There was once a good, church going barber. His minister gave a rousing sermon on Evangelism and sharing the faith. The barber was so moved that he signed up for a special soul winner’s class. He spent weeks in that class. There he memorized scriptures and took notes and practiced drawing diagrams that would help him share his faith.
The day finally came. The barber prayed that God would bring someone to his barber shop who needed to hear his well rehearsed story of salvation.
As he finished his prayer a big burly biker, covered in tattoos and wearing leather and chains came into the shop. The biker announced that he had lost a bet and as a result he now wanted the barber to shave off his beard.
The barber knew this was an answer to prayer, but he was more than a little nervous about what might happen. How would the biker take it? Would he listen? Would he get angry? The barber kept thinking about what to say as he covered the biker’s beard with lather.
Then, as he the barber was sharpening his razor on his strop, he finally worked up the courage. With the razor in his hand he nervously blurted out, “Sir, are you prepared to die?”
This is the tenth and last sermon in our series on “Building God’s Church” which has been based on Bob Russell’s book “When God Builds a Church.” I think that this series has provided us with a number of important things to consider as the church seeks a new minister. I’ve enjoyed doing the series, though I admit that I’m ready for it to be over.
This week’s topic is evangelism. Bob Russell’s church has the same roots as ours, but our two groups have gone in separate directions. When I started this series, I mentioned that there would be two areas where those differences would really show up. The first was in the area of what constitutes truth and how we respond to different ideas and perspectives. The second issue where our denomination is different than his is in our understanding of evangelism.
As I said, we come from exactly the same roots. One hundred and seventy years ago, when this congregation was begun, we were one group. Back then, we were very evangelistic. In fact, we were so evangelistic that we were more likely to refer to our professional clergy as evangelists than as pastors. Yet, over the years, our groups have diverged and many in our midst hear words like evangelical and evangelistic as negative terms. What changed? And more importantly, what should our view of evangelism be?
Part of the problem is simply embarrassment over clumsy attempts at sharing the gospel. We all have images of turn-or-burn evangelists and hellfire and damnation preachers who seem more intent on collecting scalps than saving souls. Bad evangelism has turned us away from any sort of evangelism at all. In reality, Evangelism should be more like “one beggar telling another where he found bread.” In a few minutes I’ll talk for a bit about how people share their faith more effectively.
I think that the most basic reason why we don’t share our faith more often is that too many of us simply do not believe that there is any real reason why we must share our faith. I would guess that most mainline Protestants, including most members of our own denomination, either do not believe in hell or do not believe that faith in Jesus the Christ is necessary for salvation.
I need to confess that I was tempted to skirt this issue or to find an easy way out. I could make a case, actually a very good case, that people in our society need Christ just for the change that a belief in Christ offers in their every day lives. People in our society are so estranged, so hurting, and so adrift without a rudder that a belief in Christ brings tremendous benefits for the here and now.
Consider this actual quote from the advice columnist Anne Landers:
I’ve learned plenty, including most importantly what Leo Rostea had in mind when he said, “Each of us is a little lonely, deep inside and longs to be understood.”
I have learned how it is with the stumbling tortured people in this world who have nobody to talk to. The fact that the column has been so successful underscores, for me at least, the central tragedy of our society. The disconnectedness, the insecurity, the fear - that bedevils, cripples, and paralyses so many of us. I have learned that financial success, academic achievement, and social or political status open no doors to peace of mind or inner security. We are all wanderers, like sheep, on this planet
In a world like that, just talking about Christ’s love can bring profound changes. After all, didn’t Jesus say “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
I was raised in a mainline protestant church just like most of you were. We talked much about God’s love and almost never about God’s judgment. When we talked about an afterlife, which was not very often, we talked about eternal communion with God. We never talked about punishment.
In a way, I think I’ve had to face more of a challenge than most. I have a college education that included a substantial amount of philosophy and a seminary education that focused on the background of various religious ideas. My philosophy classes taught me that all discussions of an afterlife necessarily rely heavily on metaphors and images. There is no frame of reference for an objective discussion of heaven. My religious backgrounds classes taught me that our ideas of a devil come mostly from Milton’s Paradise Lost and our image of the hell comes mostly from Dante’s Inferno. Even the New Testament’s images of the conflict of good and evil are said to be more closely related to the teachings of Persian Zoroastrianism than from the Judaism of the Old Testament.
