Thirteen and a few Other Odd Ways to be a Fanatical Religious Hypocrite

Sep 14, 2010

Posted by Pastor Todd Murphy in Theology | Comments (26)

1. Go to Church and do Churchy things for what it does for you rather than what you do for others

2. Talk about God using affected Christianese like "praise the Lord" all the time while purposely keeping your relationships with unchurched people as surface and invulnerable as conceivably possible

3. Act like that since you are a Christian that you think you have all the answers

4. Make sure that your primary emphasis is on being a moral person who is a "testimony" (testimony means that you live in a way the make unchurched people feel ashamed of themselves and think you are really unique and super-moral)

5. Make sure your second priority is to "convict" other people to be more moral

6. Don't show up to serve at any kind of social service project where "unbelievers" are there helping out

7. Do show up at all political, anti-gay, anti-abortion rallys wearing a sandwich board sign that says something like "turn or burn" and be sure your wife is wearing a doyle on her head to look more godly

8. Do go do street preaching downtown or in the arts district so you can be sure to ruin people's date nights everywhere (including the date nights of real Christians)

9. Do always carry a pack of vintage "This was your life" Chick tracts

10. Never enter into a truly quality relationship with anyone who might potentially expose your deep moral and spiritual dysfunction

11. Do refer to the Roman Catholic Church as the "whore of Babylon" because you are sure that is what the King James version means in the book of Revelation and remain oblivious to the fact that you only have a bible because of the Catholic Church.

12. Be sure to shun other churches and Christians who don't think the same as you theologically and politically

13. Be sure to turn red and slobber on people's faces when you scream at them

14. Build a web-site to share all your views plus animated links to your multilevel home business opportunity

15. Be sure that you have an Elijah complex that you are one of the last godly people in the world and make sure your prayers are always focused on the sins of other Christians and the unchurched culture so that you remain oblivious to your own.

16. Stay far away from real Christian community that might expose your deep brokenness and hypocrisy and maintain the posture that you need to keep yourself pure by not worshipping with all the apostate Christian churches

17. Read the Left Behind series and tell people that the locusts in the book of Revelation are definitely black helicopters owned by the international bankers

18. Be sure to thank God that you are not like other people.

You're more influential than you think. Enjoyed this? Pass it on!

Posted by Pastor Todd Murphy in Theology | Comments (26)

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/14 at 01:54 PM

Wow. There is so much satire it hurts, but in a good way. Im pretty sure I identify with the majority of them.

Wanna start a contest of who has the most? lol

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/14 at 02:59 PM

This made me laugh out loud. Then I cried, realizing it is by biography.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/14 at 05:08 PM

Luke 18

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed [1] thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but l beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/14 at 06:18 PM

Fanatical AND erroneous. Our Bible or at least mine did not come from the catholic church. Research how the Bible was passed around in pieces in the underground churches by Bible believing Christians who were persecuted by Catholics and Protestants. And we are not in church to please others or ourselves. It is commanded we worship God on the Sabbath. We are there for HIM alone. Less about us and more about Him.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/14 at 09:36 PM

Barbara, I kindly disagree that attending church is for God and not for us.

I worship God not because I’m commanded to, but out of the overflow of love and joy that He has given me through his Holy Spirit. I love God and display that love not because he tells me to, but because He loved me first, so I’m compelled.

To me, church gatherings are a time for me to be encouraged by my community of believers and a time for me to serve others in the body of Christ. Yes, I worship God there, but my worship extends far beyond the church walls. I don’t go to church to please God, but to become more like Him.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/14 at 10:20 PM

@Todd great post!

@Barbara, I’m curious as to your definition of “fanatical”...

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/15 at 12:28 PM

10. Never enter into a truly quality relationship with anyone who might potentially expose your deep moral and spiritual dysfunction.

