the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\nJesus calls his follower to \u201cgo and make disciples,\u201d not pander to their baser instincts in order to A) scare them into an emotionally charged, unreflected decision and then B) get them coming back for more.<\/p>\n
What Christian haunted houses evoke is really no different than the reaction somebody gets from watching regular porn. It\u2019s exciting, it\u2019s stimulating, it gets your emotions\u00a0revved\u00a0up\u2026and then it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n
Just like regular porn, evangelism porn gets people addicted, but once the high runs out and the things that once got them stimulated finally go stale, then Jesus gets boring, the faith becomes irrelevant, and people move on to the next high.<\/p>\n
The problem is we\u2019ve confused making converts with making disciples.<\/p>\n
Christian haunted houses can definitely make converts because all that takes is a moment of intellectual assent. But Jesus said \u201cgo and make disciples,\u201d not \u201cgo and make converts\u201d and those are two very different things.<\/p>\n
Making converts give us numbers to brag about.<\/p>\n
Making disciples changes lives and together those lives can change the world.<\/p>\n
I know the people behind these things probably have their hearts in the right place, but Christian haunted houses don\u2019t change lives and they\u2019re certainly not the sort of world changing work we\u2019ve been called to do as the church.<\/p>\n
If you really want to change the world, and you should because there are plenty of people in desperate need of help, then\u00a0befriend the widow who lives next door who\u2019s too frail to mow her lawn or drive to a doctor\u2019s appointment. Reach out to your co-worker that\u2019s going through crisis and doesn\u2019t know where to turn. Donate your money to one of the countless charities trying to end the famines which claim tens of thousands of children every month. Donate your time to your local soup kitchen or food pantry. They always need volunteers. Next time don\u2019t ignore the beggar on the street, but instead find a way to offer them hope and healing or just a bite to eat. Or simply learn to love and care for your neighbor, even your enemy, as if the fate of the world depended on it.<\/p>\n
Because it does.<\/p>\n
Loving people changes the world. Hell houses don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The church doesn\u2019t need evangelism porn to win people to Jesus. It needs people bold enough to embody love, grace, forgiveness, and hope to a world that would rather have porn.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace and peace,<\/p>\n
Zack Hunt<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
FROM THE VAULT:\u00a0As I\u2019m always welcoming new people to the blog I sometimes like to revisit an old post or two that sparked a good conversation, but may have been missed by those who weren\u2019t around when it was originally posted. This post originally appeared a couple of years ago, but with Halloween just around the corner it felt like a good time to share it once more.<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s that time of the year again. Ok, it\u2019s probably been that time for a couple of weeks now, but all across the country churches are doing their best to literally scare the hell out of people. Like this\u2026. I\u2019ve said before and I\u2019ll say it again, I am not a fan of so-called \u201chell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":11022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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