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The Power Behind Religious Words

06/29/2008 - Evangelism, Selected Scripture

What comes into your mind when you think of the word "evangelism"? Over the years I've asked that question a lot to groups of people from Valley View and I've always been amazed at some of their responses.

I can remember one group that just started to unload saying things like television and televangelists, high pressure and money, scandal and big hair, and then one guy said, "Pinky rings." I said, "Pinky rings?" He said, "Yea, don't all T V preachers wear pinky rings?" We had some fun with that, but what surprised me the most was that almost every one of their responses was negative. And that wasn't the first time I've gotten that feedback. Finally I said, "Can anyone give me a positive image of evangelism?" And somebody said, "Billy Graham." Yeah! We finally found one.

The last time I taught on evangelism I got an email from someone in our church community who wrote, "Evangelism has always been a tough subject for people in my age group, married couples in their 20's and 30's. Most of us give up trying since it gets weird with friends and family who are not Christian. A lot of times we sense that we're missing the big picture when we try so hard to slip in a mention of God in order to witness to people."

He went on to write, "My running buddy who is not a Christian, in fact he's anti-Christian in many ways, said to me during a recent run, 'Jesus preached a religion that helps the poor, and looks after those in need, so why are Christians so tied into right wing moral issues like abortion and gay marriage?' To which I really didn't have an answer. That conversation got me thinking!" And it should. It should get all of us thinking because I think some of us, maybe a lot of us, need to repent and rethink our understanding of evangelism. And I hope to help us do that today.

When we think of evangelism it often brings up negative images of weird things that we don't want to be or else it conjures up positive images of superstars like Billy Graham and other things so great that we know we can't be. But when we think of evangelism we need to think of ourselves and who God made us to be.

This morning we continue our short series called The Power Behind Religious Words with a teaching on the word "evangelism." So far in this series we've tried to get a better handle on the meaning and power behind words like "gospel," "salvation," "repent and believe." These are religious words that we use all the time, but I'm not sure we really understand them especially in the context in which Jesus used them. And "evangelism" is another word like that.

My experience has been that when Christians often talk about evangelism there's a level of fear and guilt that enters the discussion. And I've had those same feelings too. There's the fear that if we enter into a conversation about spiritual things we might be asked a question that we can't answer. And there are lots of questions that we can't answer.

One of the most common is the question, "If God is so good why is the world so bad? If God is so loving why does he let little children get abused and innocent people suffer?" Those are hard questions for which there are no easy answers. And the best response may simply be, "I don't know." We've tried to honestly address those questions over the years in teachings around here most recently in our last series called The End of Evil where we talked a lot about God's justice and how one day he will make all the wrongs right. But it's the fear of questions like that that can keep us from entering into spiritual dialogue. And sometimes we feel guilty about that.

There's also the fear that we might mess up the gospel presentation. We might get the steps out of order or say the wrong thing as if there's some magic formula that needs to be memorized and presented perfectly. You're not going to find a magic formula in the Bible nor the exact words of a sinner's prayer to recite. The gospel is simply the announcement that the King has come and his name is Jesus. His kingdom is near and open to all who believe in him. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be rescued.

So we're afraid we have to have all the answers. And we're afraid that we have to have a polished gospel presentation. And then there's always the fear that if people discover we're Christ followers they'll expect us to be perfect and we won't be able to live up to that or we won't be able do some of the things that we want to do. Or else they'll think we're weird or we'll get labeled or rejected or be lumped in with a bunch of people that we don't want to be associated with. And all that can keep us from openly identifying ourselves with Jesus. But then we feel guilty about that too.

Now some of those fears are valid, especially the one about being lumped in with a bunch of people that we don't want to be associated with. I don't know if you've noticed lately but Christianity has a real image problem in our culture today. Back in the fall a new book was released called unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity and Why It Matters. It was written by David Kinnamon and Gabe Lyons and has gotten quite a bit of publicity with coverage on CNN and articles in Time magazine and USA Today and other places too.

What started out as a three month project to discover what people think of Christians, ended up taking three years as the authors gathered a ton of information from more than a dozen national surveys that asked thousands of Americans, many between the ages of 16 and 29, what they thought of Christianity. And the results were not pretty.

The overwhelming majority of those outside of the Christian faith describe Christians as judgmental, hypocritical, and anti-gay. That's what they think of us. They also found that many Christians don't even want to call themselves "Christians" because of the baggage attached with that label. I'm one of them. And so around here we prefer to talk about "Christ followers," at least until that phrase gets loaded up with a negative image.

