Called Out In Kansas

I tried to post this by mobile last night, but it didn’t work.  I’ll do it again.

I haven’t had much time to blog lately, and wanted to get one short post in now.  I wanted to link to a post by Norma at “my church journey”.  There’s been discussion about evangelism, and I found Norma’s post (link following) to be a good reminder, that evangelism takes many forms.  For many of you this may be obvious, but for me it was an “a ha” kind of moment.

my church journey: “The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission” (John Dickson) : a review.

Second, I wanted to pose a question.  The question is spurred by my  previous post on evangelism.  In writing the post, I was trying to state what the alternative approach would be if we weren’t going to take the “escape hell” approach.  I was surprised how hard it was for me to identify in concrete thoughts what I would say, and this concerned me.  I have thought much about it since, and am comfortable with what I would say.  The question I pose is “if you are not going to evangelize using the “freedom from hell” message, what message or approach would you use (or do you use)?”  For me to find my answer I really had to evaluate, specifically and in concrete terms, what has Christ done for me?  Or what do I have in Christ that I wouldn’t have otherwise?  Answering this from my old thought processes is impossible, because I see now how much it costs us to follow Christ (everything), whereas before I preached how great life is when you are saved, not comprehending the selfless nature of a walk with God.  So, I wanted to get everyone’s feedback on this issue.  Again, this may be basic for all of you, but to me it seemed a relevant conversation.

So I was working in the ER last night, and a young gentleman in his 20’s came in with abdominal pain.  We took care of his medical issue, and just before being discharged he says the following to the nurse:  “Do you mind if I tell you a short story?”  He then proceeds to witness to this nurse about what God means to him, and how this nurse can have this to.  I didn’t hear everything, but I heard mention of eternity and other traditional Christian verbage .  The nurse politely interacted, and talked about how he has been free from drugs for over 20 years, etc. etc., and the conversation goes on for several more minutes.  After the patient left, the nurse came back to the nurse’s station, shaking his head at the attempt to “convert” him.

Here’s my gripe.  This patient was well-intentioned.  He was polite during his stay, easy to get along with, and it did not surprise me to learn he was a Christian.  Even so, he can testify to this nurse all day long, but it MEANS NOTHING WITHOUT AN ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIP, or at least some kind of connection that would cause this nurse to put stock in what this person said.  In my opinion, this type of “evangelism” is mis-guided on multiple levels.

1.  It is not done within the confines of an established relationship on some level.  It doesn’t matter to the unsaved what “Jesus has done for me” unless the unsaved has a reason to care what Jesus has done for me.

2.  We are not selling a get out of hell free card here.  I am really not interested, personally, in preaching Christ as a way to avoid eternal damnation.  I am much more interested in preaching Christ as the center of my life, the redeemer of my soul, the final sacrifice that makes me right with God, and brings me back into relationship with God.  I would rather testify to how He has changed my life, and how, through giving over my life to Him I am being transformed.  (As I sit here and write this I am amazed that it is difficult for me to describe the alternative that I’d rather testify to, as I thought that would be easy.  I’m not sure what that speaks to.)

3.  I am sure there are times when the Spirit leads us to, out of the blue, share the gospel with an unbeliever.  I don’t think such a witness will be fully random, but rather based on some sort of conversation had between the two people, or even a specific word given by the Lord, to be shared with the unbeliever.  Going back to #1, there just has to be a connection on some level, for the testimony to mean anything to the one being witnessed to.

I really don’t think that the attempt to witness to this individual was of any benefit, and if anything it may have been detrimental.  This nurse does not profess Christ.  He does profess God, and has a very native American flavor to his beliefs, but does not profess Christ.  He needs to see the gospel lived out in a very real way, not presented as a sales pitch, in a contrived manner.

So, I’ve said what I think.  What do you think?