Baby, bath water and Christian cliches

One project I've been working on lately is gathering in one place lots of links to spiritual abuse sites, and in the course of doing this, I too often come across people who've been so burned by their prior church experiences that they sit there, suffering in their gauze wrap and crying out in different ways. Sometimes, they just want to throw their whole spiritual life down the drain, Jesus and all. Sometimes, they are able to separate the fake from the real and they cling to Jesus, but won't set foot in another church.

Sometimes, they find a church home that is nurturing and healing. That's what I've found at New Life. When I think of New Life, I think of the balm of Gilead. Not sure what that balm was in the Bible, but people traveled a distance to go to Gilead for it.

Anyway, in the course of my hunt, I CAME ACROSS THIS SITE that seems to be from one of the third-degree burn victims crying out. The site, called "Leaving the orbit of Planet Christian," includes a list of things the blogger no longer believes in. What I found interesting were the cliches, the pre-digested thought morsels Christians use without thinking. Now, I don't toss all these out, like the blogger does, but I do think the list of things is important to consider.

How many items are just knee-jerk Christian cliches, words you don't even think about, pre-formatted auto-pilot phrases and ideas? It's also important to think of how these things sound to the world at large, the world that isn't cocooned in church.

Two things to digest here. 1. Many people are hurting from bad church experiences and ready to leave "the planet." How can we provide a place of safety and health in the Lord for these hurting people? 2. Is it possible to talk about things of the Kingdom of God in fresh, new ways so we aren't sounding like Christian robots?

Your thoughts?

Donna