Urban Reformation

Fulfilling the Great Commission…… What does it all mean? Simply put, Christian evangelism is when we share our faith with others. There are a ton of techniques & ways to share Jesus Christ. I heard a sermon recently that said 1 in 40 professing Christians tell someone about Christ. I heard a different person say that if you’re not, or have never shared Christ with anyone by what rights are you calling yourself Christian?

One thing is for sure in our fast paced, fast food society, we often want to get something pre-packaged so that we won’t have to do the work of the preparation. Like fast food, something you find at McDonald’s we have come up with even some incredibly decent & for the most part theologically sound “ways” of packaged evangelism.

Regardless, often those that circulate these methods are whole heartedly sincere, it’s when these methods are passed to the next and then to the next that they often loose the flavor of sincerity. This is not “all” the time there are those who pick up the material and who sincerely use it as a way of beginning to share their faith, and I think in general that’s how these materials are intended to be used.

There are those of us who are now believers who also remember a time b.c. (before conversion) that many of those sincere attempts, and although biblically sound methods, were turnoffs in a sense. They were not always turnoffs because they were the truth of God’s word and I didn’t want to hear the truth, but because the person who was presenting had seemingly cheapened the Gospel to a sales pitch, of a product that they themselves did not seemed convinced about.

Two that come to mind which are theologically on good footing are, “The Way of the Master” and another one called Evangelism Explosion.

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. -1 Timothy 1:5

One thing that you don’t find or at least I can’t find it, is a “canned” methodology of telling others about Christ. Coming from the reformed perspective there never seems to be a “tract” good enough to share Christ with other people. Almost at times that the jewel we have is just so good you might need to go to college to understand how to make it understandable… and the same with the Gospel, at least a six week seminar to get the gist. Someone said in my home recently, it doesn’t have to be that complicated.

I do understand where these ideas come from, we have a lost culture who have no biblical foundational of the truth to rely upon. The residual teachings or righteousness of our past are lost, it’s been washed away by culture and the media. Many say there are those who now have zero biblical foundation, concerning what sin is and why we would need a savior, and there’s truth in this for sure. Other’s say Preaching is the power of God unto salvation and absolutely there is truth in this also. We had a discussion last evening in regards to the church feeding the sheep, and yet people are often unwilling to preach in public without a captive audience there for a purpose, and so I ask myself “why?”

Does not often preaching or a canned presentation seem at least somewhat disingenuous even if it’s not intended to be that way? There is something to, living with a people, and understanding from their perspective. We often send missionaries to live in the country, Hudson Taylor was one of the first to adopt the dress of the Chinese people to demonstrate his sincerity in sharing Christ with them.

I know some will say, to the lost, to those that are not called, it will always seem disingenuous. However can you not tell someone that is really attempting to share with you something that they whole heartedly believe in and those that are doing it because they feel as if they are fulfilling an obligation?

One of the reasons I could never be a salesman is because I find it very difficult to tell people about something I do not believe in with my whole heart. Yet we have taken the “Business” / “Sales” model (methodology) and we’ve incorporated it often into the church were we do not have to take the time in prayer, and preparation to share Christ with lost people. We have systematically for the ease of our life and our comfort removed the hard work of having to memorize, God’s word, share our own story of how we were born again, and we have depersonalized the gospel.

To live among them and to see life from their eyes, to understand what they live through and to listen to their hearts. We would much rather go somewhere else, a missions trip for two weeks, share the gospel, and yet at home remain unmoved to share Christ with those we live around. Might it be that we are too afraid that our lives don’t lend themselves to the power of a changed authenticate Christian life that we profess to live, and those who know us least won’t be able to tell that?

Christian intimacy and sincerity start in the heart of the believer, and if we aren’t hearing and believing, and carrying out the gospel on an every day basis how do we ever expect to see the power of God to transform, and sanctify lives, let alone call someone who is spiritually dead into spiritual life?

Are our mediocre, and apathetic tendencies to not care about God, the attributes or the things of God, or the souls of men; might this have anything to do with our very own Americanized watered down unbelief in Christ?

We have made “doing” for Christ a taboo at times because we don’t want to do it in our own power, so we are paralyzed waiting for the next canned fad to open up a door to do what we should be compelled to do by what Christ did on the cross and how he changed your very own life, bringing you out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light…. but alas our diet of spiritual fast food no longer compels us.

We have thousands of books, millions of websites, but is anyone willing to die for Christ? Do we believe that this life is temporary? That we are sojourners passing from here into eternity? If so why do we spend, myself included so much time building the empire of our homes, and so much time on material things if these things in God’s economy are second to sharing Christ with the lost or laying up treasures in heaven in other ways?

Here in the city people swoop down from big suburban churches, they swoop in and pray and hand out tracts and then go home. I know it’s God that saves, and I trust in His sovereignty, but one things for sure I never read about Paul using a shortcut methodology or suggesting others do so, and more importantly I never question His sincerity in sharing Christ. There is an element that you can see in a man’s eyes, and hear in his voice, when he believes what he’s telling you, and then when a man is compelled to tell you because of the urgency and the truth of it.

When Paul spoke about Jesus Christ, he left little question to his sincerity for the truth of Christ. There is an absolute noticeable difference when men speak with conviction and confidence, and when they sheepishly and without confidence present something out of the can. We eat McDonald’s and think it taste good, when it is really barely meat, and barely food in general. We lack the appetite for the things of Christ because we have been so easily satisfied with that which is from the can, even the can of evangelism. When we do find the appetite for the things of Christ, we are more likely to feast on the meal then to eat the food for energy to put it to practice. We grow larger in knowledge but now even the larger meals don’t compel.

Some of this same concepts I got out of an article I read about ‘Beyond McChurch’ by Philip Lancaster

One other note sincerity for sincerities sake is meaningless, Mormon’s and Jehova’s witness’s are sincere but without the truth they are sincerely lost.

Therefore I urge you to ;

Be sincerely earnest in seeking God, and in doing God’s will and God’s work, and I pray that you are compelled by the Holy Spirit to be genuine in your preaching Christ, I pray that believers, families, and churches would be counter cultural, that we would be the opposite of fast food Christianity.

Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! -1 Corinthians 9:16

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