The Most Reluctant Convert with Max McLean

Who is your favorite famous personality, writer, actor,
politician? Isn’t that an easy ice breaker for a small group
discussion? I’m guessing your mind is already wondering to that
person, thinking of favorite anecdotes you have about them on the
tip of you tongue.


But now imagine you have the opportunity to introduce this person
to the world, not just with words, but you get to play the part
in a movie about them.


Today, we welcome stage and screen actor, Max McLean, a man whose
credits are easily found on Google, or better yet at the
Fellowship for the Performing Arts web page: fpatheater.com,
where Max is the founder & artistic director. He is here
today because in just a handful of days, on November 3rd, there
is a major one day release of a compelling movie telling the
untold story of C.S. Lewis entitled, “The Most Reluctant
Convert.” Welcome Max McLean.


https://www.churchhurtsand.org


Closing:


Closing:


A few words before we close. What church should you go to? 


“And above all, you must be asking which door is the true one;
not which pleases you best by its paint and panelling…the
question should never be: ‘Do I like that kind of service?’ but
‘Are these doctrines true: Is holiness there? Does my conscience
move me towards this? Is my reluctance to move to this door due
to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike for this
particular door-keeper?” 


― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity


In my lifetime I have observed faith in God moving from a rather
passive assumption in the culture around me, to a rather passive
irrelevance. “Which church do you go to?” is a question with far
more assumptions than a modern American would now make. Atheists
have claimed the high ground in academia, somehow assuming they
have won the day, disinterested in revisiting arguments from
antiquity which allowed theism to dominate in world history.


In my world I come across a lot of atheists and less courageous
agnostics. When allowed the chance I often express to them my
envy of their assurance. I tell them I might be willing to join
them, but I just can’t get there intellectually. This usually
causes them pause. That’s their line. “Did he just say he can’t
get to atheism intellectually?”


What they don’t know is that I don’t believe they came to a
belief in the absence of God intellectually either. It doesn’t
take a genius to look at a sunset and have a pretty strong
intuition that this didn’t come from nothing, or chance which is
another word for nothing. As prayers are cancelled in public
gatherings, I haven’t noticed many hospitals and senior centers
asking for fewer chaplains. When one is waiting for results of
the cancer screening, I don’t know many calling out to the local
atheist society for help.


In you are reluctant to follow thinking which could land you in
the camp of Christ followers, perhaps it would be worth the time
to meet one of your predecessors. His name is C.S. Lewis. You can
find him in the movie “The Most Reluctant Convert.” Oh, and don’t
be surprised if he becomes a rather good friend.


It’s Worth a Thought


For Church Hurts And, this is John Bash. Go and enjoy God today.