vol. 14 no. 4 :: vineyard usa—a community of churches
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THE UNREACHED
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EVER SINCE I WAS FIVE YEARS OLD, I HAVE KNOWN WHAT EVANGELISM WAS AND
WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT. OVER THE YEARS I HAVE TRIED WHAT SEEMS LIKE AN
ENDLESS STREAM OF STRATEGIES TOWARD REACHING PEOPLE FOR JESUS. NEARLY
ALL OF THEM HAVE FAILED—SEVERAL QUITE MISERABLY.
EVANGELISM, GUILT, AND FAILURE
Jeff Heidkamp
I have responded to these failures in various ways. Sometimes
I would simply quit trying for a while until my sense of duty and
obligation kicked in and I knew I should try again. Sometimes I would
feel like a total failure, and then I’d alternate between being mad at
myself and at God for my failures. And sometimes I would come up
with a theological reason why I didn’t need to keep trying.
Here’s what all these responses have in common: they are unhappy.
They feel negative; bad; guilt-inducing. It was a cycle of doom. Feel
guilty. Try evangelism. Fail. Feel bad. Try quitting. Feel guilty. Try
evangelism. And on and on.
I have read numerous books and articles that describe this general
feeling and try to offer some kind of solution. To be honest, none of
them ever worked for me. I think they all have some truth, and I’m
sure all of them helped somebody. They just weren’t helping me or
any number of others who particularly felt the way I did.
Let me outline a few theories of “how to deal with evangelism and
especially how weird and hard it feels” and tell you why they didn’t
help me. Then I’ll outline what did help. My guess is that it might
help a few of you, but not all of you. (Trying to help all of you would
be way too much pressure.)
The “it’s going to be great” theory
Books and articles in this vein are generally written by people who
are extremely charismatic and very good at personal evangelism.
They are people who, over the years, have seen dozens or hundreds
of people come to faith, and they love it. Nothing turns them on more
than seeing people come to faith. And they are sure that if the rest of
us would just try harder, we would have the same experience.
Now, there is a clear problem with this theory, which many of its
advocates recognize. They clearly have gifts the rest of us don’t, and
even if they try not to project themselves onto us, they inevitably do.
But I don’t think that’s actually the main reason they don’t help me as
much as they could. Sometimes they do manage a few good tips that
do lead me to fun encounters of sharing faith. (For my money, the
best of this genre is Bill Hybel’s winsome Just Walk Across the Room.)
The main reason this theory doesn’t help me (and please don’t judge…) is
that the few times I have seen someone come to faith, as happy as I was
about it, it wasn’t quite as good as these authors promised. It was exciting,
sure. But I get equally excited leading worship, preaching, leading small
groups, and watching baseball. The emotional feeling of excitement isn’t
enough to make persevering in evangelism worth it for me.
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The “just be yourself ” theory
These books typically describe a take on evangelism similar to what I
wrote at the front end of this article. They recognize the awkwardness
that talking about religion with either friends or strangers can
have, and the difficulty of answering sticky questions like “Do only
Christians go to heaven?” So, they tell us, stop being so awkward
and manipulative. Just be yourself and share your faith as genuinely
as you can.
Now, on one hand, this is great. I love it. I want to be myself. The
only problem is, in being myself, I will never share my faith. For that
matter, I’ll never meet a new person at all. I’m shy. I realized the other
day that one of the main reasons I wasn’t sharing my faith with my
neighbors is that I was actively avoiding them. If they were outside
when I was going to take out the garbage, I would wait until they
went in. Why? I don’t know. I’m just kind of a loner.
When faith does come up, I get kind of nervous and jumpy, because
I know I’m supposed to do something or say something. This is the
opportunity I’ve been waiting for, and I’m sure I’ll screw it up. So
usually the conversation ends kind of awkwardly. (But wait for the
reveal below where I figure out how to overcome this.)
The “get some guts” theory
I can’t truthfully say I have much use for this one, but I do know it’s
worked for other people. It’s typically a book or article by a gifted
evangelist who has tried writing or teaching in the first two schools
and who is frustrated that it’s still not working. They get a bit fed up
with ungifted evangelists and decide that, at the end of the day, we
are really just lazy cowards.
