In the most recent sermon series “Unvangelism” Pastor Todd has been dismantling the contemporary view of sharing the gospel we all know as “evangelism” and advocating for a return to a very biblical and revolutionary invention: the church as a gospel community. The differences between the two are quite dramatic and I would encourage you to listen to the entire series so far as it takes some time to unpack the nuances.
Here are some reflections thus far...
Us vs. Them
This sectarian mentality is a very well worn rut that Christians have been enthusiastically diving into for centuries. Don’t get me wrong, the word for church in the New Testament is "ecclesia" meaning “called out ones”. We are called out of darkness into light. That is not what we are discussing here. What I am talking about is the subtle pride in our flesh that will attach itself to the gospel and then exalt itself. Our flesh is so corrupt that it will take even the gospel and hold it up as a banner of self-righteousness. For more on this see Todd’s blog and the ensuing discussion here.
We're not Okay
This "us vs. them" mentality creeps into the Church via our pride. The reason it is allowed to remain is that we mistakenly see it as sanctified. The extreme of this mentality has people protesting with “God Hates Macs” signs and/or roasting marsh mellows over burning Korans.
That’s the extreme.
What CNN and FOX will never cover is you and I and our proclivity to see ourselves as "okay" and the unchurched as "not okay."
Here's the truth: If you are truly growing in the gospel, what you will discover is that you are anything but okay.
In fact, a healthy Christian life is at least partially defined by this: a growing awareness of our own sinfulness and of God's holiness.
Repentance is God's gift to us so that we can run to Him and not from Him when we see His glory contrasted with our wickedness. This growing awareness of our sinfulness does not bring despair as you might think because --get this--> His grace is enough. We are not condemned but justified by the cross. In this way a growing awareness of our sinfulness is cause for rejoicing, we continually see how gracious and merciful God truly is. This is where the music crescendos for me, the truth I’ve just shared with you is the beauty of the gospel – it is unspeakable grace. This grace is not a license to sin but the power to repent from sin.
Agenda vs. Transformation
So, in light of the above, what is our posture towards others? Is our goal to get them saved? Should we invest our time in "friendship evangelism" where we have non-Christian friends only because it is our duty to get them saved?
Connie Contrarian: "Yes! Jesus died for them didn’t he?...so what’s wrong with that?"
Me: "Hi Connie, thanks for chiming in. Yes, Jesus died for them but there is a problem..."
Let me explain:
This covert Christian spy game gets the gospel backwards. Please put away your face paint and put down the evangecube...Connie, I said put it down...now kick it over to me and back away....thank you.
Ok, ready? Here we go:
God does not love us because he has redeemed us.
He redeems us because He loves us.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
We shouldn't love people just because "Jesus died for them."
We should love people because God created them.
To properly live and share the gospel we must start by loving others out of a theology of creation, not redemption. Their potential faith depends on God grace, not our striving. This will shatter our agendas. Of course, as Christians we want all of our friends to know Christ and His hope. The problem is, we are not the Holy Spirit and have no power in ourselves to change anyone's heart. Our privilege is to love the people that God has created simply because He has created them. We should not hide our faith but we also shouldn't make people into projects. At Sacred Journey we call this being intentional without an agenda. We are called to love people because they exist as an image bearer of their Creator not because they represent a potential star on our evangelism chart.
We can trade our evangelism agendas for gospel transformation, for when we truly share Christ, He changes us too.
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