There are three prevalent forms of evangelism in the church today: crusade, telemarketing, bait and switch.
Crusade: asking a person to stand up in front of 100’s of people they don’t know, and take the hand of someone they have never met in order to believe in a God they cannot see.
Telemarketing: Christian telemarketers, without telephones, peddling the 4 spiritual laws to complete strangers. Who likes a telemarketer? We hang up on these people all the time.
Bait & Switch: Or let’s ask our members to invite their friends to an outreach event. We’ll bait them with entertainment—who doesn’t like a good comedian?—then we’ll switch it on them, tell them they are all sinners and they need to repent. Will we ever be able to look those friends in the face again?
These methods have their place, but we all know that the most effective form of evangelism happens in the context of relationships. What if the entire church strategy was organized around the principle of relational evangelism? What if we partnered with the members of our church to save their coworkers, friends and family?
This is what I think that kind of partnership would look like:
An Outreach/Discipleship Strategy
INVEST—people in the church (insiders) investing in relationships with people they are already connected with outside the church (outsiders) in order to . . .
INVITE them to a weekly environment designed to help outsiders begin to see the message of Christ as relevant to their lives in order to . . .
CONNECT them with God’s family in close personal relationships so they can learn to connect with God, His Word, and His people in order to . . .
BE the church—the Body of Christ; His hands and feet—SERVE in the community. People doing what Jesus did: building a bridge to God and turning on lights.
I am convinced that the Bible has the answer to every relational problem, societal problem and political problem. It speaks to the issues of single mothers, problem kids, lost jobs, broken marriages. Christianity is the answer to world hunger, pandemic disease and poverty. I believe Christianity can teach me how to raise my kids and be a great dad. I believe it has the answers to every question our culture is currently asking. Because of this I believe that the church ought to be the most compelling group of people on the earth. I believe that we should be as compelling as Jesus was when he walked the earth. You either loved Him or hated Him, but you couldn’t ignore Him. Likewise if we began to speak to these issues we would be as compelling as Jesus. Then we would be the body of Christ, doing what He did in His culture in ours.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Croup-like Faith
My middle child suffers from asthma. I don’t think there are many things more frightening than to wake up in the middle of the night to see your child gasping for breath. Simply put, asthma is a condition of the lungs that makes it difficult to inhale. Croup is the exact opposite—croup makes it difficult to exhale. If you have ever watched someone suffering from croup or asthma, you understand on a visceral level that breathing requires the ability to inhale and exhale—you have not breathed if you have only inhaled.
In June, I delivered a message called “Seeing is Believing: spiritual maturity is not about what you know, but what you do.” I was challenged by the fact that people can do things without knowledge. Can such things be considered faith? I offer Romans 2:14-16 “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”
Faith is like breathing. One cannot only inhale certain beliefs to be considered faithful, but must also exhale certain actions. Intellectual assent has never been good enough. The devil can sign off on our church doctrinal statements. In fact, the devil could correct many of them, simply by having been an eye-witness of Christ’s work on the cross.
James makes it clear that belief must result in certain actions in order to be faith. But, can it be said that certain actions, point to latent beliefs--also an indication of faith? To use the illustration—when someone exhales, they must have inhaled. When Gentiles instinctively do the things of the Law they show that the work of the Law is written on their hearts. What they exhale, shows what they inhale. “. . . he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
In scripture, action is often traced to its source. “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” “The heart is the wellspring of life.” “You will know a tree by its fruit.” “I am the Vine you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” “Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.” The disposition of the heart, the taproot of our lives, determines our actions. The north American church culture has a croup-like faith. We have trouble exhaling. In a church culture that is more comfortable with knowing than with loving others, the message must be: spiritual maturity is not about what you know, but what you do. We must exhale to consummate a breath. We must do in order to consummate belief. Consummation precedes conception. Belief in action births faith.
In June, I delivered a message called “Seeing is Believing: spiritual maturity is not about what you know, but what you do.” I was challenged by the fact that people can do things without knowledge. Can such things be considered faith? I offer Romans 2:14-16 “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”
Faith is like breathing. One cannot only inhale certain beliefs to be considered faithful, but must also exhale certain actions. Intellectual assent has never been good enough. The devil can sign off on our church doctrinal statements. In fact, the devil could correct many of them, simply by having been an eye-witness of Christ’s work on the cross.
James makes it clear that belief must result in certain actions in order to be faith. But, can it be said that certain actions, point to latent beliefs--also an indication of faith? To use the illustration—when someone exhales, they must have inhaled. When Gentiles instinctively do the things of the Law they show that the work of the Law is written on their hearts. What they exhale, shows what they inhale. “. . . he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
In scripture, action is often traced to its source. “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” “The heart is the wellspring of life.” “You will know a tree by its fruit.” “I am the Vine you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” “Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.” The disposition of the heart, the taproot of our lives, determines our actions. The north American church culture has a croup-like faith. We have trouble exhaling. In a church culture that is more comfortable with knowing than with loving others, the message must be: spiritual maturity is not about what you know, but what you do. We must exhale to consummate a breath. We must do in order to consummate belief. Consummation precedes conception. Belief in action births faith.
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