So they make a really strong biblical pitch, then lambast anyone who
isn’t ready to go out and just try it till the cows come home. Now this
helps some people – mainly lazy cowards. And sometimes those lazy
cowards find they are really gifted, and they go out and start pitching
the “it’s going to be great” theory. And the cycle churns on.
At this point, I have set myself up for failure, because I seem to
be ready to suggest that I have come up with the one approach
to evangelism that is going to trump all these failed approaches. I
haven’t! But I’m not quite as miserable about evangelism as I used to
be, and I’m occasionally a bit excited. And even though I’m not much
more fruitful than I used to be, I do think a few people are getting
more help moving toward Jesus from me than they used to get.
Some pointers forward
What happened, you ask? Well, the true answer is, “I got closer
to Jesus and matured as a person.” Really, I didn’t learn any new
technique or theory. In some sense, a combination of the three
theories above just started to actually work in ways they hadn’t before.
At the same time, I think it might be worth recording some of the areas
of growth that actually helped me move in a direction of health.
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At age five, the main reason I had to evangelize people was that
they would go to hell if I didn’t. That may very well be true – but
psychologically, it’s more than I can handle. I do feel bad and guilty
if I don’t witness, but I end up feeling bad and guilty if I do and it
doesn’t work. And, if I think about it, it seems like I should be going
up to everyone all the time and just telling them about hell, because
it’s so awful. But I simply can’t do that. (For the record, almost no one
else does either.)
Even at that point, I struggle with motivation. I do this because
I should? Because it will help people? Because it pleases God?
Because the Bible says to?
Well, in some sense, all that is true. But I have an anecdote that
plays a different way. I confess that I’ve never talked to my sevenyear-old daughter about either hell or evangelism. I have no idea how
to do it. But I do pray for her a lot. And she loves it. She won’t go to
bed at night until I pray for her, and she herself prays for others a lot,
though it’s usually “in her head.”
Here’s the thing. My daughter finds herself pretty interested in her
friends and how they relate to Jesus. She is aware of the fact that
some don’t go to church. She likes to pray for them, and she often
seems hopeful that they might (in her words) “find out about God.”
So I think, Why is my daughter better at this than me? And, How is
this happening, since I never told her to do it?
Her example drew out in me three ways I’ve grown to find evangelism
a bit less miserable (and occasionally quite encouraging).
First, I decided to be completely honest. I would only ever tell
people things about Jesus I really liked. If there is some idea about
Jesus that I feel obliged to defend, but don’t personally get either,
I’m just going to blow it off. In this sense, the key variable in the
effectiveness of whatever evangelism I attempt is whether I am
actually connecting to Jesus in life-giving ways.
In this sense, evangelism pressures me to enjoy God more. That’s good
pressure. But I want to note that it’s not a pressure to pretend to enjoy
God or to theoretically enjoy God out of a sense of duty and loyalty.
Instead, I will only share true realities from my own experience.
Seven-year-olds are good for modeling this. My daughter isn’t sharing
anything because she feels obligated. With her, it’s all honesty.
Second, I decided that it is harmful not to care about the spiritual
lives of people around me. Anything that is inward-focused is
unhealthy. Sick people isolate. So even if at times it feels a bit
awkward to be in faith-sharing situations, I think it’s ultimately worth
it. I usually take any means I can to move from awkward to natural
and comfortable. But it seems like there are some good things from
God that I can’t get from staying in my little cocoon all the time.
That is to say, I think I have some healthy self-interest wrapped up
in being outward-focused. It’s stifling to be isolated, even if it feels
easier in the short term. So I’m going to keep going for it, doing the
best I can, as much because I humanly need to as anything else.
My daughter knows this intuitively. She loves her friends and seems to
enjoy caring about whether they know about God. This seems important
for her.
Book Recommendations:
Just Walk Across the Room
by Bill Hybels
Third, I decided that failure was no big deal. If something isn’t helping
people move toward Jesus at all, I will either quit trying that particular
thing or I’ll make an adjustment to it. But I just won’t feel bad about it.
