Guilty Bystanders

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson  for 6.2.2012

Do you know what a “wall flower” is? Someone, at a dance usually, who spent most of his or her time standing and watching rather than participating.  About ten years ago, “lurkers” were the folks who went into chat rooms on the internet and just read what everybody was talking about, but didn’t contribute to the discussion.

Some of us, for good or bad, are more comfortable standing on the sidelines of whatever is going on than we are getting out in the middle of things and participating. I am one of those people; we are called “introverts.” We’re not necessarily shy, we just prefer to watch and listen to the stuff going on around us rather than taking an active role. I don’t believe being an introvert or an extrovert is, in and of itself, a good or bad thing. They’re just different ways in which we, as humans, interact with the world around us.

Having said that, wall flowers or not, we are all called to actively spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, I don’t believe all of us need to rush right out and volunteer to do an evangelistic series at the nearest auditorium, but we are each responsible to tell our personal experience with Jesus to the individuals we live  and work with. There are no innocent bystanders we’re talking about witnessing. Comfortable or not, we each have a job to do.

“For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’” Romans 10:13-15

Whether we like it or not, we are each called to “preach the gospel of peace” and “bring tidings of good things.” How we carry out our calling is up to us. It doesn’t take any special training. We don’t need any degrees or diplomas. We just need to tell someone what Jesus has done for us.

Lots of us want to believe that since the pastor has had specialized training that he’s the one responsible for all the evangelism that goes on in the church. We would like to believe that one on one witnessing and bible study are for the elders, the deacons and the bible workers to do. But that’s just not true.

The truth is, no matter how well those people do their jobs; we make up the point of personal contact. If we’re not doing our part, the mission is not complete.

“Our heavenly Father has been pleased to make men co-laborers with himself in the work of human redemption. Those who have been commissioned to preach the gospel are not the only ones whom he will use as his instruments. All whose minds have been illuminated by the Holy Spirit will in their turn be required to enlighten others. ‘None of us liveth to himself.’ Every individual has his station of duty in the accomplishment of God’s great plan. And every one who receives and obeys the light which God has given, will be a living witness for Christ and the truth.”[1]

Mrs. White doesn’t leave any room for doubt there, does she? Every one of us has an assigned task to do. Do we need to be trained to do our task? It couldn’t hurt, but do we really need someone else to teach us how to tell what Jesus has done for us? Not really. Will we make mistakes? Probably. Should the fear of making a mistake stop us? No. Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit would give us the words to say when we need them, right?

“But if you have an eye single to his glory, you need not take thought as to how you shall witness for his truth. “‘Take no thought how or what ye shall speak: ... for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.’ How can the Spirit of God communicate with you? It is the Holy Spirit that is to bring to your remembrance whatsoever Jesus has said unto you. Are you now hearing the words of Christ? Does the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom? … O if you were hidden in Christ, if you were on the Rock of Ages, when you are brought before kings and great men, it would be evident that Jesus was at your side, and you would know just what answer to give, for the Spirit would give you what you should utter. Praise God for this promise!”[2]

Have we run out of excuses yet? Witnessing is not just the preacher’s job; it’s not just the deacons’ or the elders’ job. It’s our job, too.

Do you have any idea how many people are waiting to be introduced to Jesus?

“In Matthew 9:37, Jesus tells his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.’ The results of a 2007 survey illustrates [sic] this point well:• 82 percent—the number of un-churched people who are receptive to attending church if invited and escorted by a friend• 21 percent—the number of church-going Christians who invited someone to church in 2006”[3]

Isn’t that tragic? Notice it doesn’t say that they’re receptive to a flyer they get in the mail, or an advertisement they see on TV. They want to be invited and escorted by a friend!

Wow! Even we introverts can invite someone to come to church with us.

What I’m getting at is this: many of us come to church every week and sit in the same spot. We listen to the sermon, wish our church friends a “Happy Sabbath,” and then we go home and don’t think about anything spiritual again until the next Sabbath. We do our best to keep a low profile, that way nobody will ask us to do anything extra. Who’s got time for that? We are wall flowers, lurkers, bystanders, and we’re okay with that.

So is Satan. He would like nothing more than for all us to show up for church every week, but to leave all the soul-winning to the pastor. The truth is, the pastor can only do so much. Maybe we should look at pastors as more like coaches. They give us our weekly pep-talk and send us out to find new folks to join the team.

