyways.”

Don’t worry, I exaggerate. MECCA thinking isn’t quite that bad. ‘Cause there’s grace with Jesus. Also, percentages are never listed in the Bible. Not technically speaking, anyways.  However, there is an eerie resemblence between those Facebook thingies and MECCAite attitudes on Holy Spirit promptings.

Honestly, though, telling Christians that ‘anytime they start feeling like they should do something crazy it must be the Holy Spirit’s prompting’ is a very bad idea. I don’t mean to say that the Holy Spirit never tells people to do crazy things. But I think very few people can tell the difference between God’s voice and their own voice in their heads. I think most of the time people’s idea of what they ought to be doing is informed by what they’ve been told they ought to be doing, rather than by the Holy Spirit’s prompting. I could give numerous embarrassing personal antecedents on this subject, but I’ll suffice with one slightly less-awkward one.

Once upon a family road trip, young thirteen-year-old-Erin got it stuck in her head that she needed to be witnessing at all times. Specifically, I remember sitting in the back of the family minivan, crying hard into a pillow which I’d stuffed to my face so my family wouldn’t hear me. I was crying because I knew that if I truly loved Jesus I would be screaming “God loves you!” out the window at people as we drove down the freeway. But I was also keenly aware that that would be more than a little bit weird – not only to the other drivers, but especially to my family! And I couldn’t bear that. So all I could manage were whispers of “God loves you,” barely squeaked out the back window of the van where the rushing wind covered it and perhaps carried it away.

What the heck? Was the Holy Spirit actually telling me to do that? I don’t think so; pretty sure that was a leftover concept from witnessing training in youth group. Unfortunately I have a worry-wart’s disposition, so I was constantly second-guessing every crazy idea that popped into my head. And because I was under the impression that the Holy Spirit frequently told kids to do crazy things for Jesus, my mind began to invent crazier and crazier things to do. It was kind of a destructive cycle.

Here's the thing: the idea that the Holy Spirit is probably telling them to do something strange is really just a filtered down and Christianized version of the rugged, answers-to-no-one-but-himself Lone Ranger concept.  In other words, this type of thinking emphasizes the individual over the community. It assumes that the Holy Spirit takes people out of the culture and places them above it. And I really don't think that's healthy or wise or God-honoring. God is all about community. The Trinity is the ultimate form of community.  (Btw, it's weird how we're forming a community around the idea of individualism - how does that even work?  Idk, but that's what America's been doing for years I guess)

This is what I fear MECCA ideology can lead to: dishonest/disconnected "communities" of miserable and lonely people, straining to achieve all their God-honoring duties.

Or at least, that’s how I ended up by age fifteen.

There’s definitely more I could talk about with the MECCA, but I think I'll stop for now. Stay tuned for more posts about the joys and sorrows of living within the MECCA.