Thoughts on Evangelism

I've been thinking the past day or so about evangelism. Mostly about how terrible i am at it. And by terrible, i don't mean that i'm bad at it, i mean that i don't actually do it. I like to make excuses for myself all the time, like that this isn't the gifting or the call that God has given me, but when it comes down to it, i know that i'm not carrying out my God-given mission as a Christian. And that thought stings.

I think the model and practice of "relational evangelism", while most often completely valid, is used as one of the greatest cop-outs in all of Christianity. Most often we use it to "witness" to our non-Christian friends, hoping that maybe they'll notice something different about the way we live, while we are freed from ever having to grow a pair and actually talk about God with them. St. Francis of Assisi is famous for the quote-able axiom, "Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words." While this is completely true as far as how we should live as children of light, i don't see any instance of evangelism in the Scriptures where someone came to the LORD without a believer telling them about the gospel. Most often in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit was leading the believers to preach and witness and die for the gospel of Christ. I think of Phillip, who was led by the Spirit to go and witness to the Ethiopian eunuch. The Spirit had already planted the seeds in his heart through the Scriptures, and left it up to Phillip to explain the Scriptures in the new light of the death and resurrection of Christ. He didn't take time to get to know the guy or become his close friend before he felt comfortable enough to share the gospel with him.

And what about 2 Corinthians 6:14, which tells us not to be yoked with unbelievers? What fellowship can light have with darkness? How do we deal with this when we're trying to evangelize? That's kind of scary to think about. Is relational ministry even biblically valid? I think that depends on how you define it. Most of the time, when i've convinced myself that i'm just practicing relational ministry, it's a cop-out in order for me to continue comfortably not sharing the gospel. I can't speak for others though. Maybe most people are better Christians than i am.

Now i haven't taken the classes on evangelism, or ever actually done it, but i feel like we (i) make it much harder than it needs to be. How much does the Gospel mean to us? How convinced are we that, unless we do not share, these people very well might end up in eternal damnation? How convinced are we that the Gospel of Christ is for every man, woman and child on this planet? How confident are we of the Holy Spirit working in us to proclaim this?

Just some thoughts. Take them or leave them or comment on them.

A New Fad

Off the top of my head, I can think of 10 couples (!) that are friends of mine or that I have some decent connection to that are engaged, including one that just happened last night at the Jr/Sr Formal. Now, call me heartless here, but living on a Christian college campus where you're almost expected to be engaged by the time you get out of here, engagements seem like a dime-a-dozen, and they don't even seem that special anymore. Oh, yep, figured that one was going to happen soon. Congrats. Woop-de-doo. I'm very glad for all of them, but if it's what's expected of us, and everyone's doing it, then it almost seems to me (at least, from my outside POV) to not be that big of a deal. Being engaged just isn't that cool anymore. It's just what happens when you get to this age. Which leads me to only one logical conclusion:

Single is the new engaged.

Tell your friends. We're bringing it back.




(Sorry if this offends any of my engaged friend. I love you all, and I'm very happy for you.)

A Question on Prayer

Do you ever pray in public, like before a big meal with a bunch of people, and after you're done it hits you that you weren't really praying, you were just speaking words? That you were so focused on your words and how it would sound to people and maybe that they would move someone to make a small grunt of affirmation, that you forgot to actually be communicating with the LORD? And then it makes you wonder how often you actually do pray, and how often it's just words for your or someone else's benefit? And then you worry about the state of your relationship with the LORD, and if you even really know Him enough to know how to communicate with Him?

Yeah, that sucks.

Cars, dumb smiles, and Clint Eastwood

I saw the movie Gran Torino today. It was really good, exceeding any expectations i had for it. But one point that was made in the movie (not important at all to the plot) was when the girl Sue was introducing Walt to her family and their culture, she commented that the Hmong people tend to avoid eye contact and they smile or grin when they feel embarrassed or insecure. WOAH! I do that all the time!!! I thought that was weird. When i'm feeling uncomfortable or insecure as i'm in conversation or in any situation really, i tend to get this really dumb-looking grin on my face. It confuses people sometimes, and it really bothers me a lot of the time. It's dumb. But now i've found some solace in knowing that in certain cultures on the other side of the world, this is acceptable.

