I think non-Christians MUST first be convince that we are not trying to make them religious and that comes by winning their trust before handing them a Bible as your student did. In my own experience, I didn’t start to read the Bible until months after I made a decision to follow Christ. My Christian friends didn’t hand me a Bible or even try to take me to church until long after becoming a follower.

Especially, with your generation, trust plays a great part in a relationship. I’ve noticed that this postmodern generation is much more open when you prove to them that you can be trusted.

you sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

However, “religion” as an encompassing term for humanity’s attempts to grasp the sometimes intangible realities of an infinitely loving and creative God is a reality that will never disappear. Nor do I think it should disappear. Yes mankind will jack this up to an exponential degree by polluting it with paganism, new-age mysticism, and self help mantras; but, I believe “religion” as an overarching term defines a process that God designed us to grapple with as humans. I think that religion as a whole is an acceptable thing, but what Jesus came to do is take us deeper, beyond mere attempts of intellectually engaging the concept of God to the point where we literally engage God Himself through relationship.

I know that it is all about relationship with God. But I don’t think we can even get to that point mentally if we did away with “religion” because I think it is meant to be a launch point into intimacy with our Creator.

BUT, I realize that this could be an issue of semantics that could go round and round forever. It all comes back to that relationship with Jesus.

Ya dude, I spent some time researching the word “religion” and it is quite an ambiguous little noun! How do you define “religion” and how do you think others would?