Do you know Jesus as your personal savior? If you don’t, won’t you take time to invite him into your life now?
How do you think most people in society would respond to that question? If you’ve been asked it before, you probably didn’t receive it favorably. If you’ve asked the question before, the conversation probably came to a halt shortly thereafter. Do you know why? In a nutshell, it’s because it comes across as if you are either selling something like Amway, or you are being asked to buy into something, such as Amway.
Amway is a huge, global company. Funny thing about it is that it really isn’t about a product. It’s about getting people that will go out and tell others about how lucrative it can be and teaching them how to get others to do the same thing. It’s not the product, but the sales pitch that is king. It all sounds so corny, but there is no mistaking that it has been effective for some people. As successful as Amway has been, there is a huge stigma associated with it. When someone comes up to us and starts to pitch Amway we immediately try to find out if they are Amway salespeople and then do our best to flee the conversation. In the past, Amway representatives have gone to using deceit in order to make their pitches. They won’t outright say it’s Amway they are selling and are evasive in order to get you to take the next step. However, regardless of the tactics, we all have our idea of what Amway is and how it infringes on our time and why we would never be interested in it. Thousands of people make millions of dollars per year promoting Amway, yet we won’t even give it 15 minutes of our time. You know I’m right!
Now, think about how we approach evangelism of our faith. The way we “invite” people into a conversation with an agenda of getting them to make a commitment to seek the Lord. How we put our faith in hoping we can somehow give a polished enough presentation that others will be able to make a commitment to a grandiose god without any substance. We tout him as the answer to everything in a world that isn’t looking. We ask the question hundreds of times hoping that we will be invited to the top producers banquet in heaven someday.
What if you asked someone to accept Christ as Lord and they agreed–dropped to their knees and prayed right on the spot. Success, right? Well, when you present Christ as if you were presenting Amway, it is only temporary success that has no eternal impact. Imagine being the Amway salesperson getting someone else to sign on the dotted line and committing to sell it for you. When they are unsure of what they are doing, lack confidence because they weren’t really given much truth, and get beaten down from rejection, they will stop selling Amway as they no longer see any benefit. In the end, it was just a bunch of hype. We preach salvation so people won’t go to hell, yet when hell is no longer real to them their salvation becomes irrelevant.
Gregory Boyd has a chapter in The Myth Of A Christian Religion titled The REVOLT Against SECULARISM. In it, he describes this style of evangelism as a sales pitch:
We can be saved–which these people think means we won’t go to hell–simply by reciting this magical confession. We’re basically purchasing fire insurance with a magical prayer.
Boyd goes on to explain that Webster’s Dictionary defines a lord as: one who has power and authority over others. Therefore, when someone confesses that Jesus is their Lord, they should be confessing that Jesus has power and authority over them. Boyd claims that if someone confesses Christ as their Lord, yet does not submit to his power and authority, then they are contradicting themselves. He says it’s as if they are saying they are a married bachelor or a round square. Pastor Boyd affirms:
No wonder Jesus asked, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things that I say?”
The simple truth is that when the Bible promises us that if we confess Jesus as Lord we will be saved, it’s not telling us how to get cheap fire insurance by reciting a magical salvation formula. Rather, it’s stipulating what kind of relationship we need to have with Jesus to participate in the healing and wholeness of God’s reign. This relationship, by definition, must be one of submission. We are saved when we authentically surrender our life to Christ, enthroning him as Lord.
Once the confession of Christ as Lord is made, it starts a journey of being in submission to his power and authority. It’s a journey because we have to look at the long-term significance of an eternity with Christ, yet we can only do so one step at a time. Boyd describes it by saying “Our lives are nothing more than a series of present moments strung together. The only thing that is real is now.” How true that is!
How can we profess Christ as the magical answer to the world’s problems if we Christians live our lives filled with problems ourselves? Don’t you know that the world sees us as hypocritical, brainwashed and judgmental people? If we did, why would we live our lives outside of Christ yet feel the need to invite others into a life with Christ?
We must learn that the world around is a secular one. Gregory Boyd explains that the word secular comes from a Latin word saeculum, which means “the present world.” That a secular worldview is one that focuses on the present physical world and ignores or rejects the spiritual realm. If this is truly the world we live in (and it is!) then we must learn how to be more relevant in our actions and words. We must come to understand that it’s not about heaven or hell, but it’s about the beauty of a kingdom that puts other people ahead of ourselves and trusts in a Lord with power and authority. That we can have a relationship with this Lord and be in his presence every second of every day. To know that he is actually calling us on a journey with him in an imperfect world that can be made perfect through his reign. We are to seek first the kingdom of God, not just a desire to be in heaven instead of hell. Just as God wants a relationship with you, he calls us to seek a relationship with others. We should look upon people with love and kindness rather than prospects for a sales pitch. We should seek to explain to them the truth and the daily struggles that go along with our relationship with Christ, rather than churn people out as disciples of a well-orchestrated sales pitch machine.
God is definitely asking us to share his love and describe our life with him to others. He is actively working through you and I in this world so that he may be made known to it. However, please don’t take this to be an agenda. Don’t be cliche. Know that it’s about much more than words…it requires action based on our submission to Christ. We must take the time to listen to his direction, discern what needs to be done, and trust that his power and authority will be made known to those that we come in contact with. God isn’t the CEO of Amway and he shouldn’t be reduced to a sales pitch. Boyd closes the chapter by writing:
As we grow in our capacity to live under the reign of God moment-by-moment, we increasingly manifest the beauty of his ever-present love while revolting against the ugly secularism that afflicts or world.
This is the heart of the Kingdom of God
This is the heart of the revolution we’ve been invited to participate in.
Viva la revolution!
Not Like Me: A Field Guide for Influencing A Diverse World is a reprint of Eric Michael Bryant‘s previous book titled Peppermint-Filled Pinatas. I did not read the first release so I am not sure how it is different, but I do know that in the form of Not Like Me, this book is like gold! There is so much in here to take away and apply that it could easily take me a year (or probably more) to get through all of it. Apparently, I’m not alone as Eric has provided small groups resources and teaching materials from the book’s website: http://notlikeme.org/.