Not of this world

The LORD's been teaching me more and more recently just how counter-cultural Christianity should be. Christianity is not just supposed to be a sub-culture of the American Dream, which i think it has been made into in mainstream Christianity. No, we are truly to be "not of this world" (John 17:14-18). We are supposed to be counter-cultural. Christians may say that they are being counter-cultural when they stand up for things like pro-life over abortion, creation over evolution, banning homosexuality, etc., but these are only issues on the surface of our culture (not to mention just political agendas). Our counter-cultural-ness needs to go so much deeper than that. Because we so often don't even realize how deeply our culture affects our Christianity. So often the ways that we pray, worship, sing, talk about the LORD, and all the other ways in which we "do" Christianity are in ways that are culturally acceptable. And call me radical or unpatriotic or whatever here, but despite how much our culture has affected our Christianity, i don't think it's necessarily our job to make our Christianity affect our culture in areas such as politics, etc.

Have we become to comfortable being "of" this world? What are ways in which we need to be more counter-cultural? I don't really know, i'm still figuring this out. This is just my rambling on some thoughts. Any other thoughts?

Obamicon me!

For History of Christianity, Dr. Webb started talking one day about the Obamicon meme that's spreading across the internets. He brought one in of himself, and basically told us that we should turn one of our own in with our mid-term exam. So i did one, and had some good fun with it.



So i get to turn this in tomorrow. Man, i hope i get a good grade for it. At least some extra credit, maybe.

How Come Mom never let me watch The Simpsons?

Biblical parallels anyone?



In case you don't care to watch the entire episode (even though it's a good one), it is about how Homer and his family squander away home equity loans year after year to pay for their wild Mardi Gras parties. So their home gets foreclosed and goes up for auction. Their nerdy but lovable Christian neighbor Ned Flanders buys the house at the auction and rents it back to them. But the Simpson family is annoyed by his helpfulness and generosity and finds reasons to hate him and runs a smear campaign against him, calling him "evil", etc. In anger, Ned evicts the family and throws them out on the street. Eventually Ned remembers how much he loves the Simpson family and brings them back and everyone is happy again.

I'm not sure if this was on purpose, but personally, I see very strong parallels to the relationship between the LORD and the Israelites in the Old Testament. The LORD redeems them from the mess they've made for themselves, and after being grateful for a while, they go back to their old ways and resent the very God who saved them. So the LORD casts them into exile, so they realize what they have been taking for granted. But the LORD is always faithful, even when we are not. Praise God for that! And praise Him that we can see His Truth even in an episode of The Simpsons, of all things.

Edit: Sorry the embed doesn't quite fit. That's disappointing. If you really want to watch the episode well, you can view it at the original page on Hulu.

Words of Isaiah

A passage that the LORD put on my heart today as I'm struggling with stress and all different sorts of things.


"And now the Sovereign LORD and his Spirit have sent me with this message. This is what the LORD says--your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

'I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths that you should follow. Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sands along the seashore--too many to count! There would have been no need for your destruction, or for cutting off your family name.

Yet even now, be free from your captivity! Leave Babylon and the Babylonians. Sing out this message! Shout it to the ends of the earth! The LORD has redeemed his servants, the people of Israel. They were not thirsty when he led them through the desert. He divided the rock, and water gushed out for them to drink. Bu there is no peace for the wicked,' says the LORD."

Isaiah 48:16b-22

I'm Excited...

The new Terminator:Salvation trailer came out today. It looks sweet! This one seems to reveal more plot details than the previous ones.




There's lots of good movies coming out this spring that i'm very excited for, and this is only one of them. Watchmen next week! Look out!