The Salty Peanut Gallery

This is a rant about evangelism. For the past three days I’ve been away attending a statewide annual meeting of pastors and representatives from churches in my denomination. Its purpose in general has been to give a report on how our missions dollars are being spent, to celebrate the victories being won for the Kingdom and to provide meaningful encouragement to the pastors, staff and lay leaders down in the trenches. Interspersed between resolutions and matters of business are times of congregational worship, singing and Bible preaching. This year’s theme stressed evangelism and featured the unveiling of a new national evangelism initiative supported by our denomination.

The tone of the event was set early on in the opening message delivered by the president of one of our leading theological seminaries. We learned of a declining number of baptisms being recorded by our churches. We also learned of shortfalls in missions giving that are forcing denominational executives to make hard choices on the number of missionaries that will be fully funded. The bottom line is our churches are moving in the wrong direction and it’s up to pastors to turn this ship around. In short we need to do more, witness more and give more. And shame, shame, shame on you if you don’t.

In addition to these messages of hope and encouragement we were treated to the presentation of various awards for outstanding service. There were awards for churches with the most missions giving. There were awards for churches with the most baptisms, and there were awards given for churches that were planting more churches. Again the point of all this was to encourage pastors to do more, witness more and give more. While many of us came needing a word of encouragement and to have our spiritual cups refilled, what we received in many ways resembled a sales convention.

In case you haven’t figured it out I’m very troubled by all this. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my denomination. I love the stand that it takes on the inerrancy of God’s Word. I love the commitment it has to global evangelization and church planting. Most of all I love the fellowship that we enjoy with other local area pastors and congregations. That alone is enough for me to remain loyal. But I am troubled by a contemporary trend, not just in our denomination, but in many evangelical churches across the country that would seek to fashion church growth into more of a business model. We even praise this concept as though it were a Godsend. But I ask you…really…is this God’s plan for sharing the gospel or is it ours?

Oh yes, I’ve heard all the arguments before. “God has given us a brain and He expects us to use it. He has blessed us with many talents and abilities that we should use for Him. He has given us wonderful pastors with backgrounds in business that can apply these principles to furthering the Kingdom. We’re simply being good stewards of the gifts that God has given us. Our only motivation is a heart for souls. Our only goal is to win the lost. It’s not for our glory; it’s only for the glory of God.”

Now look, I’m not questioning anybody’s sincerity. I have no doubt there are many who espouse this business approach to church growth that are doing what they truly believe God would have them do. And I fully recognize that in the two thousand year history of the church there have been a whole host of methods God’s people have used to successfully advance the gospel. But isn’t it possible if we’re not careful that the method can become more important than the means?

Here’s what I mean. Yes, it is greatly concerning to hear of declines in baptisms and missions giving. But has anyone stopped for just a moment to really think about why? It isn’t for lack of packaging, programming and marketing. Maybe the real issue is power. In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul writes:

“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”

It seems strange to hear Paul talk of “weakness”, “fear” and “trembling”. What did he mean by these words? The weakness in which Paul came to Corinth was the weakness of the Gospel message. “Fear and trembling” was the way Paul described the proper attitude for serving the Lord (see 1 Corinthians 1:27 and Ephesians 6:5), in other words a whole hearted commitment to obedient service. Paul’s words were without eloquence or persuasiveness because he only wanted to share the simplicity of the gospel. He was determined that their faith should be in the power of God demonstrated in his life and in his testimony and not in the wisdom of men.

May I make a small suggestion? Isn’t it possible that the ineffectiveness of our witness has more to do with the inconsistency of our testimony than the eloquence of our message? Could it be that what we really need is less emphasis on marketing strategies and more emphasis on consistent holy living? Isn’t it fathomable that our capacity to be relevant has less to do with packaging and personalities and more to do with an authentic “demonstration of the Spirit’s power”?

I hear a lot of talk about the preeminence of the Great Commission and how we should aspire to be an Acts 1:8 church. But hold on a minute. Is the Great Commission really the greatest commandment? Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (Mathew 22:37-40).” It seems to me what we’re really doing is putting the cart before the horse. How can we even begin to properly fulfill the Great Commission if we haven’t made the greatest commandment our highest priority?

If that were to become our focus maybe then we might begin to see people in our communities being drawn to Jesus Christ because of the transforming power clearly demonstrated in our lives. Maybe then we might see increases in baptisms. Maybe then we’d be genuinely motivated to give more to missions. And maybe then we might stop giving awards to people for something God has done and begin SERIOUSLY giving ALL the glory to Him.