Posted on 08/04/2010 3:06:08 AM PDT by markomalley
As I was sitting alone in the cafeteria one afternoon, far from home, overwhelmed and lonely on a campus of 20,000 students, an older student walked up, smiled, and asked if he could join me. He took a seat as I prepared to engage him in a heady discussion of politics, philosophy, science. Thrilled to have the company, I was mentally preparing for anything he threw at me.
Glancing up from his plate of spaghetti, he asked, “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?”
Stunned, I was completely at a loss for a response. “Um, yeah, actually I have.” I finally managed in reply.
“Oh,” he said. “Okay, that’s good.” He wore a look of minor defeat. He had chosen the wrong table; no soul would be won for Christ over this lunch. We chatted politely while I finished my burger. He ate quickly and excused himself. I never saw him again.
I’m sure he sincerely wanted to do “God’s work.” But evangelism isn’t a form of Multi-Level Marketing and the “Good News” isn’t an Amway product. The least he could have done was ask my name before trying to save my soul.
For many years afterward I would think of that day whenever I heard the word evangelism. The term derives from the Greek word evangel: good news. How odd then that so much evangelism appears to be about selling Jesus and hoping that you can convince the unsaved heathen to buy into salvation. Good news doesn’t have to be sold. Bad news has to be sold, but not good news.
But this was the way I had been taught during Vacation Bible School classes at the First Baptist Church of Fire and Brimstone. Pass out **** ***** tracts, recite the canned here’s-how-you-get-saved speech, get them to say the sinner’s prayer. Above all—close the deal. They may die at any time and their souls would be lost to eternal damnation if you don’t make the salenow. At eight years old I was a cross between Billy Graham and Willy Loman.
Whenever I began to seriously read the Gospels, though, I noticed something strange. People constantly flocked to Jesus despite the fact that he never passed out a single tract. He would walk up to people, say “Follow me” and the next thing you know they're giving up their lives to follow him around the countryside. How does he do it, I’d ask my parents and church leaders. “Well,” they’d say as they pondered the question (obviously for the first time), “He is, well, you know, Jesus.”
That answer always seemed to be a cop out. Then one day I was reading the opening lines to Augustine’s Confessions:
"Great art thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is thy power, and infinite is thy wisdom." And man desires to praise thee, for he is a part of thy creation; he bears his mortality about with him and carries the evidence of his sin and the proof that thou dost resist the proud. Still he desires to praise thee, this man who is only a small part of thy creation. Thou hast prompted him, that he should delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us for thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee.
The people responded to Jesus the way they did because he is, well, you know, God. He is what our hearts have always been seeking. When we come face to face with him we may accept or reject him. But we can’t not know him.
John Calvin claimed that there is an awareness or sense of God (sensus divinitatis) "implanted in all men." The content is minimal: there is a God, He is the Creator, and He ought to be worshipped. The philosopher Alvin Plantinga interprets this as a disposition to form basic religious beliefs about God. But while our beliefs may be rudimentary, the god is not some generic being. Our disposition is to know the one through whom all things were created: Jesus Christ.
In any case, when some very average people came face to face with their Creator they were inspired to follow him and to boldly proclaim the gospel.
How different our situation is today. Some Christians (particularly new ones enthused by their budding faith) are still eager and willing to “share Christ.” Others have a more difficult time, and many don’t do it at all.
I suspect that the average Christian’s hesitancy to share his faith, though, has little to do with timidity or lack of courage. After all, many believers have no problem explaining why they support a particular politician or cause, even unpopular ones, yet they become tongue-tied when the topic turns to why they align themselves with the Creator of the universe.
I suspect that much of the fault lies with our misunderstanding of faith. In our age, the term has become almost synonymous with an irrational—or at least non-rational—acceptance of beliefs for which we lack evidence. Rather than claiming that we possess both innate and experiential knowledge (justified true belief) about God, we imply that we have a wishy-washy trust that something is out there—though we can't prove it. When we Christians posit such a weak-kneed picture of God it is no wonder nonbelievers don’t feel the need to take us seriously.
But our faith isn’t fideism. The good news isn’t an invitation to make an irrational decision, but the story of a person who lived, died, and lives still. We are not sharing news about an idea, but about a being who is fully God and fully man. While nonbelievers may not have experiential knowledge of this person, they do have an inherent disposition to recognize him. That is the common religious foundation we share with them.
Our evangelistic mission, therefore, is simply to share with others the good news that they too can know what we know. Sometimes this will mean that we must tell them about Jesus and maybe even try to bring them to a point of decision about him. Sometimes this will require us to share our faith by telling others about our own experiences. Other times it will require us to remove the worldview fog that prevents them from seeing clearly what they, by disposition, can and should know.
