It's not an perfect metric, of course. Not every driver wants to publicly state his or her personal opinion, or feels strongly enough about some issue to do so: but bumper-stickers are probably a good indicator of the thoughts of those who do.
Or perhaps better, "attitudes." Some bumper-stickers are indeed only "attitude," and probably minimally indicative of thought. Someone whose car is plastered with bumper-stickers like "You'll Only Take My Guns From My Cold Dead Hands" is probably not open to thoughtful (or calm) discussion of the meaning of the Second Amendment.
Most other bumper-stickers presumably indicate the driver has considered his or her viewpoint/opinion/preference on "issues" or candidates. When that's the case, a bumper-sticker can be an insight to the driver's personal thoughts.
Which sometimes we don't want to know.
I recently had to park in a distant part of the church parking-lot...behind a car with a "Trump 2024" bumper-sticker. When I left after church I literally prayed I wouldn't see which of my fellow-parishioners drove that car: how could I not think less of that person's moral character and intelligence, knowing those were his or her political thoughts ?
But what's most been on my mind these days is if we should remain at our current church after we move, or go to a church nearer our new living-place. It has seemed that God may be saying, in the latter eventuality, we should test our Spiritual discretion in choosing a church, and see if we are attuned to His will: able to be "guided by His eye."
So God's metric for a church has been a recurring meditation. And bumper-stickers may also be relevant there.
As I wrote in an earlier blog, the Great Commission's "make disciples" has seemed to me Jesus' absolute metric: so my question has been what Jesus deems a bona-fide disciple.
The Greek word there is literally "learner:" appropriate for one who follows and listens to the Teacher. I don't doubt that Jesus also means His disciples will be, in today's phrase, "life-long learners:" since that's how long we are to follow and listen to Him.
And He means more. His teaching, and that of those He commissions, is that "all nations...obey..." His commands: not merely hear to His teachings, but act on them. That's considerably more than "evangelizing." which is how the Great Commission is usually preached.
The meaning of our English word "disciple" is undoubtedly enriched by the fact that the Latin word for "learner," discipulus, has also given us the word "discipline." (And Latin is, of course, one of the first translations in which the gospels spread.) In regard to preparing those who hear the gospel to act on it, I think we'd be on the mark to connect "making disciples" with teaching people the disciplines that Jesus taught.
Having "the mind that is in Christ" (Philippians 2:5, I Corinthians 2:6, and elsewhere) is undoubtedly one such discipline. Not natural to us: we must learn it...learn, in the title of one of my teacher Derek Prince' most powerful series, "agreeing with God"...and practice it, to make it our absolute habit-of-mind.
The old saying was that someone was "as nervous as a whore in church." If a church is making disciples, and its people hear the gospel, I have to think anyone who prefers to hear satan's lies (such as those of the above politician) would be even more uncomfortable in that church: and wouldn't go there at all.
It's
not an perfect metric, of course. But in discerning if a church is
"making disciples" according to Jesus' command, driving through the
church' parking-lot might provide some insight into whether or not its members'
thoughts manifested "the mind of Christ."