We’ve learned from experience that no matter how good the pastor is, if a person doesn’t feel welcome in a church family, he or she quits coming. No matter how many people a pastor baptizes, if the church members don’t immediately start building relationships with them, they won’t stay.

What does that mean to me, as an introvert? It means that every time someone slips out of the backdoor of my church, I’m guilty of not sharing the joy I’ve found in Jesus with a baby Christian. I’m guilty of standing by and waiting for someone else to do my job. And, honestly, no one else can do my job. God has equipped me with a particular set of experiences that will speak specifically to the needs of some other person. If I don’t share my testimony with anyone, I am a guilty bystander.

Don’t be a guilty bystander. Share Jesus.

[1] E.G. White, Review and Herald, February 9, 1886, par. 4

[2] E.G. White, Review and Herald, April 26, 1892, par. 9

[3] Bill White, Paramount, California

The Great Commission

I have learned that there are lots and lots of opinions floating around about The Great Commission.  It seems folks can't really agree on what it it; how it should be carried out; who should carry it and who  should receive it.

What am I missing?  Here we have Matthew's version:

“Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'"  Matthew 28:18-20

Mark's version:

“He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.'" Mark 16:15-20

And Luke's version:

“Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, 'This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.'" Luke 24:45-49

Do you sense any ambiguity or disagreement at all?  Maybe I'm over-simplifying (It's one of my hobbies) but The Great Commission seems pretty straight forward to me.  What do you think?

Jesus sat everybody down around the campfire and said, “It's time to get to work.”  And with some serious nudging (ok shoving) from the Holy Spirit, these guys went from being the guys hiding in the upper room to being the men who set the world on fire for Jesus.  Wow.  They didn't have any problems understanding any part of what Jesus told them to do.  So, then, why do some folks make it so complicated?

You need to study the right books.  You need to go to these certain classes (that will incidentally cost you a fortune).  Little churches are better than big ones.  Big churches are better than little ones.  Small home groups are the only way.  Evangelism only worked in the old days.  Evangelism only works in other countries.  You have to have a big church budget. 

I really don't think the disciples worried about any of those things.  Jesus said, “Go” and they went.  Just like when He said, “Follow Me” and the did.  Not a lot of intellectualizing going on there.

Some people might say that the disciples had Jesus standing right there in front of them and so it was easier to follow Jesus instructions.  Maybe, but then that doesn't explain all the folks who didn't follow Jesus, even when He was right there with them everyday.  And, we have the added bonus of hindsight.  Just think how much differently things must have looked to the disciples when they didn't know how everything was going to turn out.  It's pretty easy for us to look back at them and think it looked pretty easy. 

I think the bigger issue is though, that we are really good at making excuses for not doing what we know we ought to be doing...well, ok, I'm speaking for myself.  But, if we can say we can't witness because we haven't had the right training or read the right books, then we can feel like we're off the hook for the moment, right?  We tell ourselves that we're not good at talking to strangers or giving sermons.  We don't know how to turn conversations around to God.  But we know, deep down, that none of those things matter to Jesus. 

I heard a man say on one of my favorite programs, Really Living, that only two things are really important:  to love Jesus with all of our heart and to teach other people to love Him too.

Pretty simple isn't it? 

So what still holds us back? I think sometimes we think it's just too hard.  But read this from Ellen White:

“In simple trusting faith believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Take right hold of a power which you cannot create but which is for you. Let the workers be filled with a spirit of cheerfulness and thanksgiving and rejoicing. Let every one make a personal consecration of himself or herself to God's service. Let them surrender their hearts to the working of the Holy Spirit, placing themselves in the right relation to God. It is time that we believed that all heaven is interested in the work before us. Christ came to this world to give Himself a sacrifice for the saving of sinners. Then believe, believe, that He will be with all who give themselves unreservedly to this work.” Bible Training School, December 1, 1905, “The Word of God”

That doesn't sound hard or complicated, does it?  “In simple trusting faith believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Yeah, I can do that.  I can take hold of Jesus power and be cheerful, thankful and ... rejoice-ful(?) ...  Anyway, I am willing to surrender my heart to the Holy Spirit and to be used by Jesus.  What about you?