I’ve had Personal experience with this in a place where Leaders were a head taller than the rest no matter how they behaved or attitudes they bore. There was a near ‘genuflect before you enter’ feel to them. I"m Thanking God that I was shunned and not embraced. This list saddens me deeply since in one form or another it is so much a part of the most well intentioned of evangelical churches. Now my temptation is toward #18; toward ‘them’ so my discipline in humility or my repentance from this pride, is to realize that it is by God’s grace that I have even the smallest understanding of my own tendency toward huge areas of spiritual pride… His grace, not my goodness. I can not impress him…I can only be impressed by Him!! and that is my act of worship!! to be amazed!!!

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/15 at 04:50 PM

Barbara,

Thanks so much for participating. We welcome differences of opinions. I understand how my statement may need some clarification. Catholic does refer to the only church there was for the first 1500 years of the common era. It did split into Eastern Catholicism (Byzantine Orthodoxy) and Western Catholicism (Roman Catholic). The Protestant Reformation was the first manifestation of any other catholic traditions from which all other Christian groups and various evangelicals sprang from.

The Western tradition preserved the Bible in the old Latin Vulgate translated directly from the Greek and Hebrew by the Church Father Jerome in the 4th century. Jerome interestingly learned Hebrew from the 4th century Rabbinic community (Masoretes) who preserved the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible (and added its vowel pointing) The Eastern Orthodox tradition always used the Greek text of the New Testament and the original Septuagint which was the standard Greek translation of the OT used in Judaism at the time of Christ. (Most NT OT quotes are directly from the Septuagint and not from the Hebrew by the way.) Modern Bible Translations (starting with the KJV up till now) are rooted in the Greek catholic tradition of manuscripts known as the Byzantine Majority texts (though augmented by Alexandrian texts too).

All that to say that this is not an opinion I am sharing but concrete historical fact that the bibles we have today are the result of stewardship of various forms of the catholic church all the way back to the apostles. I know there are some fundamentalist teachers who contradict this because they cannot swallow the harsh pill of reality that they owe their own knowledge of Jesus to something they hate. But this is usually just a form of self justification. While you are right that the Catholic Church has done some horrible things, that is true of every human group including many fundamentalist evangelicals. Their abusive form of religion has caused many young people to completely abandon the church because the focus has become morality rather than the grace of the Gospel to change us from the inside out. I deal with these recovering Christians all the time in my ministry who at one time abandoned the faith because of austerity and legalism, but still want the real Jesus of the New Testament.

I am not sure where you got your information from about how we got the bible but would like to gently implore you I have heard it before and it is serious misinformation. If you are interested in well researched answers to the formation of the bible and textual criticism you might consult F.F. Bruce’s THE NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENTS: ARE THEY RELIABLE. This is a defense of the reliability of the NT Greek manuscripts while offering a balanced appraisal of how we got them. You might also see Ernest Wurthwein, THE TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. If you have any other questions, I would be happy to offer some more resources.

I do have a question about your statement about worshiping on the Sabbath. Are you Sabbatarian, meaning that you believe in only worshiping on Saturdays as orthodox Judaism? Thanks again for participating! Blessings.

Todd

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/18 at 10:37 PM

Slightly humorous but extremely stereotypical, exaggerated and loaded with trite, elitist buzzwords. It’s akin to the way the liberal news media likes to portray conservative Christians who believe in the constitution, who believe in preparing for what they believe is the coming judgment on this nation, as right-wing, paranoid, gun-toting survivalists and religious fanatics. There is a kernel of truth in all of your points but hypocrisy is something to which none of us are immune. It sounds similar to someone who is waging war on pride only to find out that he is proud of his own humility.