Kinnamon said that one of the biggest surprises for him was that one out of four non-Christians said that modern day Christianity looks nothing at all like Jesus. It is unChristian, hence the title of the book.

"It started to become more clear to us," he says, "that what they're experiencing related to Christianity is some of the very things that Jesus warned religious people about which is avoiding removing the log from your own eye before trying to take the speck out of someone else's. When Jesus pursued people he was much more critical of spiritual arrogance than he was of people who were sinful. And today's Christians, if you spend enough time looking at their attitudes and actions, really are not like Jesus at all when it comes to that." Ouch!

Rick Warren the best selling author and pastor of Saddleback Community Church in California has used the book to say, "Its time for the church to be known by what it's for not by what it's against. For some time now, the hands and feet of the body of Christ have been amputated, and we've been pretty much reduced to a big mouth. We talk more than we do. It's time to reattach the limbs and let the church be the church in the 21^st century."

Did you hear what he said? For too long the church has been a big mouth. It's time to reattach the limbs again. Around here we call "attaching the limbs" the mission of Christ, being a blessing to this world, making a difference in this world. In fact a few years ago we recognized that and so we added that phrase to our mission statement because our leadership team felt that our focus was to narrow. Our mission was stopping with us. We needed to put hands and feet back onto the body of Christ.

And so now the mission of Valley View Community Church is to be a biblical community that helps people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ who make a difference in this world. Because that is what Jesus did. He made a positive difference in this world, in your life and in mine

How tragic that the church in America is known for the very things that Jesus taught against pride, judgment, hypocrisy, scapegoating. It must break God's heart. What about the fruit of the Spirit that we unpacked last fall? Can we as a community of Christ followers be known by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? I think we can. I don't see judgment or hypocrisy or anti-anything in that at all.

For too long the church has been a big mouth without hands and feet. It's time to reattach the limbs again. It's time to view evangelism as being a blessing to this world every single day of our lives. Let me relieve you of the guilt and the fear that you have to have all the answers or be a persuasive speaker or live a perfect life or pressure people into a conversion in order to do evangelism. You don't even need a pinky ring!

The word evangelism is not even found in the Bible. But that doesn't mean it's not a good word. The word evangelism or evangelist comes from the same Greek word that means "gospel" or "good news." So evangelism is the process by which we proclaim the evangel, the good news of Jesus Christ and his kingdom.

And we proclaim that good news in all kinds of ways, not just verbally. In fact, in our culture our words won't mean anything if we're not at the same time being good news to people. Somebody once said, "Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words." Does that mean words aren't important in evangelism? Of course words are important. But right now Christ followers in this country have a credibility crisis and actions, not just words, are what it's going to take to reverse that.

The mandate for evangelism is not found in the New Testament or even in the words of Jesus, but in the very first book of the Bible. It all starts with God's call to Abraham where he says in Genesis 12:2-3, I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Bless, blessing, bless, bless, blessed. Get the point? God's strategy to reach a world in rebellion against him is to send out a rescue team that will be a blessing to everybody. And that team started with Abraham and then with the nation of Israel and then with Jesus now it's us, the church, followers of Jesus who are the spiritual children of Abraham. We are the people through whom God wants to bless this world. We've been blessed by him to be a blessing. That's evangelism. That's being the good news.

A week ago Friday night I received a phone call from one of our neighbors here at Sunnyside. Apparently, during one of the recent storms a tree from our property fell and knocked over a tree on their property that was threatening to do some damage to a fence on their yard. At the time it happened they were away on vacation, but the person staying in their home called them and told them about the situation. It sounded pretty serious so they had the person contact a local tree surgeon who came over and cut down their tree and our tree as well. And so when they returned from vacation they called me and asked me to come over and see what happened.

So I went over the next day and they showed me the spot where the trees had been cut down. Then they showed me another huge branch from one of our trees that had come down in another storm since the first one and asked if we would have that removed from their property as well as a large branch that was still hanging, but looked ready to fall. So I assured them that we would take care of all of it and then they handed me the bill for $925.

So on Tuesday, Tim, Matt and I went over to assess the situation and we agreed that we could take care of it ourselves and save some money without calling in the tree surgeon and asked the homeowner if that was okay with him and he said, "Absolutely. Anyway you want to handle it is fine."