In fact, I’ll feel good about it. Heck, all I was trying to do was help people
experience good things from God. What could be bad about that?
Along these lines, I realized that my failures in evangelism previously had
the strange effect of creating doubt about God in me. I was taught that
“the gospel has power to change lives.” But if this was true, I wondered,
why was my proclamation of the gospel so ineffective to change other
people’s lives?
Crazy for God
by Frank Schaeffer
What I realized is that my main evidence for the gospel’s transformative
power is simply my own life. It’s totally changed my life. In awesome ways.
And other people get to decide how much change they want. It’s between
them and God. If I can be involved in pointing the way, so much the better!
But if they aren’t interested, that’s fine for now. We’ll move along.
We just finished up an awesome session of the Seek course at our
church. We had international students from countries where Christian
witness is restricted, a new follower of Jesus from a Hindu background,
and folks from almost no faith background. And a number of folks like me
15 years ago – people who grew up in church, but struggle to understand
what faith can mean for them personally. Some people stayed the whole
time. Some dropped out. Lots of them are further down the road toward
Jesus as a result, and I couldn’t be happier.
For some readers, I would imagine these three changes seem like
no-brainers. You wonder what kind of spiritual infant I’ve been not to
have made them years ago. But for others who might find themselves
interested, I’d like to offer this caveat. What really has to happen to
make evangelism work for you is that you have to change. It isn’t a
new strategy or tactic. It’s you receiving love and blessings from God
and finding that love overflowing to others. That makes the difference.
There’s no shortcut or strategy to do that – it’s actual life with God.
That’s good news. There’s no guilt or discouragement. It’s simply finding
out more and more how much God loves us.
Jeff Heidkamp is the editor of Cutting Edge.
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"WHEN YOU START KNOWING PEOPLE – AND CERTAINLY KNOWING THE NAMES OF THE
PASTORS WHO ARE ACTUALLY EFFECTIVE – THAT’S ACTUALLY A BAD SIGN FOR THE REST OF US."
THE ART OF NON-EVANGELISM
Jeff Heidkamp / Carl Medearis
Carl Medearis is an international expert in the
field of Arab-American and Muslim-Christian
relations. He acts as a catalyst for a number
of current movements in the Middle East
to promote peace-making and to promote
cultural, political and religious dialogue leading
toward reconciliation. He is the author of the
acclaimed book on these issues, Muslims,
Christians, and Jesus. However, Carl is also
extremely interested in how the love of Jesus is
extended in the West, and his insights from the
arab world give him penetrating insight into the
state of evangelism in the U.S. today.
Carl and his family lived in Beirut, Lebanon for
12 years. Today he spends much of his time
working with leaders both in the West and in
the Arab world.
Jeff Heidkamp: You’re not the first person to be uncomfortable with some of the evangelism
in the American church. What’s your personal take on what might not be working effectively in
current evangelism?
Carl Medearis: I tend to look at it from a big-picture level. From my travels to churches and
conferences, I do have a pretty good picture of what’s happening in the U.S. and England. And you’re
right. Evangelism, as we think of it, for the most part isn’t working.
Ask churches, “How many people have you led to the Lord that are now sitting in your church this
year?” The answers are dismal. There are more specific statistics out there, but my sense from traveling
around is that the percentage is close to zero, almost nobody. People in the Vineyard respect someone
like Jay Pathak, because he’s somebody who has actually led a couple of people to the Lord in the last
few years. He’s my close friend and a hero to many. But how many Jay Pathak churches are there? Well,
there’s Michael Gatlin in Duluth doing cool stuff. There’s Dave Schmelzer doing it in a funky postmodern
way, and his church is seeing some results. But when you start knowing people – and certainly knowing
the names of the pastors who are actually effective – that’s actually a bad sign for the rest of us.
I think the reason is because our thoughts about evangelism itself are unhelpful. We have the wrong
theology of evangelism. My recent theory is this: The more strongly you believe Jesus is the only way
and all people need to come to him, which is the claim of the Bible… the more seriously evangelistic
you are.
