Hi. Hello. It’s Jojo

Welcome to episode one of my podcast. If you read the description, then you know that this project is from the honest perspective of a young Nigerian-American woman raised in the evangelical tradition, and this is her story. I am her. She is me. 

I think that considering the title and my apparent pledge to honesty here, I need to address one important caveat in my first episode. A bit of housekeeping if you will. So bear with me. 

Please do not mistake my intentions, I am not crapping on the Church. Nor am I apologizing for my perspective. The truth is the truth, no matter how you feel about it . . . or is it? I used to claim evangelicalism kinda proudly up until the last 5 years. Now I consider myself as more of a black Christian protestant. Mostly pentecostal in belief and theology, but not so aligned to the apparent evangelical way of thinking . . . or voting.

Anyway, yes- honesty. 

I see a lot of it on the internet. And if you think back to my previous statement, ‘the truth is the truth no matter how you feel about it’, it appears that a lot of christians on social media seem to live by this declaration. But too much of a good thing is never a good thing. 

The same goes for honesty. Or maybe a more appropriate word in this case would be ‘candor’. 

If I’m being honest here, i think a lot of christians with large platforms--specifically on twitter--use ‘candor’ as an excuse to be compassionless, hurtful, loveless jerks. 

And I’m not being childish. I genuinely think some internet Christians--a lot of whom are leaders, mind you--actually function more as political provocateurs with an extensive knowledge of the bible but no understanding of It. Clanging cymbals.

I remember seeing a post on twitter that gained quite a bit of traction. I won’t directly quote it, because I don’t think it deserves to be re-read, but it was along the lines of ‘this is sin, this is wrong, you are condemned, you are unworthy, this is wrong, etc. 

From face value, a lot of what the post had to say was biblically supported. But if I’ve learned anything through my character development it is that you can say the same thing two different ways and have a very different response depending on the delivery. 

Say I order a pizza. You can either ring my doorbell and hand it two me politely, resulting in a generous tip, or you can toss it around and throw it on the ground at my feet, resulting in a true Nigerian-style beating that will rock your world. Your delivery, your choice. 

Some would argue that the gospel is offensive by nature, and so I need something a little more uncomfortable in my example if I’m going to draw up a metaphor. So here’s a better example. 

Say you’re sitting in a doctor’s office, and your PCP lets you know that you’re overdue for a necessary shot. I know, I know. Google and Parler have taught you quite a bit about vaccines,,but over the years you’ve built such a relationship in which you’ve come to respect the 4 years of schooling, 4 years of residency, 2-4 years of fellowship, and countless years of practicing medicine your doctor scraped together. 

Tough sell, I know.  

Anywho, understanding your mistrust of other healthcare professionals, the doctor comes into the exam room personally to provide the jab. You roll up your sleeve and, though the experience isn’t pleasant, you respectfully endure because you know that the person who ordered the shot, your PCP, only did so because they believe that it is in the best interest of your physical health. Pain. Blood. Band Aid. Viola--you’re ready to go and produce antibodies that will protect you from a virus. Well done.  

Now think, what if that same doctor had only seen you, like, once before and told you straight up that they were going to order a shot for you. They send in an overworked nurse who doesn’t count down and just stabs you with the needle to get the job done. 

The outcome is the same. The shot has been administered--but how do you feel? What is your take-home impression of the healthcare system? Do you leave truly believing that they care about your well-being, or are they just interested in that juicy copay?

The same is true for the Word of God, I believe. 

Hebrews 4:12

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

A serial killer can cut you open. So can a surgeon. So what separates the two?

Intention. Motive.Permission. One desires to end life while the other fights to preserve it. Both cause pain, and if you survive, both result in scarring. But one involves a willing participant and the other a victim. 

Daily, I log on to social media and see a bloodbath. Unwilling victims of christians holding  sharp swords carelessly. Allegedly meaning well, but doing unsolicited damage to the bodies of those yet to be reconciled unto Christ--and even some of us who are. And this leads to damage to the Body of Christ as a whole.

I’m not saying don’t preach the Gospel. What I’m saying is respect the power that you hold in sharing biblical commands, and reevaluate your delivery. As I said before, an interaction with a serial killer will at the very least leave you scarred. I can say the same for an encounter with a spirit-filled believer. But one is the result of an attempted death blow, while the other is the result of touching the reflection of a timeless god and being unable to remain the same.

Inasmuch as you are able to, try to ensure that your actions are not the reason someone has a bad impression of the Body of Christ. Don’t slap them upside the head with the Bible and then rebuke them when they knuck cuz you bucked.

I believe this: You need to earn the right to call someone out.  

Nobody is going to listen to your rebuke if they don’t believe that you care about their actual well being. I don’t need to convince you of this. You agree with me. You practice it every sunday when you give to foreign missions. You prove that you agree every time you send Paisley to youth group with 5 bucks to give to the offering to solve the water crisis in Africa. 

You see a need in a foreign country-- be it food, water, clothing, shoes. First, you meet the need, and THEN you tell your audience that they are sinners in need of a savior. More often than not, the receptivity of the crowd is much higher once they aren’t, you know, dying of malnutrition. 

But I digress. 

Many of us will not set foot in another country to preach, but the principle is still applicable. 

Lead with love. Then correct out of love. 

I mean, as I said it before, y'all agree with me! It’s the whole idea of small groups and ‘doing life’ together. You surround someone by a loving community, celebrate the mundane, assist in times of hardship, and soon you earn the right to call a spade a spade in their life. 

But don’t be fake. Don’t be buddy buddy with someone just so you can tell them they are wrong. Actually love them. And if you don’t love them, shut your mouth. Because we don’t need your hate filled words ruining Christianity for the rest of us.

I’m sorry. I’m pretty passionate about this. And frankly, I’m disgusted by the way we’ve carried ourselves as a body on social media. We bicker constantly over fringe issues like Critical Race Theory  and Women in the pulpit when there are actual problems we need to address. We are destroying ourselves. It’s almost as if the Body of Christ has an autoimmune disorder.

We’ve forgotten Ephesians 2:8-9.

Ephesians 2:8-9

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Literally the only thing separating us from those we’re condemning is the Grace of God. I think that if we understood that more, we’d be a lot slower to speak. 

Anyway, I did not intend for this to turn into a rant. But I stand behind my words. 

Church, we’ve got to do better. Honesty is beautiful, freeing, even, but it needs to be handled correctly. Let’s hold each other accountable. 

I will be honest in this project. But I want to do so out of love.

After all, this is all pointless without it. 

Until next time . . .