Most times, though, it will simply mean living as if we really believed that the gospel truly is good news for believers right here, right now, and not just in the hereafter.
God might use prayer cards or religious tracts to bring the lost to salvation and redemption. He might use young men looking to win the souls of people they don’t bother to get to know. But I suspect that he'd prefer that we introduce him as a person rather than hawk him like a car dealer selling six-year-old Chevies. I think he’d rather the good news be shared rather than sold.
upon consideration, please delete the [ECUMENICAL] tag on this thread. Although it is not pertinent to the point, the author’s article did use some inflammatory speech that could be taken offensively by some and they ought to be given the privilege responding in kind or, for that matter, the privilege of acting offensively themselves as a consequence.
to your tag the believer might retort “outside Jesus there is no church” but i don’t know how to put that back into latin.
But wouldn't that sort of be a little redundant, though? (See Col 1:18 to see what I mean)
Sneering at evangelists is not a good thing to do. It takes courage to speak about Christ, well or poorly. I don’t respect your decision to even post this.
It gets depressing to see ‘churches’ where the people carry on all kinds of minute observations somehow connected to God and Jesus, yet somehow the people don’t dare actually trust in Him for their eternal lives, because the preachers have taught that is a vain pursuit or don’t even broach the subject. Until that trust is placed, at least by people who have moral responsibility, those people, at best, are not yet in Jesus.
If selling Jesus like a Chevy isn’t for you (it would have to be a better Chevy than any GM ever put out) then maybe selling the Lord like a Ford is more apropos. OK, I jest. A little. It’s more like “get on the bus.”
If you actually attempt to disengage your defensiveness, you will find that the point of the author is not to sneer at evangelists, but to offer some constructive suggestion at more effective techniques of evangelization than applying the Dale Carnegie technique.
It takes courage to speak about Christ, well or poorly.
True. But it takes more courage to do so from the heart rather than from a script.
I don’t respect your decision to even post this.
That's too bad.
Weak.
Most evangelicals take the Pauline urging of Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” as, at the least, broadly suggesting that every Christian has some role in the evangelical mission even if that isn’t his or her spiritual gift.
The appearance of Jesus on the scene in Galilee and elsewhere filled a vacuum at a time where people were looking for a messiah, and lots of would-be messiahs were popping up and getting attention because of that expectation. When people are at the point of self-absorption where they can’t even vaguely acknowledge the sense that a messiah would make in their life, there’s not anything left for even an evangelist to say to them, really.
I agree completely.
If selling Jesus like a Chevy isn’t for you (it would have to be a better Chevy than any GM ever put out) then maybe selling the Lord like a Ford is more apropos. OK, I jest. A little. It’s more like “get on the bus.”
Well, I am not into the concept of "selling" Jesus like a door-to-door siding salesman. Jesus is the light of the world. As your life is conformed to Christ, that light begins to shine out of you. Perhaps that is in speaking the words of Christ on a street corner; more likely that is in being the light in your workplace, your social settings, your neighborhood, your home. Perhaps as a result of some apostolate you do bringing the love of Christ People are attracted to that light and then you must always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you (1 Pet 3:15).
I mean, you wouldn't believe some of the conversations I get into in, of all places, a bar (there is a place near where I live that has the best white pizza in metropolitan DC...I will often go there to have a beer and a white pizza). I don't go there for the purpose of evangelizing, I go there to have a pizza...but almost every time I end up being able to share the love of Christ with somebody who really needs it. I've seen not a few over the years who have ended up going back to church after years of being away. God's grace by putting me in a place where He thought I needed to be.
The point is that actually trying to minister the love of Christ to people seems, to me, to be a whole lot more Biblical than trying to sell people. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18), not the ministry of salesmanship (cf 1 Cor 1:17).
Your mileage may vary...but that's the way I see it.
Thanks.
See 2 Cor 13:4
I’ve been a Christian for 49 years. Your language, what you say and how you say it, comes from your heart. That language, that heart song, will either draw people to hear more, or cause people to stay away. Those who ears are being opened by God, will want to hear more. A sales pitch is usually heard as a sales pitch, as opposed to a review of a person who has experienced the truth.
If the writer believes that in this year of our Lord 2010 that GOOD NEWS does not have to be sold he has another thing coming!
People instantly accept bad news as that is what they are daily given. They eye good news with suspicion because that is the way the Government and the elitest media want it to be.
Might this have been the case? The Author will never know.