But we get so hyped up and tied up and confused and tongue-tied in trying to “do evangelism” to
people that we become less effective. More than that, we all kind of believe that it doesn’t actually
work, because we’ve all probably tried it. Unless you’re an exceptionally gifted evangelist — which is
one person out of a thousand — you’ve probably tried to evangelize your neighbors, your coworkers,
your friends, or your family. For the most part, you’ve seen them move farther away from the gospel.
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What if we take a simpler alternative? What if we simply talk about Jesus? We could say, “I love
Jesus. He’s changed my life. It’s an adventure to follow Jesus — it’s exciting. He’s changed
everything in how I think about the world, how the world operates. And I really think it would be
good for you too if you tried following Jesus."
So you subconsciously think, “I’ve tried this, and
it’s not working. Maybe I should just be loving.”
You move into the theology of just living the
gospel, being a presence. It’s sometimes called
presence evangelism. You think you’ll just live
by the quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:
“Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary,
use words.” But we tend to add the word only.
“Only if necessary, use words.” Which means
nobody’s actually out there talking about Jesus
anymore, because we’ve all felt that what we
thought was evangelism doesn’t work.
JH: So we just try to be nicer than everyone else.
CM: But the more liberal churches that aren’t
thinking so much about evangelism are in one
sense being more effective, because they’re
just out there loving people. They’re running
soup kitchens, doing good works; just being
nice to folks. They’re probably more effective in
this culture that we live in. They’re so sensitive
to being evangelized that they set themselves
apart from the evangelicals who are trying so
hard to evangelize in new, clever, sneaky ways.
We have a wrong thought about what good
evangelism is.
The Wrong Thought
JH: What’s the wrong thought?
CM: The wrong thought is that we are pretty
convinced that it’s us. If we can just present
the gospel the “right way,” or if we can just
do evangelism the “right way,” it would be
effective. If only you could be super-sensitive, or
more purpose-driven…or, no, we just need more
miracles! More healing! No, we just need to pray
for people a little bit more. No, you just need
to share more. No, we just need four spiritual
laws. No, we only need three. Actually, we need
an evangelism explosion! No, you’re wrong, it’s
actually the Romans Road! Because we take the
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Bible and Jesus so seriously, it actually pushes
us into this funny position where we’re working
it really hard. We act like weirdos. We come with
all these strange and funny iterations of what we
call the gospel, but it pushes most people away.
What if we take a simpler alternative? What if we
simply talk about Jesus? We could say, “I love
Jesus. He’s changed my life. It’s an adventure
to follow Jesus — it’s exciting. He’s changed
everything in how I think about the world, how
the world operates. And I really think it would be
good for you too if you tried following Jesus. But
I don’t want to tell you what to think…I just want
to share this with you.”
I tell people all the time, “I am not trying to
evangelize you.” If I was trying to evangelize a
person, it would just be me trying to get him to
think what I’m thinking, which doesn’t work. I
can’t even do that with my wife. Or my son. So
how can I get somebody else to agree with my
point of view? How can I proselytize somebody
with an “I’m right, you’re wrong” approach?
I think what God calls us to do instead is to lift up
Jesus. We love him so much. We’re excited and
enthralled. Our lives have been so impacted by
him that we can’t help but speak about him all
the time – but without a hook. There is no hook.
Unfortunately, with a lot of evangelism practices,
most of us are all about the hook. We even
figure out clever little ways to make it seem like
there isn’t a hook. But really, we want to hook
’em. We want to catch the fish and bring them
into our boat called our church.
But what if there really was no hook? Well,
this is where it gets tricky, because there is a
theological hook. There is a place where God
wants you to catch people, right? So there
is a theology of catching fish, but I’m talking
about a methodology or style of fishing. If the
agenda is gone for how I relate to you as a non-
believer, then it’s more inviting and actually
more likely to work.
Lifting up Jesus is what works. Talking about
him all the time. But it’s without the evangelism
either in our vocabulary or in our actions.
JH: So there’s the all-out, stereotypical
evangelist, right? And then there’s the “do
nothing, just be nice” person. You’re saying
there’s another option besides those two things?
