Breaking Out of The Christian Ghetto

Unbelievable, I said to myself, surveying my office. I had just been hired by a Christian organization, a place as close to paradise as I could imagine: no profanity, no off-color jokes, and no tales of drunken weekends. Having worked in the secular marketplace for more than 12 years, I now breathed in the wholesome air like a person getting a second chance at life. Could it get any better than this?

As it turned out, things became a little too good. I quickly settled into a routine of work, church, family and friends all Christian. I often felt a twinge of guilt when I thought of Lynn, a non-Christian co-worker at my former job. She had opened up to me about her personal problems, and I had befriended her and shared my faith with her.

I was thrilled the day Lynn announced that she had accepted Christ. As much as I loved my Christian environment, who was I influencing now?

My guilt increased when I read Bob Briners book Roaring Lambs. I saw myself in what he calls the Christian ghetto. Though he defines this as a thriving subculture of Christian literature, films, TV and music, I related it to all things Christian, where sanitized saints like me separate from the world and keep safely out of its way. I knew if I were going to be the salt Jesus talked about, I had to educate myself about non-Christians and deliberately place myself in their path.

You don’t have to work in a Christian environment to live in the Christian ghetto. Are you’re social gatherings exclusively centered around church? Are all your friends Christians? Do you stick to Christian literature in your reading? If so, here are some ideas of how to shake loose and get out where you need to be.

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