the eBay Atheist
Hey everyone,
I though you guys might be interested in hearing about a special visitor we had to our church the other night. Hemant Mehta, the eBay atheist, came to observe us and give an honest review of his impressions. Hemant had been hired by Off the Map, a ministry that helps Christians learn to see themselves through the eyes of non-Christians, to "mystery shop" Chicago area churches. So far he's been to a traditional Catholic church, Willow Creek, Park Commmunity - a young contemporary church in downtown Chicago, Parkview Christian - another large suburban church, Salem Baptist - a large African-American church on the south side, a prayer meeting at Moody Church, and now he's come to Via Christus - our new emerging church plant that meets in my living room out here in the far southwest suburbs.
Below is a picture of myself with Hemant:
Of course, he wasn't able to be anonymous here since most of us knew about him already. But still he seemed comfortable and not out of place. We found him to be very friendly and well-spoken. After our meeting was over he stayed later so we could spend time dialoguing with him about his experiences.
It seems he had a pretty good impression of us too. You can read his review of Via Christus here.
posted by Mike Clawson at 3:34 PM
2 Comments:
Mike,
Congrats... wow, nice review. I've been following Hemant's trail a little on off-the-map. I almost feel "involved" a little bit now. :)
I have some questions, and I don't know if you'r comfortable sharing or not, so just don't if youre not. But can I ask, how did you go about getting him to attend? And, did you have to pay him?
I have tried paying people (non-christians) to attend and fill out a survey (see the church survey at this link ), and have had no luck to date. I haven't pushed it real hard church-wide though.
I've also been trying to connect with the atheist group in our city. So far I've just had some email interaction (I haven't been available for any of their monthly meetings yet). They are very gracious - they added me to their newletter; send me emails abot their events; always joke that they're going to get me drunk if I ever do attend an event. I was worried they wouldn't want anything to do with a Christian pastor.
And another thought about atheists... someone in my church is friends with an atheist, and he shared that - his friend anyway - is "scared" of Christians. He is scared that if Christians find out he is an atheist they will beat him up, or do "something" to him, or at least hate him. I had never thought abotu that. Isn't that sad - that any non-christian would feel that way about us?
Anyway, thanks for sharing.
I didn't ask him to attend directly. I had posted a comment on Hemant's blog recommending different Chicago area churches for him to visit and included Via Christus in the list. Jim Henderson from Off the Map contacted me and asked if we wanted Hemant to visit us, so I said yes.
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