May 17 2006
Ethics & Evangelism:what’s acceptable to close the deal
Last night I listened to someone try to explain how they would "witness" to their faith in a pluralistic culture. The individual couldn’t quite articulate it beyond saying dialog and conversation was more important than the four spiritual laws. Yes I know that’s nigh onto blasphemy for some. The whole time I couldn’t get away from my church planting training that says you need to be able to close the deal help someone cross the line. So now I’m thinking in our pluralistic world is is possible to witness without being a a bigot, evangelize without being obnoxious, share faith without being abusive?
Then I came across this in my email inbox this morning from the eBay atheist » Blog Archive » Ethics and Evangelism
Karen posted this on the Off-The-Map discussion board yesterday. There has already been some discussion of it there. I’m bringing it over here too since she’s asking some great questions. Do ethics matter when it comes to evangelism, or do the ends justify the means?
When I was an evangelical Christian, I was routinely taught to do pretty much anything necessary in order to “bring someone to Christ.” The idea was that the pit of hell was looming wide, so it was permissible to use many tactics that might be judged unethical in other contexts, in order to get a person saved. This included inviting them to church for a “neutral” service (such as a holiday pageant) that was really planned as an evangelistic event, complete with altar call. I consider that a fairly inoffensive example (though still troubling), but there was also much worse going on, including things that contributed to my leaving Christianity and religion in general. As an example, some friends and I have been chuckling over this evangelism video by actor Kirk Cameron.
I have real problem with these bait and switch type of events but they are pretty transparent and ridiculous, and the Cameron video is more laughable than troubling to me. So I’m not sure why that kind stuff caused here to become an ex-Christian. But the question arises for me did Jesus ever ask anyone to commit to anything like following him? How did he do it and what difference should that make to you and me? Is there something of value beyond the bait and switch mentioned above for us to learn from the way Jesus and his first followers shared faith. Or is that whole idea outmoded and irrelevant in our North American context?
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4 Responses to “Ethics & Evangelism:what’s acceptable to close the deal”
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If you want to know how Jesus witnessed to people then just look to the Bible for the account of it. We can learn from Him and it makes the most sense to me to do it just like He did. And yes, Jesus asked people to commit to following Him (12 disciples, the rich young ruler). We must realize the exceeding sinfulness of our own sin and how it is an infinite offense against an incredibly holy God, and then realize that we deserve to go to hell for all of that. And then once we realize the sacrifice that Jesus made for us we should be falling on our face in gratefulness and want to repent and trust Him for our salvation. The most important aspect of this is that it is all about GOD! It has nothing to do with us and our potential and how good WE can become, it’s all about how great God is because He’s willing to save someone like you and me.
Yes, we can do all things you just asked. We just need to do what Jesus actually did (not what many in the church have been doing) Be a loving incarnational presence of God to people. Walk with them. Stop attempting to get them to reguritate a belief system, and when the stranger in their midst appears to them, they’ll recognize Jesus and when they discover that it is Jesus, they’ll believe. Unfortuantely, people have been treated like consumers and we act like used-car dealers trying to "close the deal". We may manipulate folks into buying but never believeing. Thanks, Great questions!!! Rick
Dominic, I hear you but how do we help people to realize Jesus sacrifice if we never get to know them but see them as notches on a belt? That is how it seems to work with much of the evangelistic practice. That seems disingenuous "God knows and values you enough to sacrifice but we just want to get you checked off our list." I think that is the kind of thing this ex-Christian is reacting to. It seems to me that Jesus took time to make a connection with people first i.e. the woman at the well.
rick, my question was a bit tongue in cheek
since I sometimes think we have swung the pendulum to far the other way from typical modern evangelism. Instead of being obnoxious we are too benign never asking anyone to commit and thinking that it will just happen. I’m looking for a 3rd path.
Thanks to both of you for the comments
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