Summary: When I was in college, I went to a pool party. I remember it being pretty tame by college standards. The parents were home! However, the dad of the house was a lot of fun. We joked around, laughed and carried on. Later in the evening, we were sitting by the pool and the father asked me what my major was. I told him it was religion. He laughed and said, "Yeah, right." I said, "No, I'm serious, it is religion." He asked, "Why religion?" I told him I was going to be a preacher. He said, "A what? You don't seem like any preacher I know (I took it as a compliment). You laugh and joke and have fun. You seem normal." Before I left the party, he said something to me I will never forget, "I'm in my 50s and you are the first Christian I've ever met that I actually enjoy being around." I don't tell you that story because I'm the hero, because believe me, I'm not usually the hero of my stories! I share it because that dad at the party was not alone. There are many people who have never had a positive experience with Christians. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers." Robert Louis Stevenson once entered in his diary, "I have been to church today, and am not depressed!" Of course, Gandhi was famous for saying, "I like your Christ. It is Christians I have a problem with." Shane Claiborne put it well, "Over the years, Christianity has lost its fascination because it looks less and less like Jesus."
