Give 'em the Word

Okay, not a normal title and on this blog will gather attention. Read on.

I begin with the unwavering statement "Jesus saves" and it is by, through Him that we are saved. Jesus is Lord and people must not merely hear, but understand Him - and His call, invitation and exhortation to us.... it has been lost in the past 70 years and that is sad. While most people in the West (Europe, North America and The Antipathies) know the information that we hold to Jesus dying for our sins and rising from the dead, this message, who Jesus is, has been lost in the white noise; some of which we contributed to, some of which is spiritually accredited, some of which is sadly mistaken.

The issue is that we, His people must "be" His people with our entire being. What we do is often attacked, derided, dismissed, misunderstood by many as a softening of the message of Christ - the "Word" not being given to them. We are accused of not telling "them" and hoping that friendship evangelism will work - they believe it will not.

Before I tackle evangelistic methodology, let me start with our conviction about what it is to be a Christ follower. Somehow we've morphed what a Christian is/does.... We've reduced it to sin management, works for eternal retirement, and evangelism (a.k.a., e.g. telling people the "Word").

For us, the "friendship in loving with deeds, sacrifice, acceptance, safety, benevolence, etc" is first and foremost irrelevant to evangelism. If there were NO lost people [those who do not believe, adhere, follow Christ] around, it makes no difference... Because we believe the "Word", we live this way. The Scriptures are full up with directive on imitating Jesus and internally in our essence having the same character as Christ. For example, Isaiah 58 and Philippians 2.5-11 are both great examples from both the Old and New portions. To be real Jesus followers - we must reflect Christ in how we live in the most mundane and practical means. Whether it be your barista, postal carrier, spouse, boss, employee, neighbor, friends - we should reek with the fragrance of Christ in how we think, respond (I don't do this well all the time), intend, serve, spend, act, feel. Our speech must be seasoned, our action like salt, our choices like lights in the dark. Our values are seen brightly and must reflect the heart of God.

Now to evangelistic methodology... While I agree with sharing the "great news" of Christ - that the Living God is involved and reaching for us - longing to restore the relationship we once knew; there is something we have to wrestle with: We are not in a pre-Christian context. In a pre-Christian context, there is no cultural, religious baggage.... We can "tell" them the good news and there is often great response.

On the contrary, we live in a post-Christian context.... We have a lot of religious and cultural baggage. We are often seen, right or wrong, as one of the main culprits of most of the social ills of the world. We have some healing to do. We have enough baggage to break a stock broker at an airline check in counter! And in our global world with the religious tensions of today, our nation's waging of the present war, we - right or wrong - are creating baggage with a great portion of the pre-Christian world; thus making this evangelistic conversation relevant to all.

Therefore, being good missiologists, we have some work to do. BUT, if we radically are His people, they will taste and see that He is good - simply because we strive to be like Him in the deepest intimate parts of who we are and it overflows into the simplest of our behaviors. When they taste Him, they will ask. The imitation of Christ is the focus of who we are striving to be here in our community. We want to relate with Him - that happens at the deepest level as we strive to be like Him; we understand, align how we live life closer to His and hence, we understand Him more.

The bi-product of imitating Christ is evangelism. The bi-product is that our unconditional, seemingly lack of agenda, our desire to be humble fellow sojourners, earns us the right to speak. BUT we are conscious that it is not the Words - as if some 'hokus pokus' spell in the words. They are written after all in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek... there is naturally something lost in the word for word translation; the inference, impact, context loses something in the translation: BUT the power of the Word lies in the truth it conveys. The reality of God and His heart, the Missio Dei is powerful!

So for us, we do not ignore or soften the Word. People know the information in the West of Jesus, they have some framework, but they simply are not listening to the words coming from the church (we're on mute). They must experience first hand the sweet taste of life in Christ.

This bi-product of imitating Christ in a holistic consuming way is people who start the conversations with us. Living as a community amplifies what we do, how we do it: they end up begging us for the rest of the story... We then "get to" interpret what they are experiencing and unwrap a more accurate portrayal of Jesus because it is consistent with what they are experiencing first hand through us.

On the contrary, over 50% of churches saw not one person come to know Jesus in 2007. The church in the US has not gained 1% of the ortion of the US population. Those leaving the church are not the youth: they are not coming in to begin with. The losses are people in their 50's. And it isn't Jesus, it's frustration with wheel spinning and no change. Most pastors I know and communicate with are frustrated (I talk to many!) at the lack of impact they are making with leading their churches.

Dinner with the dozens who come - most of whom do not follow Christ...yet. :-)

SIDEBAR:
What confuses me is why we are their target, why we are seen as the enemy. Therefore, allow me clarify how we posture ourselves in regards to the church catholic:
1. We do not see us vs. them.
2. We do not view ourselves as all right, and the conventional traditions of church as all wrong.
3. We could be viewed as the R&D for the church: something is wrong, we're losing ground and need to do something NOW; we're facing new challenges in the 21st century and we need to raise leaders for a new world - for 10 years from now - we need to innovate mission and church for the next century. This is what we do: R&D.
4. The conventional expressions of church target people culturally most like them, what a famous missionary (McGavern) called M0 & M1. [The "M" scale is a M0-M4 scale where the farther from M0 one is culturally - the farther culturally one is from yourself (M0). Yourself is relative. ]

Our concern is that the M0 portion of society compared with the church society is shrinking - the majority of the population is M2-M3 contrasted next to the church. The conventional church focuses on M0, maybe M1: but that is not working (see above on lack of conversions). We are targeting M0 and M1 beyond the church's reach, and M2, M3 (as related to the culture of the church in the West). It is both/and, win-win scenario. We have the same passion and desire.

5. We don't have a missiology of methodology, but a missiology of Christology: be like Jesus, people smell it and are hungry to know.

Adam and a guy he met - late into the night playing guitar together. Adam is one of those people who people "smell the Nazarene" when they are with him.

In a post-Christian world, this is uncompromising... If we are to be like Paul to the Greeks at Mars Hill in Athens, we need to communicate where they are - starting with how they presently see life and the world. In a post-Christian world - we have some junk to off load; this is done through seeing the real deal.

So, friendship evangelism, okay - yes. AND yes, it works. BUT the goal is being like Him and that being is what draws people, not the informational combat to convince them. Making disciples (the process of bringing people into the Kingdom and then the development of them in character and heart as they follow) is the by-product of ourselves being obedient to become like Him in all we do, who we are. Evangelism is the natural result of becoming like Christ. It ain't that complex folks. :-) Being like Jesus in our nature - now that's the hard part.