ZEUS BURGERS PRESENTS:
5 Questions: with Chris Townsend
He carved some time out of his busy schedule to chat with Zeus Burgers about his former life apart from Christ, his work, and how to live as a disciple of Jesus in this ever increasing irreligious culture.
ZB: Thanks for your time, Chris. Please describe your atheism – were you raised in an atheist home or like a lot of atheists were you exposed to Christianity growing up?
CT: Truthfully I was more of an agnostic – but I lived as if there was no “god.” I was raised in a progressive Christian environment where people didn’t really talk about their faith. Whenever I had questions I was given poor answers and I naturally didn’t buy any of it. So when I heard about this thing called “agnosticism” I embraced it. Shortly after, it actually became a point of pride for me!
ZB: Famous atheist Antony (Tony) Flew became a theist later in his life after perceiving “design” in the universe (he laid it out in his book, “There is a God” claiming that he “followed the argument where it led.”
What was your journey out of agnosticism like?
CT: Believe it or not my journey to faith in Jesus was not, at first, an intellectual journey but instead based on personal encounters with people who lived the Christian life with authenticity – in other words their character was contagious.
It was only after recognizing something special about them that I was motivated to look into God, study the Bible, and consider the potential truth of Christianity.
At one point I heard a sermon about sex before marriage. It was the first time I considered the non physical consequences (emotional/ spiritual) of premarital sex. The story gets complicated from there. In short, I had been sleeping with a married woman who got pregnant. Facing this situation from my new found closeness to God, I became utterly convinced of my sin. I accepted forgiveness for my sins and Jesus as my Lord and I never looked back!
ZB: Why do you think atheism is seemingly having a resurgence these days and what can Christians do to effectively witness to today’s community of skeptics?
CT: Probably because we now live in a culture that has intermingled on many levels – churches without disciples assimilate pop culture ideologies. This has produced mass quantities of secular humanists who have their own discipleship process. They do this through many mediums including the education system, the media, and of course, entertainment. And while the church has done a terrible job of staying stuck on Sunday mornings only - relativism has crept in and we now have what we have.
As far as what Christians can do to witness, we need to realize that we have a different audience as a result of this culture of secular humanism. The culture of the New Testament was “god-oriented” or “god-leaning” – polytheistic, for the most part (belief in many gods). But we have a new “monster” today – people who believe in NO God or gods and reject anything beyond the natural.
Therefore, our best weapon will be living as if we believe Jesus is LORD, being authentic. This was what convinced me in my agnosticism. People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. We need to be educated about our culture, meet them where they are, be compassionate and relationship oriented, but not be absorbed by it. We saw this in the New Testament all over the place.
At one point it was “cool” to be a Christian – that is no longer the norm.
Christian parents also need to teach their kids to be critical analysts. We can’t just shelter them – we need to tell them about what’s out there before what’s out there absorbs them. We need to teach them to engage their culture – but in light of their discipleship to Jesus.
ZB: How do you stay “fresh” as a disciple in your everyday living? In other words - what are your spiritual disciplines?
CT: I don’t really have a devotional life but I do make sure that God is everything to me and as a result He manifests Himself in everything I do. I wouldn’t mind a ritual in this area – but I wouldn’t want it to become ritualistic. So mainly, again, I try and use a biblical lens for everything I do. In this respect I try and be aware of everything that comes out of me – my speaking, my writing, my emotions, my studying – the end is that I glorify God in all I do. I guess you could say that I do have a devotional life, but it focuses more on production than absorption. Where most people schedule their intake of God, I schedule my output.
ZB: Which of your books do you recommend to someone exploring either the Christian faith or how to share the Christian faith with others?
CT: Based on our conversation I’d probably recommend “Prove It”. It discusses how contemporary culture operates and offers communication techniques for Christians to use to dialogue with this culture.
Stay connected with Chris via social media and his blog!
You can also purchase his other books at his store.
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