I have a different interpretation of what took place between one person and another lonely person within 20,000.
“Glancing up from his plate of spaghetti, he asked, “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?”
Stunned, I was completely at a loss for a response. “Um, yeah, actually I have.” I finally managed in reply.
“Oh,” he said. “Okay, that’s good.” He wore a look of minor defeat. He had chosen the wrong table; no soul would be won for Christ over this lunch. We chatted politely while I finished my burger. He ate quickly and excused himself. I never saw him again.”
Maybe this seller, was in fact not selling but wishing to upgrade his purchase, had the author started the conversation with a simple question,,”Have you?”
The outcome might have been different and a friend whose name you know might have been made.
I’d rather sell the gospel to someone than sell the Pope...on a baseball cap.
Pope visit merchandise includes ‘metal’ T-shirt and baseball cap [it’s official merchandise!]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2563763/posts
The author seems to think that those who use tracts don’t also do exactly what he’s saying. I have spent considerable time evangelizing alone and with others. We always engage the listener, just as he is saying, AND pass out tracts. The tract is for them to read after we part. As long as someone communicates the Gospel there is no wrong way. God decides if the person gets saved and it has nothing to do with quality or professionalism of the person witnessing. I admire to person who came to him at the table. If he had said he was unsaved, how does he know the person witnessing wouldn’t have given a wonderful exposition of the Gospel. I don’t recall Stephen giving his name to the Etheopian before witnessing either.
What I don't respect is "religion" where all you have to do is:
1. Robotically mumble what the priest tells you to mumble
2. Write the check
3. Keep your mouth shut
That's true, and it's an excellent observation about the mindset of our society, in many ways. However, at the same time as many people believe they don't need a Savior, there is a great deal of fear, misery, and self-destructiveness. (I could detail the cultural indicators, but you read FR ;-).
There's a great opportunity to proclaim Christ when people realize you aren't afraid, or when you can grieve over a loss without being destroyed by it.
The current Voice of the Martyrs newsletter quotes a woman named Noora, an Egyptian convert from Islam: "The secret of joy is having a real link with Christ. We can't help but be happy. I feel in Christ like a candle - a shining candle. I can see the light whenever I go through darkness, wherever I go."
Commemorative merchandising is sort of tacky for a Papal visit, I agree.
But that, of course, is a total non-sequitur to this conversation.
See, the author (Joe Carter) is not trying to sell the Pope. I would imagine that would be far from his mind. See, he is a member of Reston Bible Church in Dulles VA.
So other than to be a snark, what would papal merchandising have to do with the author's writing or opinions expressed therein?
Your comment is way off base. Show me where Catholics teach that all you have to do is “Robotically mumble what the priest tells you to mumble...Write the check...Keep your mouth shut”. Can you do that? Can you show me where we teach that?
After reading your post I could just as easily say about your sect:
“What I don’t respect is sects where all you have to do is:
1. Robotically parrot anti-Catholic nonsense
2. Post said nonsense on the internet
3. Keep yourself ignorant
Now, would that be a fair assessment of your sect? It would be if we followed your logic. And it would be if we look at the content of your post.
Might this have been the case? The Author will never know.
Very good observation. I have run into many neophytes in my life who are just brimming with excitement. They are an inspiration to me without a doubt.
Unfortunately, my experience tells me that when a person opens up a conversation with a line like "If you died tonight, do you know where you'd go?" or "Are you saved?", it will follow with a script...(basically a sales pitch, for lack of a better term)
Typically, a person who is authentically moved by the Holy Spirit to speak out will talk about what Christ did for him / her. Usually, that will be woven into a conversation...but not always.
When I run into a person who starts a conversation with "are you saved" or the alternate, I always hearken back to the fact that Jesus made us fishers of men...not bow hunters of men. Again, your mileage may vary and, certainly, I am thankful for a person who can be led out of darkness into the light of Christ by whatever means. But I am just reflecting on the teachings of Christ, with my past experience, no matter how inadequate, of trying to apply them in my life.
That is an extraordinary point!!!
He is what our hearts have always been seeking.
Uh, no He is not. He is the last thing the fallen want. In our fallen state we are at war with God.
Romans 3:10 As it is written:I suspect that the average Christian’s hesitancy to share his faith, though, has little to do with timidity or lack of courage.
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
11there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."
The average Christian's "hesitancy" is all about a lack of understanding of Scripture. They attend churches that look and feel more like an AmWay rally than a gathering of God's people. They are taught that being a Christian is more akin to having a spiritual therapist than having peace with God.
