By April Terry (http://faithwarming.blogspot.com)

Do some of you remember those old commercials for Wendy’s where the old lady came into the drive-in and said, “Where’s the beef?!”   That’s sometimes the way I feel about Christians except that I want to say, “Where’s the transformation?!”

We spend so much time as Christians picking apart people of other faiths and creeds, but sometimes, we don’t truly take a good, hard look at the way we are living personally.   Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that Christians are supposed to be perfect, but if our way of life is supposed to be so different from the rest of the world, where’s the evidence of it?  Shouldn’t we be living differently?

A few years ago, I started meeting regularly with a group to explore the possibility of a church plant.  We started by just meeting as a small group and I shared with others in the group about a type of evangelism called “servant evangelism” that I had recently been introduced to.  I thought it was a great idea at the time and I thought it would be great for each person in the group to go out into their world and try some type of serving others and report back to the group to see what transpired.  The silence was nearly deafening and then one woman, lowering her eyes to the table said, “It sounds like works to me.” 

What?!

I remember thinking that someone must’ve gotten the idea that Christians weren’t supposed to do good works because it might somehow be misconstrued that they were trying to work for their salvation.  The idea of it nearly drove me nuts.  Where in the world did Christians get the idea that they shouldn’t be doing anything for anyone?

Not being raised within any particular denomination, I had a more grass roots idea of what the Christian faith was all about, and while I didn’t think that my salvation depended on my good works, I still knew that good works had been the only real evidence of the change that Christ had wrought in me.  Having made the decision to follow Christ, I knew from that moment forward that I was compelled to do good works because it was what I had been tasked to do.  I didn’t think I had a choice.  I still feel that way.

Somehow, though, I look around at many of the Christians that I know and I find that they are often more concerned with who is going to what church than they are in who is able to put food on their table or who is hurting or suffering.  That’s why I am still asking the “Where’s the transformation?” question after all these years.    The book of James really solidified my feelings about this even further.  

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world.”  James 1:27

The rest of the world is really asking the same question that I am.  They’re wondering what’s so great about being a Christian if it doesn’t mean that you live or act any differently.  Since we ‘re out there in the world trying to bring our brand of faith to folks, it seems like a fair question.  What is the difference?  That’s where our works have to come in.  We have to do something.  We have to find a way to live out our faith and act out our faith or we are just a bunch of talkers.

I’m a Christian and I believe in Jesus Christ, miracles, love, faith and Grace, but I also believe in works.  I believe that we need to do more, work harder at it, and live better if we really want to be taken seriously so that when someone says, “Where’s the transformation?” we can point to it and know it’s there and it’s real.