I have been thinking a lot about the topic of evangelism lately, mostly because I am preparing to teach a series of lessons on it at my church. One of the ideas I am struggling to express has to do with the goal of evangelism, or rather, some things that are NOT the goal of evangelism, but that have been mistakenly stated as goals of evangelism. First among them, in my mind, is the myth that we need to “convert people” in order to increase attendance in our churches, and therefore the contributions given. That’s just plain idolatry. Maybe I’ll write about that some other time.
The issue I’m thinking about right now is that we have acted like the goal of evangelism is to earn favor with God. The myth says that the number of souls we “save” is directly proportional to the quality of our faith. It says, “If you’re a really GOOD Christian, you’ll convert a lot of people.” Further, it says, “If you’re not converting people, you must not be a very good Christian.”
The problem with this kind of thinking is that it assumes we can do anything to earn more favor with God. From what I read in the Bible (without going into a lot of proof-texting here), God doesn’t love any of us better than any others; He loves all persons equally, even those who don’t put their faith in Him. The point of following God isn’t to “get in good” with him, but to be made over into His likeness, through Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and transformation by the Holy Spirit. Being saved isn’t about the process of becoming good enough to get into Heaven, but of becoming like God enough to display His Kingdom here on earth.
Obedience, then, is not what we do to keep God happy. It’s what we do to keep ourselves on track with His transformation of our lives and our characters to match His own. So, evangelism, like anything else we do in His name, doesn’t make us any better; it’s one of the things we do to allow transformation in us. If we hold back from doing anything that pleases God, we hold back some part of our lives that needs His touch to make it more complete. By not obeying, whether it be in evangelism or anything else, we miss out on opportunities to be made better than we are.
Some people are good at evangelism – they’re gifted for it. Others of us, like myself, aren’t particularly gifted for it. That doesn’t excuse us from our need to work at it, to try our best, and to submit our lack of giftedness to God, so that He can work through our weakness to achieve His goals.
When it gets down to it, evangelism isn’t that hard. We just have to let people know that God cares about them, and wants them to be His. What goes on from there is God’s doing. There are things we can do to prepare ourselves to express God’s truths to them. I intend to learn more about those things in the coming months. Maybe I’ll write about them as I learn them.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Rambling thoughs on a Thursday evening
My dad, Garey Castle, is a real smart guy. He is a voracious reader, a great teacher, and very capable at lots of different things. When he graduated from college, he had a degree in math with a minor in physics, and had audited enough classes to have racked up minors in Bible and Music, as well. Of course, it took him ten years to finish, but considering that he got married and had became a father by the age of 22, that's not too surprising. He worked hard to make enough to support his family and finish school, all the while learning as much as he could.
He has never stopped learning, really. Despite having some kind of reading disability (a mild dyslexia, I think), he studied constantly when he was preaching, and even more when he completed his MA in Religion -- when he was in his 40's. I can remember so many times seeing him reading some thick, dusty tome, listening to classical music, looking so much at home and in his element. I learned to love books, myself, growing up in his home.
Dad spent much of his working life as a mathematical engineer/computer programmer/satelite analyst. He also spent a lot of time as a preacher. Even now, retired in San Diego, he studies and teaches at his church. A lot of folks have learned so much about Bible history and church history from my dad.
I learned a lot about how to teach from watching Dad. He always seems to be at ease when he's teaching, and it seems to come from a strong knowledge of his subject and a respect for the people he's teaching. (Obviously, some students are easier to respect than others!) When people ask questions he didn't know the answer to, he's not afraid to say that he doesn't know; he can usually point them in the right direction for answers, anyway, and usually from a book he's got in his own respectable library.
(Mom's no slouch as a teacher, either, but I'm talking about Dad right now!)
Dad recently wrote an article for his church's bulletin about giving. Briefly reviewing the way that people gave to God in the Old Testament, he makes the statement, "It seems that the average Israelite family was commanded to give somewhere between 35% and 50% to the Lord on an ongoing basis." Beyond the "tithe" that so many evangelical Christians pound on, there were other regular offerings required under the Law of Moses. The sum total of it boggles the mind for we 21st-century Americans... until, maybe, we total up how much we pay in various taxes.