I asked him if they had had any other problems that we should know about with water runoff from our property, or from our lights, or from people loitering in the parking lot, or from our loud worship music, or anything else.

He said, "No. You guys have been great. You've always been true to your word. You've given us your cell phone number to make it easy to get a hold of you. You've returned our calls immediately. You've stop over when we've asked. You've addressed all of our concerns. And if you make good on this bill I might even come to your church sometime to see what it's all about. I'm in between religions right now." And we said, "Hey. We are too!"

So on Wednesday, Tim and Matt went back and removed the tree and gave him a check for $925. Later he called me and just couldn't thank us enough for the gracious way we handled it. That I think is being a blessing. That I think is being the good news. That's evangelism. We could have argued that they should have called us first to see whether we could have removed the trees ourselves and saved some money. Or that we should split the bill. We even had some question whether it really was our tree that fell into their yard. But what good would that do. That's not being good news. That just adds one more reason to shelve Jesus and say Christians really are unChristian.

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, was talking about evangelism when he said in Matthew 5:16, Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Our words mean nothing unless they are backed up by good works. And Jesus says that the good deeds themselves bring glory to our Father in heaven. It's time for the church to reattach hands and feet to the body of Christ.

Everyday we have opportunities to be the good news to somebody whether its helping out a friend, or better yet, an adversary, making a meal for someone who's struggling, listening to a burden, giving a generous a tip to a server at a restaurant, letting someone else go first in traffic, returning a harsh word with kindness, coming to the rescue of those who are in need. Little things, every day that make a difference, maybe not in the whole world, but in somebody's world. "Preach the gospel all the time and if necessary use words."

I think that's what Jesus meant in Matthew 25:34-36, 40 when he said, Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me … ⁴⁰Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me." That's evangelism. That's making the gospel of the kingdom known.

Let me close with two stories. Last week, Ken Roundy was so excited to tell me about an opportunity he had to use his passion for astronomy to share the love of Christ. He and Karen were invited to show their display of the stars to a group of about 25 grade school kids all from broken homes at a nearby summer camp. And he told me that when he went he was a little nervous because he wasn't sure how interested the kids would be. But pretty soon into his presentation he was blown away by their interest and enthusiasm. And he said that he felt so connected with the kids and like he was being carried by the Spirit. After he was done and they went outside he gave the kids their first look at Saturn and other stars and planets. You haven't lived until you've seen Saturn through Ken Roundy's telescope!

But if you know Ken it's not about Saturn and stars, quarks and galaxies, it's about the enormous love that God has for us that is written in the heavens. And he shared that love with them from Psalm 103:11-12, For as high has the heavens are above the earth, so great is God's love for those who fear him. ¹²As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed his transgressions from us.

That's evangelism. That's Ken being Ken and using his gifts and passions to bring the good news to a bunch of kids that need to hear that God loves them.

Jane Reeves cuts hair. And ever since March when we first went down to the homeless shelter to serve the residents there she has been returning every month with a friend to give haircuts. That's how she's being the good news. One Saturday she gave 17 hair cuts and she's always sensitive to opportunities to pray with folks and to share the hope that she has in Christ. He's the reason that she gives up a precious Saturday to do that. That's evangelism. That's Jane being Jane and using her gifts and passions to bring the good news to a bunch of people who are going through some real rough times and need to know that God cares about them.

The apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, You yourselves are a letter from Christ, known and read by everyone …³written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

When you think of evangelism, think about you and how God can use you and your gifts and your passions and your temperament, just as you are, to be the good news and to share the good news of his love.

In the book unChristian the authors offer some hope for the church in America. Kinnamon says, "Our goal wasn't simply to say here are all the problems, but to hopefully point a way forward. No strategy, tactics, or clever marketing campaign could ever clear away the smokescreen that surrounds Christianity in today's culture. The perceptions of outsiders will change only when Christians strive to represent the heart of God in every relationship and situation. This kind of Christian will attract instead of repel … When outsiders begin to have fresh experiences and interactions with this new kind of Christian, perceptions will change, one person at a time. When they have cataloged enough experiences with this kind of Christian to outweigh their negative ones, the reputation will change.

"In due time, the name Christian will come to represent something refreshing and positive. One new friendship, a compassionate hug, a kind word, a positive outlook, or a well-meaning affirmation will go a long way to seeing Christ's reputation revitalized throughout our culture.

"As C. S. Lewis believed, imagination precedes fact. Let's imagine together what could happen and then commit to being the change we want to create."

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.