CM: Yes, a third option.
JH: So how is this not doing nothing, and how is
it not traditional evangelism?
CM: That’s a great question. It’s not traditional
evangelism because you’re not thinking that
you’re the one getting people. Theologically,
we have to agree that conversion is done by
and through the Holy Spirit. It’s a process of
saying yes to Jesus. Then the actual internal
change or the new life comes by the Holy
Spirit, not us. So in one sense, you and I can’t
really evangelize anybody into the Kingdom
anyway. We’re not the mechanism by which
that happens.
Instead we should say, “Let’s give it to the
Holy Spirit to do the convincing.” Since it’s
not our own agenda, we can relax a bit. We’re
not responsible for everybody coming into
the Kingdom.That’s why we don’t have to say,
“Here’s the deal. Here’s the package. Do you
accept? Yes or no?” Since we’re not the true
agent of change, we don’t have to resort to a
deal like that. We don’t have to figure out more
sneaky and clever ways of getting people into
the Kingdom.
Now, on the other hand, it doesn’t have to be
tough to talk about Jesus, because we always talk
about what we’re most in love with. I mean, I live
in Denver. You don’t have to give me a seminar
about how to cheer for the Denver Broncos. I’ve
never been to a Denver Broncos cheering seminar
in my whole life. Nobody has ever said, “Carl,
when they score a touchdown, you stand up,
throw your hands in the air and shout as loud as
you can.” I’ve never gone to that seminar, and I
don’t need to. It’s all very natural.
Likewise, when you’re talking about Jesus, you
naturally have this joy. When you pray for people,
you want to bless and encourage them. Hopefully
maybe you are healing some sick people, and all
the while presenting this great message. It’s good
news. It’s actually real and good.
My neighbors know something about me, and
so does anyone in the Middle East or wherever I
travel: I don’t care what your background is. If I
just met you at a coffee shop or something, I’m
very likely to end up talking about Jesus. So they
all know me as that guy who talks about Jesus all
the time in a very free way. But I’m not jumping
to close the deal…maybe I’m not even thinking
about it. The more I think about “closing the deal”
or “evangelizing” – or more negatively speaking,
“converting them” or “proselytizing,” then the
less effective I am. I’ve never found anybody
who stands up and says, “Please evangelize
me. I want to be evangelized.” If I start to think
about that, I actually talk about Jesus less! And
then, when I do try, I feel embarrassed, and it
gets awkward. So it isn’t either extreme. It isn’t
an aggressive, forceful approach, but it’s not
avoiding talking about the things of God either.
It’s a critical balance.
Talking About Jesus
JH: I want to talk to people about Jesus. I’ve
found that if I’m not giving away my faith in
some way, then my faith gets insular and lame.
And I like faith. I like Jesus. But as much as I
love Jesus, I won’t naturally bring him up in
conversation. I just don’t know if I’ll do it when
an appropriate moment comes. Do I still need
to be intentional to try to bring Jesus into the
conversation, even if I’m not being aggressive?
CM: That’s actually a great point, because part
of me wants to say no. I’ve said that publicly
before: If you don’t want to talk about Jesus,
please don’t. You’re going to mess it up.
JH: I do and I don’t. I know that he’s great. But I
still just don’t usually bring it up.
CM: I think there are two levels. First, you have
to be really honest with yourself. Do you really
like Jesus? Not just that you love him as your
Savior, but do you like him? Do you enjoy him?
Do you enjoy being consumed by his thinking?
And do you enjoy digging into the whole of
Scripture (not just the gospels), which all points
to Christ? Do you find yourself intrigued and
constantly fascinated by Jesus? So if the answer
to that is mostly yes…
JH: Often but not always…
CM: That’s a fair assessment. Mostly yes…we
mostly do like Jesus. We can enjoy him and
can be intrigued by him. I could say that I often
feel compelled by Jesus. He’s a compelling
figure, and his teachings are awing and seem
upside-down. I’m confused by it. But I think it’s
a great place to be when you’re confused by him
and want to figure him out. Why in the world
would he never answer any questions in the way
people wanted? And why did he say this hard
thing to this person but that syrupy-sweet gracefilled thing to that other person?