#8. What is wrong with street preaching? It wouldn’t ruin my date.
#9. What is wrong with Chick tracts? “This Was Your Life”, was the first one he wrote and I think it was very good. I used to carry other titles with me that were even better when I was an over-the-road truck driver. Not bragging but I gave out hundreds of them. Does that make me a self-righteous hypocrite? Does fulfilling the command to “go…and preach the gospel to every creature make one a hypocrite? I am getting ready to order some Chick tracts at present.
#11. Whether the Catholic church is the great whore of Revelation remains to be seen and I believe that it is very obvious from the symbolism that it is, but the real issue is, what is wrong with the King James version of the bible? Sure there are mistakes of translation, as in all versions, but at least it doesn’t have hundreds of deleted verses like all versions translated from the Nestle-Aland (Alexandrian) Greek texts of the New Testament. The KJV is the only bible I use and I make no apology. The Old Testament was given to us by the Jews, not the Catholic church. The Byzantine text behind the KJV New Testament wasn’t given to us by the Catholic church. It was given to us by the apostles and disciples of Jesus who were with him while he was here, and by Paul, and was faithfully copied by thousands of ordinary people through the centuries, and sovereignly preserved by God. I don’t care anything about “textual criticism”. I care only about proven history.
#12. Paul said in 1Corinthians 1, to “let there be no divisions among you”. Denomination is just a euphemism for “division”, and all denominations are guilty of the sin of divisiveness, and as such, are carnal. I have separated from all denominations but I still try to “forsake not the assembling of myself with other Christians”, as long as they do not try to force me into their theological mold, nor try to squelch and muzzle me from speaking the word of God. When they do that, I leave. When there is blatant, false doctrine in an assembly we are commanded to leave if they do not repent. Paul said to Timothy, “from such, turn away”, 2 Tim. 3. Also, you can’t separate political views from biblical truth. If an assembly corporately endorses a candidate who believes in perpetuating the “legal” practice of murdering unborn children in their mothers’ wombs, then I will separate from them at light speed, and without apology.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/19 at 03:33 PM

Hi Dennis,

You make some thoughtful points. One thing you might observe is that Todd is not stereotyping “them” but satirically poking fun at all of us. We all have a proclivity to make the gospel into an “us vs. them” contest and nothing enrages God more than our self righteous posing.

The list is meant to be hilarious, not exhaustive or comprehensive. Personally, I believe that one of the most dangerous places to be as a Christian is where we cannot laugh at ourselves and our own self righteous tendencies.

As a shameless plug, I would point you also to my own reflections and an exciting multilevel home business opportunity here:

http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/how-to-love-redemption-vs.-creation/

Thanks for joining the conversation!

grace,
Michael

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/19 at 10:03 PM

Hi Michael,
Thanks for the comment. If the list was accurate it would be funny, but exaggerated untruths about a particular type of behavior which is prejudiced and slanderous is NOT funny to me. Actually, he is stereotyping them because it is directed at those who specifically do those things, which paints an “us vs. them” attitude which sounds just as fanatical, self-righteous and hypocritical as those he is bashing. For example, would you call the prophet Jonah, a rude, obnoxious, street preacher who ruined the date nights of the sophisticated Ninevites, as they strolled through the arts district? It says that he cried to the people of Nineveh, and since there was no electronic media, I would assume that he may have even gotten red faced and slobbered on them in the process, and all at the direct command of God. My point is that I think we need to be very careful what we call sin or hypocrisy or fanaticism.

Hi Barbara,
I totally agree with your view on who gave us the bible. You may find this website very helpful:
http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/sbs777/vital/kjv/index.html

Hi Todd,
Nothing personal, just a polite disagreement. I hate to tell you but you are wrong about the “Old Latin Vulgate”. It was not translated by Jerome. There were two Latin Vulgates. The “Old” was translated from the Majority Text of the N.T. (same as later Byzantine and very close to the Textus Receptus) in 157 A.D. Jerome’s Vulgate was translated from the corrupted Alexandrian texts in 380 A.D. The first was good, the second was bad. The “Old” was used extensively by the early church before the Roman Catholic Church started it’s evil practices. The Majority Text was around from Apostolic times, faithfully copied by true believers, such as the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Celts, the Syrians, etc. and was used in their first translations. So NO, the Roman Catholic Church did NOT give us our bible.

