A few weeks ago my wife and I sat through a 2 hour Timeshare presentation in the hopes of getting a free trip to Hawaii. We went in determined not to sign up for for anything and to get as much free stuff as possible. I personally went in skeptical, feeling sensitive to the different tactics they might use to get us to sign up. We successfully made it through the whole presentation without caving, got tons of free snacks, and got our free trip to Hawaii. In looking back on that experience, we realized that their attempts to sell us on the Timeshare reminded us of ways people try to evangelize. In light of that experience, I came up with a simple rule for my own attempts at evangelism.
Don’t have an agenda.
From the moment we sat down, we knew what their goal was – to get us to purchase a Timeshare. Everything they did was geared towards that end. From the sappy pictures of families having “the time of their life,” to the popping of champagne bottles and loud applause when people signed up for their own timeshare, everything was manufactured to create in us a longing for a vacation rental. And it was really dehumanizing.
Ultimately, I don’t believe these people were truly interested in us as people. Their interest in us was only as potential customers or converts. During our conversation with our sales agent, he kept trying to steer the conversation back towards vacation, sometimes in the most comical ways. I can remember us discussing his former life as a DJ host when he concluded his story by saying, “And that’s why I’ve found vacations to be so important for me in my own life.” No connection. No relevance to the conversation. Just a tagline to remind us what was most important in life.
I can’t help but think of the times in my own life when I’ve been in conversation with a friend or stranger with the goal of trying to convert them. Wherever the conversation went, I would try to bring it back to religion: “Speaking of yard work, it just makes me think about the how the Lord is gardener of my soul.” I am a bit ashamed of myself, as I wasn’t truly concerned about the person in front of me. I wanted to make a convert. And in that, I had dehumanized an image bearer.
Oftentimes, as Christians, it seems we sense this urgency to mention Christ in every situation or else others might never hear the good news of the gospel. The temptation is to then craft situations or conversations with that end in mind, instead of trusting that God actually knows what he’s doing in the lives of each person. I’m reminded of a friend of mine who befriended his local home brewing store owner and trusted that God would open doors to deeper conversations. It took over a year, but one day their conversation meandered towards Jesus and my friend had the opportunity to speak of his hope in Christ. I think he was ultimately able to do this because he treated this person, first and foremost, as a person, not as a potential convert.
Sometimes I get frustrated with evangelical Christianity’s attempts at communicating the new creation bursting forth through Jesus Christ. It’s like we don’t actually believe the gospel is able to save on it’s own power. It’s as if God did a good thing to start with, but he’s not too familiar with a postmodern mindset so he needs our help spicing the gospel up just a little bit more. So we provide incentives for people to come to church (like gift cards or gift baskets) and we make sure our church services are flashy and entertaining, and we ensure our gospel presentations are emotionally charged, persuasive and powerful, all the while eschewing Paul’s decision to preach Christ crucified in weakness. That may have worked for Paul but it wouldn’t work in our day and age.
I’m not saying that we should stop hoping that people will come to Christ. God has proclaimed that the end or goal of creation is that every knee will bow and every tongue confess, that the new creation will be consummated as heaven and earth reunite. But let’s start trusting God’s going to make it happen, not us. In the meantime, we can trust his work at all moments and treat people like God treats them – as image-bearers created with dignity and worthy of being treated as such.
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