It is tempting to say that a good and merciful God would never consign a person to Hell. It would be wonderful to say that every ending is a happy ending and that we all live happily in the ever after. And I wonder. Do I want to say that because it better fits my conception of God, or do I want to say that because it gets me off the hook? If there really are no eternal consequences to what we do, than I don’t have to risk myself to share Christ’s message. I’d like to say that there really is no hell, but I can’t. Because I accept the New Testament as my standard of truth, I have to say that it simply isn’t so. And the example of the early leaders of the faith is that they gave their lives on earth to share a hope for eternity with others. They certainly believed it. There is a heaven and a hell.
Given that all discussions of hell are metaphorical, is there a modern image of hell that makes sense to us today. I can only say that there is an image that has helped me. It came from an almost unimpeachable source. It came from TV, specifically The Twilight Zone. I always get my best theology from 1960s TV. There was a story about a gambling addict, a person who lived for the thrill of the casino, who died. He found him in the afterlife of his dreams. He existed in a grand casino where every bet he made was a winner. He had all he wanted of the finest accommodations, the finest food, the finest drink, and the finest women. It was everything that he hoped that paradise would be. As time passed, it turned out that there was a problem. Is it exciting to pull the handle on a slot machine if every pull is a winner? Is it fun to play poker if every deal gives you a straight flush? Before long, he grew bored and the boredom became intolerable. Finally he approached the angel in charge and told him that he could not possibly spend eternity this way. If this was heaven, he wanted to be transferred to hell. The angel told him, “That is where you are.”
Maybe there are some who are so horrible that justice demands that hell must include punishment. Maybe that is what is right for Hitler or Ben Laden. But for most, I find the idea behind this Twilight Zone episode to be profound. We are given a choice. We select that which will be our highest value. Some select poorly, choosing wealth, prestige, or satisfaction of their appetites. Others choose wisely and select faith in God as their highest value. What if in an afterlife we get what we most desired in life. Those who chose things of eternal value, find themselves in a life of bliss. Those who chose to place something else above God simply get what they chose. The anguish comes from the recognition that they chose poorly. Our job is to help folks make the right choices.
The other problem is the widespread belief that heaven is a reward for a good life.
Barna Research conducted a survey and got this result (1999).
According to the survey, 52% of Americans believe that all good people will go to heaven. Half of all adults (51%) believe that if a person is generally good, or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in Heaven.
Even among those who say that they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ:
• 63% believe that they will go to Heaven when they die because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their savior.
• 11% believe that they will go to heaven because basically they are a good person.
• 10% do not know what will happen to them after they die.
• 7% believe that they will go to Heaven because God loves all people and will not let them perish.
• 5% believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they have tried to obey the 10 commandments.
• 2% believe that when they die they will not go to Heaven.
So how should we measure goodness?
There is a story of a little boy who told his mother he had determined that he was six feet tall. When she asked how he had arrived at this conclusion, he told her he had used his shoe to measure and that he was six shoes tall. With a loving smile she sweetly told him that his shoe was not twelve inches long. He insisted, "But, Mom, it’s got to be ’cause my foot’s in it!" What was wrong with his conclusion? He was unaware of the true standard of determining length. He knew nothing of uniform standards of weight and measurement. He was sincere, but mistaken. His conclusion was innocent and makes us laugh, but often a false standard can mislead us. Our conduct is judged by God’s standard. By that standard, even the best of us fall far short.
So many people miss the basic message of Christianity. Heaven is never earned. It is always a gift. It is never our merit. Again I say, it is always God’s gift.
The message of the evangelist is that the struggle to be good enough is over. The gift of God is offered to all.
There was a young salesman who was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he lamented, "I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink." The manager replied, "Son, take my advice: your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty." So it is with evangelism. Our task is not to make people drink. It is to live a life and tell a story that fills them with thirst.