Dad's article goes on to talk about the expectation that we Christians will give to God's work today. The institution of the church, for all of its flaws and weaknesses, is the primary channel for giving for us. I firmly believe that it is vital that I and my family give to our church -- and not only for the sake of the church's finances, either. We give because... because we have been given a LOT! Our giving to our church, though, is not the sum total of what is modeled for us in the New Testament. Our example is Jesus, who gave up everything. That's more than challenging, it's brutally difficult for us in our culture. We are trying to learn what it means to live in surrender, but it's easy to lose track of that when we're trying to plan for our future. We'll probably never get it down perfectly. Thank God for his infinite grace!
When it gets down to it, I learned about giving the same way I learned about teaching -- by watching my parents. For my parents, giving is just part of living for God. We were never rich growing up, and sometimes things were really tight; but if someone needed something, my parents were never afraid to give to a need, even if it meant going without for a while. As a kid, that was dreadfully inconvenient for me, but I guess the message got through.
What does all this have to do with the price of papayas in Peoria? I don't know. I'm trying to understand how I can give more of myself to God's service. By "give," I don't just mean money. I mean of my time and my talents. Are there people around me who could benefit from something I have to give? I'm sure there are, but I'm trying to figure out how to connect and find a place to serve.
I don't know how I'll make time for that. Someone told me recently, though, that when you are put into a situation where you have to take care of someone else's needs, you learn a lot about slowing down, and removing yourself from all the busyness we usually find ourselves in. Ironic, isn't it? When you have to drop everything to serve others, you find that everything you've dropped is probably going to be fine without you, and you without it.
Lord, help me figure that one out.
He has never stopped learning, really. Despite having some kind of reading disability (a mild dyslexia, I think), he studied constantly when he was preaching, and even more when he completed his MA in Religion -- when he was in his 40's. I can remember so many times seeing him reading some thick, dusty tome, listening to classical music, looking so much at home and in his element. I learned to love books, myself, growing up in his home.
Dad spent much of his working life as a mathematical engineer/computer programmer/satelite analyst. He also spent a lot of time as a preacher. Even now, retired in San Diego, he studies and teaches at his church. A lot of folks have learned so much about Bible history and church history from my dad.
I learned a lot about how to teach from watching Dad. He always seems to be at ease when he's teaching, and it seems to come from a strong knowledge of his subject and a respect for the people he's teaching. (Obviously, some students are easier to respect than others!) When people ask questions he didn't know the answer to, he's not afraid to say that he doesn't know; he can usually point them in the right direction for answers, anyway, and usually from a book he's got in his own respectable library.
(Mom's no slouch as a teacher, either, but I'm talking about Dad right now!)
Dad recently wrote an article for his church's bulletin about giving. Briefly reviewing the way that people gave to God in the Old Testament, he makes the statement, "It seems that the average Israelite family was commanded to give somewhere between 35% and 50% to the Lord on an ongoing basis." Beyond the "tithe" that so many evangelical Christians pound on, there were other regular offerings required under the Law of Moses. The sum total of it boggles the mind for we 21st-century Americans... until, maybe, we total up how much we pay in various taxes.
Dad's article goes on to talk about the expectation that we Christians will give to God's work today. The institution of the church, for all of its flaws and weaknesses, is the primary channel for giving for us. I firmly believe that it is vital that I and my family give to our church -- and not only for the sake of the church's finances, either. We give because... because we have been given a LOT! Our giving to our church, though, is not the sum total of what is modeled for us in the New Testament. Our example is Jesus, who gave up everything. That's more than challenging, it's brutally difficult for us in our culture. We are trying to learn what it means to live in surrender, but it's easy to lose track of that when we're trying to plan for our future. We'll probably never get it down perfectly. Thank God for his infinite grace!
When it gets down to it, I learned about giving the same way I learned about teaching -- by watching my parents. For my parents, giving is just part of living for God. We were never rich growing up, and sometimes things were really tight; but if someone needed something, my parents were never afraid to give to a need, even if it meant going without for a while. As a kid, that was dreadfully inconvenient for me, but I guess the message got through.
What does all this have to do with the price of papayas in Peoria? I don't know. I'm trying to understand how I can give more of myself to God's service. By "give," I don't just mean money. I mean of my time and my talents. Are there people around me who could benefit from something I have to give? I'm sure there are, but I'm trying to figure out how to connect and find a place to serve.
I don't know how I'll make time for that. Someone told me recently, though, that when you are put into a situation where you have to take care of someone else's needs, you learn a lot about slowing down, and removing yourself from all the busyness we usually find ourselves in. Ironic, isn't it? When you have to drop everything to serve others, you find that everything you've dropped is probably going to be fine without you, and you without it.
Lord, help me figure that one out.
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