Should I be worried?
Yesterday I almost walked out of the church service. I had shown up for youth group as I always do on Sunday morning, but I was told the group was staying downstairs for service. I don't know what made this day more special than any other non-holiday Sunday. I still don't. I was thinking "okay, good, I will be able to hear a message from the bible. Haven't been to church in a few months, this should be refreshing." Nope, it wasn't to be.
After the missionaries from my church that were serving around the world spoke about where they are serving and what they are accomplishing for the kingdom of God, the pastor opened in prayer and then turned the pulpit over to another minister. For the next 30 minutes this guy shared his testimony of how he was brought back to faith in God by his father. I hate it when I say this, but it was the typical conversion story. You know it sounded like my story, the drinking, the sex, the living in a way that specifically did not honor God. I figured he was just going to use this as a platform for the day's message. So I kept waiting and waitng, nope no biblical teaching in sight, he was still going on about himself and sharing his testimony. Then he started crying, telling us how after it was made clear to him that God loved him and wanted to reconicle and have a relationship with him, the pastor fell to his knees and repented and wept. It would have been very moving, if this didn't sound like every other story I've ever heard. Then in typical evangelical fashion he asked if there was anyone in the audience that was ready to accept Jesus as their savior. Some hands went up and he went into the "sinners prayer".
So my question becomes should I be worried that stories like this no longer move me like they once did? Should I be worried that the decisions that were made in the chapel were based most likely upon emotion rather than true repentence? Who's to say that the people that made a decision for Christ yesterday will actually become disciples of Christ in the future? It seems to me that everytime I hear a story or even share my own story I leave out the "bad" stuff, the fights, the insults, the arguments with people who tried to reach me and I wouldn't listen. I just go on and on about how God eventually reached me and I repented and all has been glorious ever since. If people really knew the hard work that evangelism truly is and how even broaching the subject with people esepcially family members can be destructive to that familial relationship, how many people would willfully engage in it? So is it better that we don't tell them the reality of it, but just give them feel good stories so they will be inspired and go out and get decisions instead of disciples? Am I disillusioned with evangelism or have I become cynical in the past few years? Should I be worried that I feel this way or should I trust God that this is part of His plan for my life? Maybe it's time for me to stop with the stories and move past winning decisions and time to start making disciples.
posted by Zecryphon | 9:57 AM
2 Comments:
I have to say that I am with you on this one.... well the part about not really being touched by peoples testimonys, but arent those for the people that havent been walking with God and/or havent been saved at all. I know how you feel about the converstion crap afterwords I always think that people are just doing it as an emotion. I think that people should know the hard parts so that they know what they are getting into... we dont want to end up like the mormans or jahova whitnesses and get people to become a christian on false pretences. like Jesus said its good to be hot but your better off being cold than luke warm... but who is to say that they did not become true disciples of God. That decision has to be between them and God and we cant be the ones to judge them for what they do. Which sucks most of the time lol.
I forget the exact statistic but it's something like 80% of the people who answer an altar call or make a decision after hearing an emotional testimony, are back to their old way of living, 3 months after making the "decision" for Christ.
You raise a good question that will be addressed in a future posting on this blog, how do we become disciples of Christ? It's an issue we're dealing with right now in youth group with the kids. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? To me, it means we are to live our lives in a way that reflects and honors Jesus' teachings and ministry.
The word Christian, according to Ron Luce, means one who is like Jesus. But what does that mean? How do you "teach" someone to do that? You have to get them into the Word of God on a daily basis, they have to feel the Spirit working within them. It's all very personal and it's not the same for each person.
But the attitude that is usually created with an altar call or by reciting the "sinner's prayer" is "okay I'm saved. Now I can do anything I want, I won't burn in Hell when I die. I'm going to Heaven! Yay me!" This isn't biblically sound. But that's all for another post.
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