Listen to this parable. Now it came to pass that a group existed who called themselves fishermen. And lo, there were many fish in the waters all around. In fact the whole area was surrounded by streams and lakes filled with fish. And the fish were hungry. Week after week, month after month, and year after year, these, who called themselves fishermen, met in meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might go about fishing. Year after year they carefully defined what fishing means, defended fishing as an occupation, and declared that fishing is always to be a primary task of a fisherman. Continually they searched for new and better methods of fishing and for new and better definitions of fishing. These fishermen built a large, beautiful building called "The Fishing Station." The plea was that everyone should be a fisherman and every fisherman should fish. One thing they didn’t do, however, they didn’t fish. After one stirring meeting in the Fishing Station on "The Necessity of Fishing," one young fellow left the meeting and went fishing. The next day he reported he had caught two outstanding fish. He was honored for his excellent catch and scheduled to visit all the big meetings possible to tell how he did it. So he quit fishing in order to have time to tell about the experience to other fishermen. Imagine how hurt some were when one day a person suggested that those who don’t catch fish were really not fishermen, no matter how much they claimed to be. Yet it did sound correct. Is a person a fisherman if year after year he never catches a fish? Is one following if he isn’t fishing?
So it is time to start fishing. How are we going to do it? Again, Barna Research provides something of an answer. They asked Christians who said that they had shared their faith with someone in the last year what they had done.
[Barna 2005 – People how share their faith How they do it. ]
The Barna survey explored nine specific approaches to sharing faith in Christ with non-believers. The most prolific method was to “offer to pray with a non-Christian who was in need of encouragement or support.” Eight out of ten (78%) said they had done so in the past year. Nearly as common was an approach widely known as “lifestyle evangelism,” which was described in the survey as living in ways that would impress non-Christians and cause them to raise questions about that lifestyle. Three out of every four (74%) used this means of outreach.
Another popular approach was to “start a discussion with a non-Christian in which you intentionally asked what they believe concerning a particular moral or spiritual matter, and continued to ask questions about their views without telling them they are wrong, but continuing to nicely challenge them to explain their thinking and its implications.” Known as “Socratic evangelism” because of its dialogical nature, seven out of ten believers (69%) said they had engaged in this approach.
About half of all believers utilized each of three alternative means of outreach. Among them was a form of moral confrontation (i.e., to “tell a non-Christian a specific behavior was inappropriate and then describe the biblical basis for your view and an alternative approach”). This moral confrontation approach had been used by 50% during the prior year. The other means were event-oriented strategies: bringing a non-Christian friend to a church service (49%) or bringing them to an outreach event (45%).
The least widely used methods were giving evangelistic literature to people (undertaken by 35%); sending evangelistic letters or e-mails to non-Christian acquaintances (21%); and preaching on the street or in other public places (11%).
If we actually have the courage to share our faith, will people be receptive? Isn’t it social suicide to talk about politics and religion?
Discussing religion or politics is no longer considered taboo in our society, according to another Barna survey. The seven most talked about topics (by American adults) in a typical week are: 66% talked about the content of movies or TV programs, 57% discussed money, 55% focused on sports, 51% addressed politics, 50% chatted about parenting, 49% evaluated moral issues or situations, and, 42% reflected on spiritual issues and beliefs. (Barna 6/9/03)
The simple truth is that no American generation has had a greater need to hear the gospel than ours. While “Every generation needs regeneration” (Charles H. Spurgeon), as Howard Hendricks once said, “In the midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering.”
With so many Christians no longer believing that there are eternal consequences to unbelief, we have given ourselves an excuse, but it is an excuse that puts our family, friends, and neighbors at risk.
It is not that “the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." (GK Chesterton)
During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, there was a shortage of currency in the British Empire. Representatives carefully searched the nation in hopes of finding silver to meet the emergency. After one month, the committee returned with its report. “We have searched the empire in vain seeking to find silver. To our dismay, we found none anywhere except in the cathedrals where the statures of the saints are made of choice silver.’
To this, Oliver Cromwell eloquently answered, “Let’s melt down the saints and put them into circulation.”
It is time for us, the saints of the present age to be put into circulation. It is time for us to catch fire. It is time for us to leave our pedestals in the sanctuary and to get out there and change the world. We need to be the salt of the eart