Blessings,
Dennis

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/19 at 10:32 PM

I hear you Dennis. I am very open to the possibility that Todd is a fanatical religious hypocrite. He did, after all, compile a list on how to be one.

I forgot to mention that Todd’s point about the chick tracts was directly aimed at me.
I used to secure them to chinese stars and then fling them at mall walkers.

We call this ninjangelism.

Please admit that was funny.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/20 at 12:00 AM

Yeah Michael, that was funny, but not true. I applaud your ingenuity, though, LOL!

I wasn’t implying that Todd is a fanatical, religious hypocrite, only that they were bad examples. Seriously though, since Todd hasn’t answered my questions yet, what is wrong with giving out Chick tracts and street preaching? Or better yet, what is contrary to the teachings of Jesus, about doing either? Or better yet, do you believe in the great commission?

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/20 at 01:50 AM

Those are great questions. I don’t think there is anything innately wrong with giving out tracts or street preaching, or that either necessarily runs contrary to the teachings of Jesus.

That being said, I think an emphasis on either as a primary tool (not that you’re saying that) for all believers can be a mistake. Both tend to communicate either “yell at the heathen” or “hand them a pamphlet so we can go home and watch the game already” Not always, but generally.

You got me on the great commission, I certainly believe that is important. However, the great commission does call us to make disciples. Tracts and/or street preaching usually angle more for converts. They are poor disciple making tools. Maybe one could argue that they are good “nudgers.” In New England both probably do more damage than good….we don’t like to be nudged.

If God has called someone to use either method the fruit will show and the body of Christ should applaud, well…His hands should.

It all comes down to context and the heart of the believer. God is continually using our meager efforts to advance His Kingdom. All he needs is a person with a humble and willing heart.
Or perhaps a donkey unwilling to be slaughtered by an angel with a flaming sword.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/20 at 02:18 AM

One of the biggest problems is what these practices communicate to the believer practicing them.

Very often the person turns into number 15….the Elijah Special.

“Yea, ahh gimme “the Elijah special with a side of sandwich board and a diet coke” :

15) Be sure that you have an Elijah complex that you are one of the last godly people in the world and make sure your prayers are always focused on the sins of other Christians and the unchurched culture so that you remain oblivious to your own.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/20 at 03:18 PM

Textual Criticism:

Dennis. Thanks for your thoughts on textual criticism. It is not a good idea to get biblical studies information from the internet in general because it can be very biased (like this guy) and not look at things objectively, but overall it is not bad, and in the end, he provides a great deal of good information that actually proves my point.

I am not sure if you are aware that there was only one denomination of Christians until the first major split in 1054 known as the Great Schism which was between the bishops of Rome and Consantinople. The Byzatine majority text, (which I am very sympathetic towards Dennis) was copied and preserved predominately by the Byzantine Catholic church now known as the Eastern Orthodox Church. If you throw out the legitimacy of catholic orthodox Christianity up to 1054, you are going to have to throw out its majority text and your beloved TR with it my friend. My question is how much of this web-site did you actually read? This following quote proves my point!

“First of all, the Textus Receptus was the Bible of early Eastern Christianity. Later it was adopted as the official text of the Greek Catholic Church. There were local reasons which contributed to this result. But, probably, far greater reasons will be found in the fact that the Received Text had authority enough to become, either in itself or by its translation, the Bible of the great Syrian Church; of the Waldensian Church of northern Italy; of the Gallic Church in southern France; and of the Celtic Church in Scotland and Ireland; as well as the official Bible of the Greek Catholic Church.”

Here your author refers to “The Greek Catholic Church” and then goes on to refer to the Syrian Church (catholic), the Gallic Church (catholic) and the Celtic Church of Scotland and Ireland planted by St. Patrick who was a Roman Catholic!