I think sometimes we get caught up in wanting to do that big thing for God and never get around to it, because it involves money, planning, training, and other people.  And we're so busy waiting for time to do that big thing, that we miss a whole lot of little things we could do everyday.  Little things that may not even look like witnessing or evangelism or discipleship.  It's that whole, “Pay it forward” thing, only not so humanistic and new agey.  All Jesus ever asked us to do was to share His love and His salvation with the people we meet.  He didn't say we had to go to India to meet these people, but if you want to do that, that's great.  He didn't say we had to be great public speakers, but if you happen to be, great!  We don't even all have to be outgoing, gregarious people, because the quiet approach works too.  Each one of us has a personality trait, a gift, a talent, or an experience that Jesus gave us so that we could help someone learn about Him.  It doesn't have to be showy or even obvious to anyone, but the person Jesus put it there for...but they'll see it in you and be drawn to Jesus because of it.

Very simply, though, after all the discussion, all the excuses and all the delaying tactics, Jesus gave us a job to do.  And because He gave us the job, He gave us the tools to do it with.  Once we've surrendered to Him, He gives us everything we need to be His lead team – the folks who go out ahead of time and get people ready for His coming.

Remember that guy from the '80's football games who always stood on the front row and held up a sign with John 3:16 on it?  What did you think of him?  That he was kinda goofy?  But think about it...he was doing something for Jesus.  How many millions of people do you think saw that sign over the years?  I mean, how often do you remember seeing it?  I must have seen it 10 or 20 times at least!  Do you think it's just possible that somebody, somewhere saw that guy with the sign for the umpteenth time and thought, “Hmm, I wonder what that's about?”  Looked up the text and found what he (or she) had been looking for?  Do you think there will be anybody in Heaven because of that guy?  It's entirely possible...

The point is, that guy quit thinking about it and did something.  He didn't worry about what other folks thought.  I'll bet he took a lot of verbal abuse at the games, don't you?  And he had to pay admission for all those games – that was a lot of money.  But he went, and he watched the game, and spread the word about Jesus.  That doesn't sound that hard does it?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 

Revolutionary Love

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson for  4.28.12

What was it that made Jesus so different from any of the other religious leaders of His time? Well, His message was clearly different: keeping the rules can’t save you, be a servant, love your enemies. That was all new stuff to the people of Jesus’ time. I think sometimes we forget how really different the things that Jesus was preaching were; we’ve heard it all our whole lives.

What Jesus was preaching was truly revolutionary, a complete break from the religious teaching of His day. But do you think if Jesus had just preached … just stated His message and gone home, do you think He would have had any followers at all?

What drew people to Jesus had less to do with what He was saying and everything to do with what He did – how He treated people – that is what was revolutionary. His earthly ministry was boots-on-the-ground, gritty, hand to hand and one on one. There was nothing safe or sanitary about it. Jesus’ ministry was pretty much the complete opposite of how we want it to be.

I just read about a software company that has created a computer program that makes it possible for high school students to dissect virtual frogs. Now, a good many of you probably remember that experience in high school. None of us who experienced it, will ever forget the smell of formaldehyde. Some of you may have found it a fascinating and enlightening experience. I remember dreading the day my biology teacher would wheel out the cart with the dead frogs on it. I have never been real interested in finding out too much about those gooshy things inside us, and I was especially not interested in the gooshy things inside a dead frog! Combine that with the fact that my lab partner for the frog episode was the boy who a couple of years earlier swallowed one of the worms we were supposed to be dissecting. Needless to say, frog day was not my favorite day of high school. There was nothing sanitary, polite, or pleasant about it.

I think sometimes we expect sharing the gospel to be like dissecting virtual frogs; detached, sanitary, and not too complicated, right? Handing out literature on the third Sabbath of the month, just a quick “hello”, a handshake and we’re outta there, right? How far do you think Jesus would have gotten if He had run His ministry like that?

It probably wouldn’t have gotten him killed, for one thing. The Pharisees wouldn’t have felt threatened by Jesus and His ministry if He had kept His hands clean.

The Pharisees lived safely behind their ceremonial wall of clean and unclean. They taught that what a person touched could make them unacceptable to God; they taught that having a rule for everything kept their hands clean.

