What is the most "crazy" thing you have done just because you are a Christian?

[zoidar]

Would be fun to hear your stories.

 

[HTacianas]

Would be fun to hear your stories.

Abandoned my home with my live in girlfriend and lived a near ascetic life in an apartment with no furniture for six months.

You mean like that?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Picked up 50 years worth of trash from my State Forest hunting grounds. You know it's old when the beer cans are made of steel.

 

[tulc]

Joined a Christian commune with my wife and daughter in 1978. Comes to that, still living in a Christian commune 42 years later would seem to top that.
tulc(is just sayn')

 

[Pavel Mosko]

Would be fun to hear your stories.

There's been nothing super crazy. 2 minor stories / incidents from the turn of the Millenia / 9/11 era.


1) I worked at starting a church plant with a friend. We had a kind of Eucharist liturgical service in the down town Campbell a Silicon Valley suburb, during Sunday morning when the Farmer's Market was in full swing (the main street was closed to have various merchants stands and to make a kind of mall),. But quiet often it was a small group of us, like only 3 or 4. We had our church placard sign out front.

I forgot the most important part of the story. The church service was being held at a place called "The Gas Lighter Theater" which was a small theater in town, that did the old Wild West melodramas, Vaudeville routines, and other kinds of entertainment from the pre-electricity era. Anyway we had dozens of people come through during service (people shopping the Farmers market) but very very few actually interested in the church spiritual aspects. The people came in because they were curious about the building, it had an obvious Victorian era feel to it as far as its style and ambiance, and the building was often rented out to the public for special events like for weddings and other kinds of parties, receptions, club events etc. So the people came in as lookeeloos just to check it out, and would sometimes ask us questions about how much it cost to rent, interrupted the church liturgy etc. We would say typically that we didn't know, and ask them if they wanted to join us, which they would politely decline, and then slowly meander out of the building.


At the time, I was not actually surprised by any of this. I had studied psychology in college and graduate school and was well versed in social psychology in my early years. Their is a concept called Social Proof that explains this kind of behavior people can act much like herd animals when it comes to their behavior. People tend to react to the size of a crowd, and the lack of people and will ignore other kinds of clues and data like printed signs, etc. And I had read a lot of books on church planting that likewise cautioned to not try to have a service until you have a core group developed of around 40 to 50 people (50 being more ideal). And that advice is based on also on social proof. Small church services are scary for visitors and other people who are less committed, people often feel more safe in a crowd where they can blend in if they are unsure if they want to commit or not.

 

[zoidar]

Abandoned my home with my live in girlfriend and lived a near ascetic life in an apartment with no furniture for six months.

You mean like that?

Yes, stories like that.

 

[zoidar]

I know I have done a few somewhat crazy things.

I lived on nothing but dry crispbread and water for a week. Got sores on my lips.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

I left home, family and friends, job...and joined the Army (oh wait, I didn't do that because I was a Christian).

 

[Anthony2019]

I remember a time years ago when I was hardly eating and lost an incredible amount of weight, down to about 8 stone.
I thought to myself it would be a good idea to go on a fast, because I thought that if I had a better prayer life, I might be able to overcome the depressive feelings that caused me to go off my food.
I told two close Christian friends about it. They were not at all impressed and told me off in no uncertain terms. They told me there was literally nothing left of me, and that I was totally stupid for not eating. They started inviting me over for meals regularly and there was no way they were going to let me refuse.

 

[sea5763]

nvm

 

[zoidar]

I had a dream in which I was told to go to specific church that was starting ministry on the campus I was going to. In the dream I saw a person I had never met before with eyes with small brown specks in them and a tattoo. I was told in the dream to offer to play the piano for the church. So that upcoming Sunday I went to the church, and then I saw the person in my dream that I thought was the same person, and told them that I would like to offer to play the piano for their church. He was so surprised and told me that the pianist that was currently playing for their church was going to be leaving, and that the church leadership had just prayed recently for a pianist, but that they hadn't told anyone, so they were wondering how I knew. I was too uncomfortable admitting that I had just done that because of a dream I had, so I just said that I felt like it or something. I didn't end up playing the piano there, but I think they took it as a sign that God was listening to their prayers.

Cool testimony! How come you never came to play the piano at that church?

 

[sea5763]

nvm

 

[zoidar]

I was crazy at the time and I couldn't get myself to practice for the audition and they picked somebody else. I would have tried harder if I was in my right mind

Maybe it wasn't God's will after all.