I am also aware of the two versions of the the Latin Bible, but the term “Latin Vulgate” is Jerome’s translation and the other you refer to emerging in the middle of the second century is normally referred to as the “Old Latin” version. Unfortunately unlike Jerome’s translation, the Old Latin version of the Old Testament was translated from the Septuagint, the popular Greek translation used in Hellenistic Judaism and Christianity, which has serious departures from the Masoretic text. As I mentioned to Barb, Jerome, (out of care and fidelity to the word of God) traveled to Palestine and learned Hebrew to translate his version directly from the Hebrew of the Masoretic Tradition. Our modern OT translations are based on the Leningrad Codex (around 1100) which is in the basis for the modern MT (there is a proto-masoretic tradition found at Qumran). Jerome’s is a more accurate translation of the Old Testament. I would also add Dennis that is many statements by the church fathers indicate that there were multiple versions as when Augustine refers to the “Itala” and other ancient Latin versions. There is no singular “Old Latin” version but it was a collection of texts. It appears that Jerome was trying to do in his age what King James was doing in his, standardize one reliable and unified translation of the word of God.

As far as textual criticism goes too Dennis, it is not to hurt the text, but to preserve it. The ancient Jews and early Christians “always” did textual criticism. The motivation for this was meant to preserve the authority and purity of the original texts. The Masoretes had detailed exegetical notes known as masora analyzing the elements of the text including word and letter counts to ensure it was being copied correctly. I think I gave you a copy of my dictionary. There is a good little summary of the Masora and some other helpful definitions you may want to take a look at. And by the way, it does appear that you care very much about textual criticism, which is a good thing.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/20 at 09:41 PM

Michael & Dennis,

I would agree with you to a nominal degree that handing out tracts is not necessarily “wrong” but I would also say it is no way to be really considered a form of obedience to the the great commission. The great commission is to make disciples, not make converts. There is about as much Gospel in a tract as there is in a tree (natural revelation). Jesus becomes a cheap over-the counter pill you can swallow rather than a resurrected lord to submit to. It completely minimizes the expansiveness of the Gospel and grossly degrades it. What we preach is a world-view, not a “plan of salvation,” a nominalistic fire insurance policy as you would find in a Chick tract. What most tracts do is ask someone to make an oversimplified decision based upon a grossly watered down version of the Gospel and then offers a false assurance of salvation with no real calling to the life of discipleship. In the end, this revivalistic gum-ball machine version of the Gospel becomes a form of false pretense where the person thinks they are “saved” because they “prayed a prayer” or “made a decision” not unlike a nominal Catholic or Protestant who think they are going to heaven because they are baptized and confirmed. The call of discipleship is a radical calling to the self-sacrificial life to take up our cross daily as a corporate worshiping body.

Mike you have already heard this one, But I might suggest our Unvangelism series to you Dennis to begin rethinking your conception of discipleship. You won’t find tracts in the bible and actually, you won’t even find “evangelism” in the the bible either. The closest you come to “evangelism” is the word “evangelist” and this really meant a church planting missionary like Paul. The Gospel is always advanced through the covenant community. Where you find God’s covenant people, you find the Gospel. When modern evangelicals speak of “evangelism” they mean a practice distinct from discipleship, but no such compartmentalization exists in Scripture I am afraid. The Gospel is just as much for the Christian as it is for the non-Christian. The same Gospel that saves us, is the same one that sanctifies us. Speaking more personally Dennis, doing Church without constantly calling the Church to repentance is exactly what has lead to the kind of nominal Christianity so rampant today that bothers you so much. It is a failure to evangelize the Church as much as the world. You know what I am talking about. I would encourage you to listen to the whole series, but especially:

http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/making-disciples-proclaiming-and-shaping-a-world-view/

I think you will find it a very healthy challenge to broaden your conception of the Gospel and Discipleship. My blog posts “Lucky Rabbit’s feet Parts 1 & 2” also get into this over simplified form of conversionism that is rampant in modern evangelicalism which is completely contrary to New Testament Spirituality.

