just<\/em> the way you are\u201d.<\/p>\nAs I said in that post, we toss that phrase around without really thinking through what those words actually, or perhaps I should say literally, mean.<\/p>\n
Well, there\u2019s another classic evangelism pitch that I want to examine, one which I think is equally problematic, but which I think has had an even more devastating effect on the church.<\/p>\n
In our seemingly desperate bid to \u201cwin souls for Jesus\u201d (a rather pagan and not particularly Biblical sentiment), we often implore our potential converts with the words \u201cJesus just wants to be a part of your life, wont you let him?\u201d.<\/p>\n
Like the assertion that Jesus loves you just<\/em> the way you are, this plea simply isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\nSomewhere between Paul\u2019s call to die to self and the modern age we\u2019ve giving up on the radical call of the Christian faith. Apparently conceding the fact that most people don\u2019t want to literally give up everything<\/em> to follow Jesus, we\u2019ve scaled things back. While the New Testament describes following Jesus as an all consuming endeavor that requires our own death so that we may become slaves to God, we\u2019ve replaced that radical call with an invitation for people to simply make a little space so that Jesus can squeeze in and become a part<\/em> of their life, alongside work, family, hobbies, etc.<\/p>\nObviously, we don\u2019t phrase it that literally. After all, our goal is to \u201cget sinners to the altar\u201d. We can explain the details later. The problem, however, is that when we aren\u2019t careful with the way we present the gospel, we inevitably end up participating in \u201cbait and switch\u201d ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody, at least very few of us, wants to give up everything, literally everything we have. We worked hard for the stuff we have. Our relationships our important too us. We\u2019re comfortable right where we are. So, the odds that many people will respond to a radical call like \u201cdrop your nets\u201d, \u201csell everything you have and give it to the poor\u201d, or \u201cdie to self\u201d just aren\u2019t that high and I think we realize that. So, in our numbers=success culture, we\u2019ve made our evangelism pitch more palatable to the uninitiated.<\/p>\n
We tell them on the front end that Jesus only wants to be a part<\/em> of their life, with the thought being that later on we will explain to them that Jesus actually wants all of their life.<\/p>\nThat is called bait and switch ministry.<\/p>\n
We may not realize we\u2019re doing it, but it happens all the time. There are lots of forms of bait and switch ministry (it\u2019s an epidemic in youth ministry), but this particular form has become incredibly problematic for the church.<\/p>\n
Spend any time amongst church leaders, both clergy and lay, and you\u2019re likely to hear them vent their frustrations over not being able to get people more involved in the life of the church. As someone who was in ministry for the better part of the last decade I can tell that it seems like the church is fighting a never ending battle against layity schedules which are being increasingly consumed by school, work, sports, family activities, etc, while time for church gets more and more squeezed out of the picture.<\/p>\n
To be honest, I don\u2019t think we have anyone but ourselves to blame for the compartmentalization and subsequent apathy that plagues so many of our churches.<\/p>\n
When we tell people that Jesus just wants to be a part of their lives, we shouldn\u2019t be surprised when Jesus ends up only being a part of their lives.<\/p>\n
The words we choose to use matter. They have meaning and that meaning shapes our response. So, when we tell people that Jesus loves them just the way they are, we shouldn\u2019t be surprise when their lives change very little after \u201ccoming to Christ\u201d because if Jesus love them just<\/em> the way they are, why do they need to change anything?<\/p>\nLikewise, if Jesus just wants to be a part of their life, we shouldn\u2019t be so upset or surprised to find that the church and their faith is something that they participate in only when they have the extra time. After all, didn\u2019t we tell them that Jesus only wants to be a part<\/em> of their life?<\/p>\nI know that this critique may be difficult, if not impossible to hear. Those of us who have grown up in the church know that the call of the gospel is a life of total devotion to Jesus. So, when we say something like \u201cJesus just wants to be a part of your life\u201d, we \u201creally mean\u201d that he wants your entire life. The problem, however, is that others don\u2019t hear what we\u2019re thinking, they hear what we are saying.<\/p>\n
The words we speak really do matter. When we get so desperate to have more butts in the pews at church that we tweak our words so that they become less offensive it is the entire world that suffers.<\/p>\n
The truth is that Jesus doesn\u2019t want to be a part of your life. He wants to be your entire life. Discipleship isn\u2019t a part time endeavor, it\u2019s a 24\/7 way of life. Being a follower of Jesus isn\u2019t something that can be relegated to an hour on Sunday mornings. He must be pursued and embodied every moment of every day. When we lead others to believe otherwise, even if unintentionally, we aren\u2019t just confusing them, we\u2019re preaching a false gospel, the result of which is a church defined by compartmentalization and apathy and the result of that is the inability to answer our call to bring the kingdom of heaven down to earth.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll say it one last time, the words we use matter. If we tell people on the front end that Jesus demands everything from them, that simple intellectual assent and part time Christianity are not acceptable, we will certainly see fewer people \u201crun down to the altars\u201d. But as Jesus said, the road is narrow and difficult that leads to eternal life and few find it.<\/p>\n
As the church, the success of our mission is not based on how many names are on our membership rolls, but on whether or not we truthfully proclaim the gospel and how authentically we live it out.<\/p>\n
So, as a church we must be honest with ourselves and with those outside our doors.<\/p>\n
Jesus doesn\u2019t want to be a part of our world.<\/p>\n
He wants all of it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace and peace,<\/p>\n
Zack Hunt<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 The particular words we choose to use have meaning and that meaning matters. A few weeks ago I tried to highlight this issue in a post about the go to evangelism pitch \u201cJesus loves you just the way you are\u201d. As I said in that post, we toss that phrase around without really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":7649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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