give yourself a pin and get going

... my friend Mike, who's basically the same person as me, said this in October. I just found it now and it's basically exactly what I'm trying to live... (he even entitled the post, 'Popping the Christian Bubble'!)

The "Christian Bubble" is the network of friends in which all of the people share common ideals, beliefs, and convictions insofar as it relates to Christianity and God. We all have them, and they are not totally bad in and of themselves. God did intend for believers to have fellowship with one another. Our faith is not one to be lived out in isolation from one another. We need that network of Christians for support, community, and accountability. However, may I suggest that the same "Christian Bubbles" we need to survive as believers can also be a set back in out responsibility to reach the world. Here's what I mean. Often, we get so isolated from the world in our Christian circles that we lose all meaningful contact with the world that we are called to reach. We are so caught up with not being "of the world" that we isolate ourselves from it altogether. The whole idea of the unsaved coming to us is nice, but it just doesn't work that way. We can't just stay in our comfortable churches and wait for the unsaved to come running to us for answers. We have got to go to them and get our hands a little dirty. Having a solid Christian support system is a vital part of evangelism, but it is not healthy when that support system isolates us and thus hinders us from fulfilling the Great Commission. Many of us belong to "fundamental, evangelical, Bible believing churches." Shouldn't one of the purposes of such churches to be evangelism? If so, why are we creating the mindset of isolation from the world by establishing impenetrable Christian Bubbles? Think about it.