http://sjchurch.org/blog/details/lucky-rabbits-feet-part-i/

Blessings

http://sjchurch.org/blog/details/lucky-rabbits-feet-part-ii/

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/20 at 10:01 PM

Michael,
Very judgmental to put all strreet preachers and people who give out tracts in the same category. An extreme case of over generalization. You and Todd both made so many statements claiming to know what I think that you must be able to read my mind. I don’t think I’ve seen such prejudice ever. I’m amazed at how many false assumptions you made about me and the stereotype you fabricate about such people with no concrete evidence, whatsoever. I see no point in continuing to try to reason with either of you. Yeah man, we are all just “Elijah specials”. With one really hip, slang phrase you’ve got us all pegged. Wow man!

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/20 at 10:16 PM

Todd,
Pretty sarcastic to call it “my beloved TR”. I try to avoid that name because it is so trivial compared to all of the other Majority Text manuscripts that preceded it, from which it was edited and printed.

8. Do go do street preaching downtown or in the arts district so you can be sure to ruin people’s date nights everywhere (including the date nights of real Christians).
Does this mean that you are one of the “real Christians”, and those fanatical street preachers and tract givers are not? It sounds to me like you and Michael can 18. Be sure to thank God that you are not like other people ( us fanatical, religious hypocrites who give people tracts, preach on the street, etc., ad nauseum)

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/20 at 10:44 PM

Dennis,

It seems you have taken the original post all to personally and seriously. Satire is a standard form of the Old Testament prophets and Jesus, like when Elijah mocks the prophets of Baal and the book of Jonah caricatures the self-righteousness hypocrisy of Israel typified in Jonah. Most of the things on that list I am guilty of at one time in my life, and so they poke at both me and the church in general. Not anyone in particular and certainly not you. The blog is not for fighting, but for discussion which we are happy to do. You might also listen to my two sermons on “Dysfunctional Evangelism.” Blessings in Christ.

Todd

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/20 at 10:47 PM

Oh & BTW. I apologize for how I worded the TR comment. I can see how you took that as sarcastic. It was unwise of me. It was not intentional.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/21 at 12:06 AM

Hey Dennis,

Some of my comments were admittedly generalizations. If you look back, I admit that in the original posts. You seem to think I am attacking you specifically for some reason. In fact, I’m simply saying we all should avoid self righteousness in whatever way we choose to share the gospel. The Elijah Special comment was meant to carry on the original satirical tone of Todd’s post which, again, is meant to be satirical, not an exhaustive or comprehensive dissertation.

I happen to think the post rings true and is very funny. If you do not, I hold nothing against you for that.

I simply believe that some ways of sharing the gospel are more biblical and effective than others. If my tone was in anyway judgmental or demeaning towards you, I apologize.

grace,
Michael

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/21 at 07:33 AM

I don’t want to speak for Todd, but I agree that street preaching and handing out tracts is not the most effective form of evangelism. I am a Christian myself, and I am uncomfortable with other Christians who I don’t know approaching me and trying to convert me. (I had a really awkward experience with a guy wearing a “The end is near” poster on the subway in Boston.) I believe that God can use us in any way he wants to to influence the lives of his children, but in my experience, he has done so more often through meaningful relationships that I’ve established, and not through random encounters. I agree that the goal is not to get a person to chant a magical prayer of salvation, but to come along side people and help them know God better.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/21 at 10:07 AM

Katherine. You have summarized it so well. I especially love your words “to come along side people and help them to know God better.” It is a picture of journeying together rather than judging, accosting, or making people feel awkward. The Gospel is so big, how much is somebody going to understand from a 5 minute encounter. Getting to know Jesus and the Gospel takes time like courtship. Non of us ask our spouse to marry us on the first date because we would not know each other well enough. Yet in detached forms of evangelism like street preaching and handing out tracts, many do that very thing. Asking a woman to marry you on the first date would cheapen her and so when we ask people to marry Jesus on the first date, we cheapen him. Discipleship is a process, when Jesus says “come learn of me.” Thanks for you insightful comments. What you expressed it exactly what we strive for (albeit imperfectly) at SJC.