I attended an American town meeting last Tuesday and witnessed this robotic mumbling firsthand.
You wrote:
“I attended a Catholic funeral last Friday and witnessed this robotic mumbling firsthand.”
I asked this, “Show me where Catholics teach that all you have to do is “Robotically mumble what the priest tells you to mumble”
That would mean something like this:
Priest: Say pray.
People: pray.
Priest: Say God.
People: God.
Priest: Say Jesus is the Messiah.
People: Jesus is the messiah.
And that is NOT what you heard at the funeral Mass. The mendacity and duplicity of anti-Catholics knows no bounds.
Most Catholic funerals I have attended are filled with people who haven't seen the inside of a church (or at least a Catholic church) in years. Weddings are just as bad. Neither occasion, in this society, is a proper place to judge Catholics at their worship.
Many times my wife has returned from a funeral or wedding and said "I think the priest and I were the only practicing Catholics there". More than that though, a funeral, really, you're offended because people were mumbling "robotically" at a funeral?
I was at a funeral Mass about a week ago and I wasn't exactly enthusiastically participating because I realized I'd never see the deceased again in this life. I was a bit overwhelmed with a sense of personal loss and was probably mumbling responses.
The priest didn’t have to tell them what to say, they obviously repeated the same mantra a thousand times.
The point is that it was robotic.
Matthew 6:7-8 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
It’s rather foolish to call me anti-Catholic considering I attended a Catholic Funeral Mass and worked with the clergy to set it up for my deceased family member.
See #29
You wrote:
“The priest didn’t have to tell them what to say, they obviously repeated the same mantra a thousand times.”
Oh, so the priest didn’t tell them what to say after all even though that was the original claim. Imagine that. I was right and the anti-Catholic was wrong. Again.
“The point is that it was robotic.”
The point is that it is learned. Once it is learned people can repeat it quite easily. That doesn’t mean they don’t mean it. Next time your wife tells you she loves you and you respond in an instant, ask yourself if that was robotic.
“Matthew 6:7-8 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”
And yet Jesus repeated prayers as all Jews did. He even prayed the same prayer three times before His arrest. Matthew 26:36-44
“It’s rather foolish to call me anti-Catholic considering I attended a Catholic Funeral Mass and worked with the clergy to set it up for my deceased family member.”
No, actually it isn’t foolish at all if we look at your posts. Being anti-Catholics doesn’t mean you won’t bury man. It does mean you’ll bury the truth under lies and falsehoods.
I've been thinking about this comment while I was cleaning, and I really like the idea. If my faith is the greatest source of joy in my life - and it is, to the point that I'm annoyingly chirpy most of the time - then how can I express that to others in a coherent way? Giggling, after all, doesn't convey a clear message ;-).
If someone were to ask, "Have you accepted Jesus Christ?" or "Are you saved?" I could respond, "Yes, have you?" and should the questioner affirm he has, then I could say, "And what has He done in your life recently that gives you joy?" and off we go (in theory) magnifying the love of God in the world.
“Jesus. Like a Rock.”
29 doesn't really have anything to do with what I wrote.
I think I’ve seen that on a t-shirt. I like a clever Christian t-shirt, but the ones that imitate ads in their design are my least favorite.
The author, though, probably isn't teaching something like Pelagianism.
"The people responded to Jesus the way they did because he is, well, you know, God. He is what our hearts have always been seeking. When we come face to face with him we may accept or reject him. But we can’t not know him."
The author isn't saying that every one of us will accept Jesus once we get acquainted ("may...reject"), but instead he's saying that Jesus gets reactions, because it's in the nature of God to get our reactions. I can't claim to the world's foremost expert on the Gospels, but Jesus seems to provoke a lot of things. He gets people's praise, wonder, sorrow, or condemnation--but not their apathy or indifference. It's never occurred to me to ask of anyone, "what do the crowds say I am?" ;)
I'm reminded of Luke 23:8-9: "When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer." Obviously Herod didn't "want" Jesus in the sense of becoming a disciple, but Herod didn't sit off in a corner when Jesus was in his custody, either.
I was one of those, and with no reason whatsoever I would feel embarrassed for this individual more so than for a bunch of individuals blaspheming or swearing a blue streak.
Believe whatever you want vlad if it makes you feel better.
TSgt is always trying to keep the poor universal church down...
As a born again Christian I’m curious. Why would a believer be “stunned”? It would seem to me that one would enthusiastically respond with yes, then strike up a conversation with another traveler. If he was “selling” wouldn’t he have asked for something in return? Another observation is that “spreading the gospel” is, to my way of thinking, a lot like multi-level marketing. One speaks to two, two speak to four, etc. etc.
