These thoughts began as a comment on Teege’s blog post critiquing the phrase “far from the cross.” I quickly realized, though, that I had so much to say I should just make it my own blog entry. You might want to read his post first if you haven’t done so yet. In this entry I am not really setting out to defend the phrase as much as give a history of where it came from — since a lot of people who are around now were not around when it first came into use.
The first time anyone heard of that phrase specifically (as far as I know) was when some of us were taking a trip to Iowa City well before the Mars Hill church plant. In fact, it was even a few months before we actually started the Friday Night Rock as we know it — late February or early March of 2000.
We were exploring the idea of “someday” planting a church in Iowa City, and a few of us were meeting with a pastor who, at the time, was working with 24/7 — the really big campus ministry at the Univesity of Iowa. I can’t remember if this was in response to a question or if it was just him sharing his philosophy of ministry, but he drew a cross on the board with a line coming out either side of it (horizontally). Then, a few inches from each side of the cross, he drew a vertical line, perpendicular to the horizontal line that was already there.
He then went on to explain that the focus or “target audience” of their ministry was those in that space a few inches either side of the cross — people who were saved but not necessarily very developed in their faith, and people not yet saved but “almost there” due to a church background or other circumstances in their lives. Perhaps this would include many people who were religious and “looking for a good church” but who didn’t yet have a personal relationship with Christ. Not that they minded if more mature Christians or people “far from the cross” got involved with their ministry–but the meetings, outreach strategies, etc. were designed to most appeal to and meet the needs of those in the “a few inches either side of the cross” category.
This paradigm really resonated with those of us who were there or who heard about it soon after. In our perception, many of the other ministries at Iowa State had a similar philosophy as this ministry in Iowa City. They were all trying to reach those “a few inches either side of the cross.” (Again — not that they didn’t reach some who were “far from the cross,” but that their programs were not designed with those people in mind.)
At the time we were in the process of trying to figure out who God was really calling us to be as we prepared to start a weekly large-group college ministry meeting for the first time in years. It seemed to make sense to us that God would want us to be filling a different niche or reaching a different “target audience” than the other Christian groups who already had large group meetings at ISU. Otherwise, why would God even be calling us to do it if the other groups had those bases covered? Aren’t there people who would find those very-Christiany “believer oriented” meetings uncomfortable or even distasteful, who might find a little bit different kind of meeting to be something they would be willing to attend?
It wasn’t like we just heard this paradigm of “far from the cross” and thought we would do it just because it sounded interesting. It was more that it really crystalized for a number of people something we were already thinking about (sentiments such as those shared by Tim in his comments on Teege’s blog entry). So, we set about to design our new large group meeting, which we eventually called The Rock, with that in mind — attracting those people who would not necessarily find other types of Christian meetings attractive. And, just as the other groups certainly were happy with reaching people farther from the cross if it were to happen, we certainly were fine with attracting some people who were “a few inches either side of the cross,” as long as people understood that the large group Rock was not necessarily designed to meet their needs.
“Far from the cross” is definitely one of those phrases or paradigms that was very meaningful to those of us who were around when it first came into use, but has (at least to some degree) suffered from “cliche” status in more recent years or has just in general been interpreted very differently by different people. It was never meant to imply that some kinds people getting involved or getting saved had more value (either in our eyes or God’s eyes) than other kinds of people — or even that we were supposed to avoid reaching out to people with “nice” or “churchy” backgrounds. As far as I know it was always more meant to describe our philosophy of the large-group Rock and the type of people we were “targeting” with that gathering in particular.
People don’t walk around with lables on them telling you whether they are only “a few inches from the cross” or “far from the cross.” Sometimes the people who seem like they are “far the cross” really aren’t and vice versa. “Far from the cross” isn’t necessarily people who look on the outside to be really different from us. It is not necessarily athiests, agnostics, and people of other religions. It is not necessarily people who get drunk every weekend, though someone far from the cross might be any of those things. If I were to myself describe what I thought “far from the cross” looked like, I might say that it was people who aren’t necessarily looking for God right at the moment and might not feel super comfortable in a really churchy setting…but yet are willing to take a chance on something that has a spiritual nature to it. (And, I am sure there are some people who will disagree with this definition — like I said, this phrase has suffered from a huge degree of differing opinions and downright confusion over the years.)
This paradigm definitely has its limits, and I often wish we had a better way of describing our “target audience” or philosophy in general. In the end, even if people are already saved when they meet us…God will still bring us the people He wants to have in our midst. After all, I was already saved but very immature in my faith when I came to college as a freshman, and even though I thought I had a plan about what campus ministry I would get involved with when I came to school…God had a different plan in mind and He wanted me with Stonebrook.
Maybe if we all put our minds to it we can come up with a clearer phrase that describes the “target audience” or philosophy of ministry that God has called us to. 
