Testimony

Yes, if only I had a dramatic testimony that really knocked people's socks off. If so, then anything I did would rise to the top of the charts of Christendom. It would be such an amazing testimony of God's grace that He was able to pull disgusting riffraff me from the depths of the abyss, from the death throes of some gripping sin, and make something out of this life of nothingness, a shining witness to all of the world. After all it is only by the word of my testimony that I could ever be promoted, said Pastor Max. This means that I must think of some very dramatic sin that would be worthy of a riveting cliffhanger of a book. Then perhaps people would actually stop and listen to me talk about the years I spent in prison or sleeping in gutters. I would have to completely turn away from God and kill people or be a drug dealer or something really bad like that to get everyone's attention. Hey, it works for lots of other people. Just click on the remote control and look at all those pathetically bad sinful people yapping away about God's grace and hawking their textbooks on how to be bad guys turned good. The Teen Challenge mode of thinking means that only new converts previously depraved can be leaders in the church whereas persons like me who were raised in the church cannot be promoted because we really have no testimonies, nothing dramatic to say about what God means to me. Nothing good ever happens to me. Just more of the same. Ho hum! Yes, I remember discussing this point. It gets sort of annoying at times that we must sit on the sidelines watching the Teen Challenge ex-con leadership dish out their pablum and formulas as best they can. But truth be told, I just don't have anything all that unusual to tell. My testimony always seems to put everyone to sleep. Churches are full of people who have done worse than me, lots worse in some ways. Anyway, I am not saying that they are all that bad. I am just saying that I want more from church than just superficiality and the milk of the Word. I am saved. So now what? There has to be more than just salvation. This can't be all there is. Where's the beef?