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/21 at 06:34 PM

Hi Dennis,
I wanted to take some time and briefly share my story with you. I grew up in a very dysfunctional church that had heavy emphasis on Spiritual gifts, Bible tracts, street preaching and moral goodness. My father served in Gideon’s Army for seven years and as I young boy I would go out on the inner city streets with him while he did his evangelism. As a young boy I had no idea of the ramifications of what my father was doing, good or bad. I just remember a lot of homeless people; angry people and a few that were kind enough to hear my Dad’s over-rehearsed sales pitch. Years pass and now I am a teenager having grown up in Church, Christian schools and never allowed to participate in anything to secular (to protect me? I guess) I start questioning everything. I am a Christian right??? Now I am in my mid-teens, life stricken in sin and feeling really good about it. Life is good, I’ve got the girl, I’m a musician, and I’m pretty popular, parties, the whole enchilada. I am now in a position where I don’t need the Church (I tell myself). I really don’t want the Church at this point because up until this point all the “Church” has given me is a rigid set of impossible rules to follow. The Church had given me all Law and NO GRACE! Do you want to know why this happened to me, why I turned my back on the Church and never put a foot in another until I was 28 years old? I was the righteous guy’s kid who said “The prayer” and was baptized. I was overlooked because I wasn’t viewed as “The lost”. Ultimately, do you know what happened to me? No one discipled me, they converted me and put my spiritual life on auto pilot. I received my Jesus stamp and was all set! They (the church) really could have cared less about me and my eternal destiny and showed me so by their actions. However, it’s not their fault, they did not know better. We practice the Christianity we are converted to. That’s all they new. I have forgiven them.

Now you might ask “Evan, what does this cute little story have anything to do with the topic”. I am glad you asked. When we do street preaching, personal evangelism, bible tracts, sinners prayer and a number of other things we do two things. We lower the person we are evangelizing to as a number, product or project. It’s quite condescending. They are the consumer who needs the goods and we are the supplier. We also elevate ourselves to a position of “Status because we are not the lost”. We are higher than them and have something they need, so out of the “goodness” of our hearts we are going to do all that we can to give it to them, whether they like it or not! In my opinion, this is a pretty insensitive means of sharing the Gospel. They become the customer and we are the salesperson. If I can sell you the Gospel and talk you into believing it, then someone else can just as easily talk you out of it. The Gospel is not mine to give anyone in the first place (John 6:44). When we approach someone on the street and “Evangelize” them it’s a very insensitive thing to do. We have shown them we value them very little because we are not asking for their friendship to develop discipleship, we are asking for a decision so we can move on to the “Next” prospect. Forgive my harsh language but this is similar to a one night stand with a woman on the street. We exchange and never see one another ever again (it’s the gospel one night stand), how is this making disciples of all the nations. Jesus never asked to convert to him, or pray a prayer to be saved. He commands us to follow Him and it will cost us everything. Discipleship is a lifelong process lived out in the context of Gospel community. No converts. I was not saved by a prayer; I thought I was until one day when I was 28 I realized that I wasn’t a Christian.

Blessings Brother.
In Christ,
Evan Whitman

p.s. I read a really good book last night. “Lies my Pastor told me” Check it out, it’s awesome and free!
www.liesmypastortoldme.com

Pastor Todd Murphy

09/21 at 08:37 PM

Wow Evan. That is outstanding and so well put. Thanks for sharing so much. it was a blessing.

Before you post that comment, give it a ponder.

Sacred Journey Church is located in Providence, Rhode Island

Thirteen and a few Other Odd Ways to be a Fanatical Religious Hypocrite

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