Playing Duck, Duck, Damned...?

I had to chuckle when I heard an author speak of door to door type evangelism as a big game of "Duck, Duck, Damned." :)

There have been a ton of thoughts and ideas running through my mind as of late about how we do things like: evangelize, talk about Jesus, and "make disciples of all nations."' My gut instinct is usually to wince when someone is talking about "going out to evangelize." I begin to wonder who will be ducked and who might be intelligent enough to be "damned?"

I have been reading a book that is focusing on the "Reformission" of the church. How can we connect with people, our culture and share the shalom of Christ, in a way that makes sense to unchurched and de-churched immersed in today's culture. During my reading of this book and simply trying to live this way vocationally and personally - two ideas have really stood out thus far.

The first one I wrote about in a blog for Hope Community Church (hopesatellite.blogspot.com) on 6/9/09. Acts 17 finds Paul in the city of Athens - speaking with the philosophers and thinkers of the day. Sidenote: what a life to live in ancient Athens and just sit around and talk philosophy, religion and though - all day! Anyway, this is who Paul is summoned to talk with - and he just starts telling stories about Jesus. I can only imagine the freshness that the stories of Christ brought in comparison with the Grecco-Roman gods. The ideas of wholistic - life changing faith and practice. Good news for the poor, inclusion of the lame and feeble minded and a concept of caring, creator God who wants to interact with humanity. Thinking of the culture in that setting - these ideas where very unique. My argument is that Paul was sharing this in an obviously pre-Christian culture, and that our audience is very similar in out post-Christian culture. Even Athens seems to be so parallel to the worlds that many of us live in, with an interest in personal spirituality, the arts, expression, love and character.

It seems that so many folks in the church today see that type of culture as hostile to the Gospel, and yet I believe it is more primed than ever. When we, like Paul, simply talk about Jesus for what He is, with no connection to the convoluted Americanized, materialized, politicized marketing scheme of past decades, our culture is aching for something/someone like Jesus.

The second idea that stood out to me over the past week or reading on Reformission - is that we often see our progression of "evangelism" in a false light. Traditionally we (in all of our foresight and genius) essentially tell people: "believe in Jesus and then join a church." There are more holes in this approach then there is time here to discuss them. But, I think we have it flipped...

People should be able to relationally and experientially join a faith community and be loved for who they are (not for their "ministry potential") first - and that would be their starting point for a journey of conversion. But the question remains - are we the type of faith community in which this is our practice and all people feel welcomed and loved?

-Whether it is realized or not, all mankind bears the image of the creator God...