So, when Jesus came along and He talked to people the Pharisees wouldn’t go near. He ate with people the Pharisees didn’t like, eating with riffraff and staying overnight with “those people.”

And “those people,” when they saw how much Jesus loved them, that He wasn’t afraid to touch them, talk to them, and heal them, loved Him back.

Jesus had compassion on the people He met every day and people were changed by that kind of revolutionary love – love that touched lepers, ate with prostitutes and tax collectors, and treated them like good friends.

There it is … the people that Jesus ministered to, talked to, and preached to weren’t numbers on a chart somewhere for “contacts made.” They were His friends. He loved each one of them; He loves each one of us. Yes, the things Jesus said were amazingly different, but what He did was revolutionary.

You know, I work every day with people who might make some folks uncomfortable. I work with intellectually delayed adults. I have to admit that when I first started working with these people, I was pretty intimidated. Some of them don’t look any different than you and I do, but some are quite different. Some need help feeding themselves. A few need help with more personal things. Almost a year and a half ago, I spent a lot of time trying to not touch anybody or be touched by anyone. I thought I could do my job without getting too involved in any individual’s life and then go home.

That’s not the way it works. My clients can sense, just like you and I can, someone who’s just putting in his or her time, someone who is emotionally distant, someone who is in a hurry to get away. And, as I work with each client, I become involved in his or her life. We are not separate anymore. We are friends. I care about each one.

When I was growing up I remember hearing people talk about something called “disinterested benevolence.” I remember hearing people say that meant that we shouldn’t get personally involved with the people we were witnessing to; we should just provide the information and move on. Now maybe I misunderstood, but that seems like a very pharisaical way to witness. “Here’s your information, do with it as you will.”

“Divine love makes its most touching appeals to the heart when it calls upon us to manifest the same tender compassion that Christ manifested. That man only who has unselfish love for his brother has true love for God. The true Christian will not willingly permit the soul in peril and need to go unwarned, uncared for. He will not hold himself aloof from the erring, leaving them to plunge farther into unhappiness and discouragement or to fall on Satan’s battleground.”[1] 

Some folks talk about how important it is for churches to stay “culturally relevant.” I’m not all that sure what that means to them. To me it means that those people who say they feel that we should adopt some more worldly things to bring people in and keep them interested. Maybe we do, I don’t know, but in my experience, as long as people know that you are interested in and care about them specifically, whether or not you are playing their specific kind of music isn’t that important to them. If they sense that we aren’t that interested in them personally, they’re not going to keep coming, no matter what we offer them. People want to know that we are interested in them.

“How many of the wandering ones have you, reader, sought for and brought back to the fold? When you turn from those who seem unpromising and unattractive, do you realize that you are neglecting the souls for whom Christ is seeking? At the very time when you turn from them, they may be in the greatest need of your compassion. In every assembly for worship, there are souls longing for rest and peace. They may appear to be living careless lives, but they are not insensible to the influence of the Holy Spirit. Many among them might be won for Christ.             
If the lost sheep is not brought back to the fold, it wanders until it perishes. And many souls go down to ruin for want of a hand stretched out to save. These erring ones may appear hard and reckless; but if they had received the same advantages that others have had, they might have revealed far more nobility of soul, and greater talent for usefulness. Angels pity these wandering ones. Angels weep, while human eyes are dry and hearts are closed to pity.” [2]

Do you want to show the world revolutionary love today? I do.

---

[1] E. G. White, Acts of the Apostles, p. 550

[2] E. G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p191

Above My Pay Grade

Thoughts on the Sabbath School lesson for 4.7.12

What do you think of when I say the word ‘evangelism’ or the word ‘witnessing?’ Do they mean the same thing or are they different from one another? And, just who’s supposed to be doing them anyway?

Many of us like to believe that, whatever those two words mean, they’re someone else’s job, right? Evangelism is something preacher’s do in rented auditoriums. That’s not something I can do. And witnessing, well, that’s really more about how we behave in front of non-Christians, so as long as I look and act like a Christian in public, I’m good, don’t you think?

Check this out.  