You wrote:
“Believe whatever you want vlad if it makes you feel better.”
It is about truth and not feelings.
“TSgt is always trying to keep the poor universal church down...”
Talking about yourself in the third person won’t make your position any more impressive.
***Obviously Herod didn’t “want” Jesus in the sense of becoming a disciple, but Herod didn’t sit off in a corner when Jesus was in his custody, either.***
He wanted Jesus to perform like a circus animal, which makes all the difference in the world and in eternity.
Herod is hardly “seeking.”
I don't know why a fellow evangelical would be stunned either (not being a member of an evangelical denomination, I don't think it's fair to overlay my thoughts on the words written by non-denominational Bible Church). My attitude toward the subject is written is post #10, so I won't belabor the point here.
Another observation is that “spreading the gospel” is, to my way of thinking, a lot like multi-level marketing. One speaks to two, two speak to four, etc. etc.
Just for curiosity sake, is there a Biblical precedent from the apostles for that or to go "door to door" or walking up to strangers cold and saying "are you saved?" or the like?
It is a serious question and I am not trying to be snarky at all.
See, the only example I can see is Jesus commissioning the 70 and specifically telling them not to go house to house (see Luke 10:7). But I don't pretend to be the foremost Biblical scholar around here (hardly) and so if there is some precedent to doing that or someplace where Jesus or an apostle told people to do so, I would appreciate learning about it. (NB: I often hear people citing St. Paul in Acts 20:20; but it is clear from the context that he was going from house to house teaching Christians about the Faith..."house churches," if you will)
But, as I say, if there is some Biblical reference I would sincerely appreciate learning.
I understand what you mean. It’s interesting that we can react that way.
One of the things that I miss most about Houston, Texas is being spontaneously approached by Christians, when some one approached you in the 7/11 parking lot, it usually meant a conversation with a devout and inspiring Christian.
As I was sitting alone in the cafeteria one afternoon, far from home, overwhelmed and lonely on a campus of 20,000 students, an older student walked up, smiled, and asked if he could join me. He took a seat as I prepared to engage him in a heady discussion of politics, philosophy, science. Thrilled to have the company, I was mentally preparing for anything he threw at me.I don't think the author could have been *that* lonely, or he would have kept the conversation flowing ... when the Jehovah's Witnesses used to come to our door, my husband would say, "Invite them in." My being hard of hearing, I would nod and smile a bit, but then excuse myself to do chores, and one time I went grocery shopping (for at least an hour), came home, and they were still all talking up a storm ... (my husband never budged from his orthodox RC stance, but they seemed to like him anyway) ...
First of all let me say I wasn’t addressing anyone in particular. My intent was not to address any one person. Sorry if I came across that way.
As to your second point. I was simply saying that a conversation starter to one person who obviously has that topic upermost in his mind doesn’t necessarily imply that he is trying to “evangelise”, at least it wouldn’t to me.
As to Biblical reference? I would have to think longer perhaps but think that when we are instructed to “spread the gospel” I wouldn’t rule out individuals contacting other individuals. I would not fault anyone who finds a way that is comfortable to them. To each his own if you will.
I guess we never know what God will use.. I have no problem with Christians going door to door , that is what Peter did with Cornelius ... Peter and Paul et-el wrote "tracks" we call epistles..
I do have a mega problem with the methods of the seeker friendly churches use to drag in the unwashed masses ... wrestling, auto shows, sermons on movies ..etc..
The problem is they are looking for numbers, warm bodies.. and in many cases the gospel is never preached..
The purpose of the church is to grow believers into maturity not entertain ...
But a reading of Matt 13 shows us how the church will be corrupted in the end times. God is not surprised
Let me suggest a better way. Have people over for dinner. Let them see the gospel at work in the lives of your family, as the members interact with each other and the guests.
The dinner table is a far more biblical venue than the "altar rail."
Herod is hardly “seeking.”
I wasn't looking at "seeking" in what we could call a sense of positive desire, though. (In other words, I'm not thinking of "seeker" as one may use it in "seeker-friendly" or something like that.)
I did so because I don't consider the author as using it that way, either, even if his word choice can be misleading.
None of us here, I could bet, mistakes Herod's interest for something warm, affectionate, obedient, and loving. If everyone in the world were athirst for God in any explicit, direct way, this would be a vastly different world.
In fact, I'd say that this sentence's being manifestly untrue if you read it that way shows that it wasn't meant to be read that way. If I were the author, though, I would've expressed things a bit differently.
(I'll have more thoughts later.)
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