The Divine Crash

On Friday, my entire family, and some friends went to the Jimmy Stewart festival. It is a festival in my town where everyone (including Santa Claus) gather to have a parade and worship the local hero/actor.  We ate at the Pita Pit and hung out with friends and then watched the parade.  We even saw some great model trains. 

We were then walking back to our car and we saw a young man standing against the wall handing out flyers.  They were not just any flyers they were “gospel” tracks.  I use the term “gospel” loosely because they shared a distorted view of good news.  They were the typical “turn or burn” theology which only pointed out that people were sinners in need of a savior but never mentioned Jesus only an invitation to visit their church.

This type of evangelism might work for some, I wonder how effective it really is? This young man hands out flyers about sin and says nothing while standing against the wall of a building. This brings to mind Matthew 28 and the “Great Commission” and I wonder how those flyers make disciples of all nations?

I will say that it is possible for those flyers to bring a person to Jesus but maybe it is better to actually talk to a person?  To actually know the person, instead of randomly walking up to a person serve them like Jesus did.

Before Jesus talked to any person about salvation he helped them.  He gave them bread and then said “I am the bread of life.”

Jesus never stood against the wall handing out flyers that told people they were sinners.

• Maybe Christians should be less like wall flowers and more like Jesus?
• Maybe instead of telling people how much they are sinners we should be friends with them first then talk to them about the one who takes away sins?

 I often think to myself what it means to love Jesus and part of it is that I am in a daily relationship with him.  So then, if I love others shouldn’t I be in a daily relationship with them too?

If that is the case then I shouldn’t be standing on the wall I should be getting my hands dirty with them, living life with them and going through the same things with them because then when I do talk about Jesus not only do I have credibility but so does the scripture I share.  Having credibility means that I will be listened too and that even if the person disagrees with me we can still be friends and I still have opportunities to share.

Peter Rollins once stated that we are not called to be the bread of life.  We are called to be the scent of the bread of life.  We smell so much like the bread that even the people who didn’t know they were hungry desire the bread of life because they have been with us. You can’t do that by standing against the wall handing out flyers.

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Random Thoughts by RevBT