“Atheist Penn Jillette is one half of Penn and Teller, a duo that has been headlining Vegas shows for years with comedy and the art of illusion. Penn has never been shy about his disbelief in God, often writing about his conviction in articles and best-selling books. Yet in an on-line video blog that can be found on YouTube, Penn shares a story about the time a gracious Christian businessman gave him a Bible as a gift. Penn goes on to use the story as an opportunity to point out that Christians who don't evangelize must really hate people. Here's the direct quote from his video blog:‘I've always said, you know, that I don't respect people who do not proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, uh, well, it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think that people shouldn't proselytize, [saying] “Just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself”—uh, how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize them? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond the shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming to hit you, and you didn't believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there's a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.’”[1]

Wow! That’s pretty strong language, isn’t it? Keeping life-saving information to myself isn’t very ‘Christian’ behavior. So I’ve blown it on both counts, haven’t I? I didn’t evangelize or witness.

In her book, Evangelism, Ellen White defines evangelism as “opening the Scriptures to others, warning men and women of what is coming upon the world,”[2]

Is there anything in that definition that you and I couldn’t do?  She doesn’t say that evangelism takes any kind of specialized degree; it’s just “opening the Scriptures” to people.  As Penn would say, yanking people out from in front of that truck that we know is coming and they don’t.

Witnessing, on the other hand, is sharing our individual experience with Jesus with whom the individuals we come in contact.

“All who are on the Lord’s side are to confess Christ. ‘Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord.’ The faith of the genuine believer will be made manifest in purity and holiness of character. Faith works by love and purifies the soul, and with faith there will be corresponding obedience, a faithful doing of the words of Christ. Christianity is always intensely practical, adapting itself to all the circumstances of actual life. ‘Ye are My witnesses.’ To whom?—To the world; for you are to bear about with you a holy influence. Christ is to abide in your soul, and you are to talk of Him and make manifest the charms of His character.”[3]   

We, as Christians, have a real problem though. A few folks who have called themselves Christians, have failed to “make manifest the charms of His character.”  And that’s really sad because without positive witnessing, no evangelism can happen.

I ran into that brick wall just recently. A good friend of mine and I were talking about some trivia of the day when a third friend walked up and started kidding about some areas in which his and my Christian community have some internal disagreement. The first friend then went on to remember a negative experience she had had many years ago that led to her rejecting my belief because “those people are crazy; they don’t follow the Bible.”

I have to admit that I was crushed.  I have been praying for almost a year that my witness would help the Holy Spirit to soften her heart once more.

What a set back! Just because my friends earlier relationship with my Christian family was unpleasant, my ability to witness to her is more difficult.

“In an interview with World magazine, author and speaker Mike Bechtle questioned the church's use of what he would call spam evangelism. He believes that when the gospel is shared outside of relationship, unbelievers often put up thicker emotional walls. He shared a personal story from his past to emphasize his point:‘A college classmate decided to walk down Central Avenue in Phoenix at lunchtime and ask women to kiss him. He wanted to see how many people he would have to ask before someone took him up on it. After being repeatedly cursed, ignored, and slapped a couple of times, the 98th woman gave him a kiss. Using the logic of spam evangelism, he might say, ‘It was worth it, because I actually got one person to kiss me.’ I wondered about the other 97 women who might be more hardened than ever, more suspicious, and more wary of men approaching them on the street. In the same way, I think a lot of unbelievers have been hardened by aggressive witnessing techniques.”[4]

Are you and I making it harder for the believers who come after us to witness or evangelize the folks around us because we are not portraying our Savior in a positive and endearing way? Are we leaving all of the sharing to the preachers?

“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.” Matthew  28:18-19

Jesus didn’t say that some of His disciples needed more school; He didn’t say that some had to stand on the sidelines because they didn’t have the right credentials.  Jesus just said, “Go.” And they went.

---

[1] Bill White, Paramount, California

[2] E.G. White, Evangelism, p.17

[3] E.G. White, Messages to Young People, p.200

[4] Marvin Olasky, "Evangelism for Introverts," World magazine (10-07-06

Concept Worship

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson dated 9.10.11

In case you don’t have compound eyes and can’t read today’s title, it’s “Concept Worship.”  Have you ever looked through old copies of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics and noticed the pictures of the concept cars they had?  I can remember seeing lots of them – some were supposed to float, fly, parallel park, all kinds of cool stuff.  But most of them didn’t ever get made.  There is a website I like to visit these days that has all kinds of other “concept” products like cell phones, kitchens, furniture, even concept houses.  They’re fun to look at, a concept product usually looks really amazing, but often isn’t terribly practical or useful. 

