Red Like Tango

Tag: Church

  • Questions About “Relational Evangelism”

    I’m worried that all of my thinking about “relational evangelism” or “ministering to the post-modern man” is really just a cover up for not wanting to share the Gospel. I’m afraid that underneath it is a sneaky seed of wanting to be cool, wanting not to offend – basically being ashamed.

    Yeah, I suppose there are cases in which it is necessary to build trust. But if we are trustworthy people, won’t those in our vicinity see it? If we aren’t seen to be gossips, if we are joyfully hard-working, if we are good bosses – isn’t that the stuff of trustworthiness?

    Are you sure that you’re being guided by the Spirit in the putting off of the sharing of the Gospel – and I mean directly, like, “You’re a sinner and God’s angry about it, but good news! He showed up on Earth and took care of the consequences himself and now we can be saved from his wrath!” – or is it more that it just doesn’t feel “natural”?

    Bad news: I’m a missionary and it still doesn’t feel natural. Perhaps this means I don’t have the gift of evangelism, but I’m still called to evangelise. You are, too, Christian. And don’t quote St. Francis of Assisi to me – you know, that share the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words quote – because St. Francis of Assisi did an awful lot of sharing of the Gospel with words. Have you?

    Here’s the major danger I see: that this methodology of relationship-building-toward-the-end-of-evangelism turns into a Spirit-less (and thus self-righteous or human-powered) one. Are we walking in the Spirit? Asking for his guidance (please God! people are DYING!)?

    Hey, and I’m a big fat hypocrite in all this, just so you know. We’re in this together. I’ve just been really affected recently by the sight of some of my friends here in Spain just outright sharing the Gospel. Take my friend Joel, for instance: He loves to talk, he’s very philosophical, but as soon as he reaches the point in a conversation with someone new in which he figures out they aren’t a Christian, he starts preachin’ to ’em. (Notice I didn’t say “at ’em.”) He starts giving them the Good News! It’s been so refreshing to watch.

    Well, and I’m tired of watching. Who’s with me?

    (NOTE: I’m willing to believe that not every “relational evangelist” is falling into the same trap that I did/do. I also don’t believe we leave it at “saving souls” – that is, the call is to “make disciples”, not leave ’em high and dry once they’ve prayed a prayer.)

  • This Present Darkness

    I have this drive to make sure you know you’re not alone. By “you,” I mean two groups of people: those who believe what I believe and those who don’t. We Christians have a hard time expressing our feelings because we’re afraid of what it would look like if everything was out in the open, if people really knew about the dark shit that goes through our heads from time to time, or our messed up family life, or what we said at work the other day. Because we have a hard time expressing this, we alienate people, oftentimes seriously hurting them in the process. I mean, it’s not like the rest of the world can’t see straight through us. I wish we could quit pretending.

    So I get on here and I write about the dark shit that goes through my head because I want my fellow believers to know it’s ok. You’re not alone. I’m going through it, the people who stand next to you in church are going through it, David went through it (a bunch of his psalms are full of despair and fear and are right next to the ones that praise God for his never-ending love), all of the forefathers of our faith went through it (none of whom had what would even remotely resemble a healthy family life), and God still had mercy. He still loved them and worked through them and stuck with them. He just wants us to be honest, I think. Well, that’s part of what he wants.

    And I get on here and I write about what I’m going through because I want the people who don’t believe what I believe to know that I’m a real person. Sometimes people who aren’t Christians hear that I’m a Christian and they automatically assume a whole lot, like for instance that my life is about a bunch of rules and that I’m in league with the kind of people who show up at funerals for fallen soldiers holding picket signs full of hate. And so the same people who complain about how Christians label and judge them label and judge me.

    But I get it. The Church is messed up. In fact, sometimes I wish I could apologize to the world at large for the way that my Family fails. The Founder of our faith spent a lot of time telling us to take care of the poor and the widow and the orphan and we treat it like an option. The prophets before him warned of God’s judgment on nations who forsook justice and mercy and who instead participated in oppression, and on Sunday morning a lot of us end up hearing sermons that keep us comfortable in our opulence, sacrifice being reduced to giving up chocolate for Lent.

    But I still believe in my Family. I still believe in the Church. I love her like crazy and I want to keep at it, to keep struggling with her.

    Anyway.