Evangelism Revisited
Yeah, I'm having some Holland withdrawals. Maybe it's normal & natural. Maybe it's the days off I'm taking have given me some time to think more about it. Maybe it was the phone call from Brett (a friend I made there) yesterday telling me about the thunderstorms and the ministry of the other group of Americans. Maybe it was the chocolate cookies I bought for Bailey yesterday.
I dunno. Part of me wants to be back there.
Anyway, I read a bunch while I was there. Steve-O says I read too much. Same thing happened during a discussion about getting rid of cable television...in addition to missing out on college football season, there'd be another problem: I'd spend WAY more than cable television per month on books.
I won't bore you with quotes from each book, but here's one that stood out. It's from "When God Says Jump" by J.R. Briggs. The author had a run-in with an aggressive and pushy salesman.
"We soon realized that Eddie's behavior was strikingly similar to the behavior of most Christians when we evangelize. People are buyers, Jesus is the product, and we are the salesmen. We want them to enjoy beautiful heaven, and we want notches on our belt, to we pitch and pitch, only to make things worse. But the problem with that approach is that it's excruciatingly annoying but also horribly safe. It involves absolutely no risk. We don't get personally involved; we stay at a distance. I'm pretty sure that kind of evangelism is not what Jesus had in mind...
...Aren't we called to love people first? Certainly telling people about Jesus is important and necessary, but have we skipped a step--the step of loving and serving and caring and valuing people as individuals and seeing them with the eyes of Jesus?...
The problem with becoming invested in people's lives, though, is that you'll probably end up loving them. And loving people can get pretty sticky and involved and time consuming. It's definitely not convenient. That's why it's much easier to go on a mission trip to Uganda for two weeks than it is to serve in your own hometown or neighborhood. By going to Uganda, you can tell people during the week and then leave and never see them again. You drive by, shoot them with words, but starve them of love."
*pours the coffee*
*sets upt the tables*
*waits for discussion*
Yeah, I'm having some Holland withdrawals. Maybe it's normal & natural. Maybe it's the days off I'm taking have given me some time to think more about it. Maybe it was the phone call from Brett (a friend I made there) yesterday telling me about the thunderstorms and the ministry of the other group of Americans. Maybe it was the chocolate cookies I bought for Bailey yesterday.
I dunno. Part of me wants to be back there.
Anyway, I read a bunch while I was there. Steve-O says I read too much. Same thing happened during a discussion about getting rid of cable television...in addition to missing out on college football season, there'd be another problem: I'd spend WAY more than cable television per month on books.
I won't bore you with quotes from each book, but here's one that stood out. It's from "When God Says Jump" by J.R. Briggs. The author had a run-in with an aggressive and pushy salesman.
"We soon realized that Eddie's behavior was strikingly similar to the behavior of most Christians when we evangelize. People are buyers, Jesus is the product, and we are the salesmen. We want them to enjoy beautiful heaven, and we want notches on our belt, to we pitch and pitch, only to make things worse. But the problem with that approach is that it's excruciatingly annoying but also horribly safe. It involves absolutely no risk. We don't get personally involved; we stay at a distance. I'm pretty sure that kind of evangelism is not what Jesus had in mind...
...Aren't we called to love people first? Certainly telling people about Jesus is important and necessary, but have we skipped a step--the step of loving and serving and caring and valuing people as individuals and seeing them with the eyes of Jesus?...
The problem with becoming invested in people's lives, though, is that you'll probably end up loving them. And loving people can get pretty sticky and involved and time consuming. It's definitely not convenient. That's why it's much easier to go on a mission trip to Uganda for two weeks than it is to serve in your own hometown or neighborhood. By going to Uganda, you can tell people during the week and then leave and never see them again. You drive by, shoot them with words, but starve them of love."
*pours the coffee*
*sets upt the tables*
*waits for discussion*
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