I think that sometimes worship can become kind of like that;  we have these great ideas about where and how and when to worship, but they don’t always translate very well into actual, real-world, practical worship.

The Bible story of the woman at the well is a great example of “concept worship.”  Jesus has just told the Samaritan woman all of the things about her life that she’d just as soon nobody talk about and she tries to change the subject by bringing up the running argument about where the appropriate place to worship was.

“‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’”  John 4:19-20

She was probably thinking that if she could get this Jewish Man into a discussion about worship, then she wouldn’t have to worry about what He would say about her life choices.

Jesus wasn’t going to get pulled in, though.  In just a couple of sentences, He let her know that the where was a whole lot less important than the how and the Who.

“‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’”  John 4:21-24

Of course, the next logical question is, what is worshipping “in the Spirit and in the truth”?  and that’s a really good question.

My thinking is that it’s like concept and realization, idea and action, thought and deed, theory and practice, generalities and specifics.  See, it’s easy to talk a good game, but much more difficult to actually live it out.   Talking about general things like “love for our fellow men” or “taking Jesus to the world” is pretty easy.  But, what would either of those things look like?  How would anybody be able to tell if we were actually doing what we were talking about?  That’s much trickier to spell out. 

What tends to happen then is that many Christians end up doing is speaking in clichés that begin to become meaningless even to those of us who use them.  (Now, don’t get excited.  I don’t believe any of us do this maliciously, and it’s certainly not specific to Christians only. Every group of individuals who share common experiences do the same thing.)  The problem is, though, that we want to “spread the gospel,” a difficult thing to do if we are essentially speaking our own personal language.

Another downside is that the more we say these things, the less we think about what we’re actually saying and the more trivial they become, and that doesn’t just shut people out, it damages from within.

“Trivialization in the church, as in society, results in a loss of the ability to think. Christians are lured to view the world as the world views itself--uncritically and without a basis for understanding. Many of us find ourselves ‘getting along by going along.’ And the Christian community slowly, imperceptibly ‘moves two inches a year toward total decline.’”[1]

“We must be aware of trivializing the gospel, of presenting it in a form that compromises the radicality of its message. If someone is used to seeing or hearing ‘Coke adds life,’ he or she will, most likely, understand ‘Christ adds life’ in the same commercial way: Christ is just another consumer item vying for attention. Christ doesn't speak as crucified King, but as a tricky salesman; not as Lord of the universe, but as genius of the slogan.
“The slogan trivializes the message and suffocates understanding. So we must move beyond the slogan to the creed. A slogan-saturated society tempts us to demote the Christian faith to the level of a slogan. When we give in, we freeze our understanding at a commercialized level. We are satisfied with a starvation diet.
“But the truth of God is rich and full; our orthodoxy is full-orbed and comprehensive. We may credally summarize it without suffocating it with the trivial. We cannot bottle up and mechanically dispense the great truths of our Lord, but we can celebrate our doctrinal inheritance with joy.”[2]

It’s so easy to forget how important the message of Jesus Christ, our Creator and Redeemer, really is.

“The gospel is too readily heard and taken for granted, as though it contained no unsettling news and no unwelcome threat. ... It is a truth that has been flattened, trivialized, and rendered inane.”[3]

I know that we need to be careful to not lean on our emotions to confirm our salvation, but wouldn’t it be tragic if we started sounding like Spock from Star Trek?  “Righteousness by faith is the only logical way to proceed, Mr. Smith.”  (You have to hear Leonard Nimoy in your head for that statement to work.)   I don’t see that being a terribly effective witnessing strategy.  I think the pointy ears would be pretty off-putting as well.

Really, though, when was the last time my interaction with Jesus moved me?  When did the knowledge of His love for me take my breath away?  When has my heart broken because of what I cost the Creator of the Universe?

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.  For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.”  John 3:16-17 The Amplified Bible

What a concept…

---

[1] Don McCory in Eternity, (Oct. 1986). Christianity Today, Vol. 31, no. 2.

[2] Douglas Groothuis, "Creeds, Slogans, and Full-orbed Orthodoxy" (Radix, Fall 1985). Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 8.

[3] Walter Brueggemann in Finally Comes the Prophet. Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 9.