Generally speaking, I think he’s awesome. But
if you aren’t really thinking about Jesus a lot,
then you need to settle that first, which is a
different discussion.
Let’s just say most of the Cutting Edge readers
are thinking about Jesus quite a bit, and we all
like him a lot. We think he’s pretty cool, and we’d
love to see more people following him because
we believe he’s changed our lives.
Then the question is, why is it so difficult to
bring him up naturally? I think it is because most
of us have been trained in a very conservative
or traditional paradigm of evangelism that has
been dominated by the idea of a few specific
methods: spiritual laws, the Romans Road,
evangelism explosion, showing The Jesus Film,
and Billy Graham. Maybe there’s a 30-minute
presentation, and at the end you can bring
in the hook. A lot of times it can be a good
presentation of the gospel. A lot of these
methods are essentially the gospel condensed,
which of course is good stuff. But then we get
’em. We catch them and reel them in.
I think maybe in the 1950s or ’60s that might
have worked. It doesn’t work so much anymore,
and I’m not sure Jesus did that with the disciples
anyway. He didn’t sit down with the twelve
disciples after the first year and say, “Hey, guys,
here’s the deal,” and then give them a 30-minute
presentation of who he was…that he would die
on a cross, he’d resurrect, they’d invite him into
their hearts as their Lord and personal Savior,
then the Holy Spirit would come, and they’d be
saved. Jesus never did that.
I think we’ve been trained in this dated way. We
have in our minds so many bad and confusing
thoughts about the word “evangelism.” It’s
important to realize that the word doesn’t
even appear in the Bible, but we still use it
to describe all these actions by churches and
people of faith that don’t exist in the Bible
either. It seems a little odd. The actual phrase is,
“Make disciples.”
I don’t really like to use the word “Christian,”
but it’s such a convenient noun that plays out
with somebody who’s trying to follow Jesus. It
just isn’t as clever of a term. And “evangelism”
has also become a substantial thing we think of.
But it’s such an unhelpful and non-biblical term
that we’ve got to redefine it.
The reasons why we’re not talking about Jesus,
even though we love him a lot, is because we’re
bound up with all these negative connotations.
A Conversation at Starbucks
Yesterday morning I was at Starbucks with a
friend. We were buying coffee, and the lady
behind the counter said, “Have a great day.” I
said to her, “You have a great day too.”
But then I thought for a second and asked her,
“Are you having a good day?” She said, “Oh, not
really.” I said, “Well, it’d be fun to talk about that
sometime.” She said, “Oh, okay.”
She passed by about an hour later, and I
was still talking with my friend. She passed
by another hour later and went, “So?” I had
forgotten about it. I said, “So, what?” She said,
“So you said we could talk about that.”
I said, “Well, my friend and I are just sitting
here talking about Jesus, some things about the
world. She’s very into world politics…There’s
interaction between faith and the world and how
amazing this person was who is a Palestinian
Jew from the Middle East 2,000 years ago. We’re
talking about how creative he was” – kind of
speaking about these things. My friend and I
had already been intellectually wrestling with
these topics as we sat there at Starbucks. I told
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the girl, “You know, I was probably thinking
along these lines when I said that to you. I was
thinking through some ideas.”
The girl said, “Oh, so you’re Christians?” I said,
“Well, I grew up in a Christian environment, but
actually, I’m trying to follow Jesus.” She said, “Oh,
what do you mean?” So she sat down, and that
was it – we were in the middle of a conversation.
But all the words I used were totally different.
If I was thinking, “Oh no, I have to evangelize
this girl and give her the gospel,” I would have
been so confused by what I was thinking that I
wouldn’t have ever said anything about it. But
I was already thinking about Jesus: “Isn’t Jesus
the most intriguing figure of all time?”
We sat there talking about how he engaged the
culture 2,000 years ago. And now, through us,
he engages culture. We were actually talking
about that. It just flowed right from that into
a conversation about the gospel. The girl left
completely stunned by the conversation and
said, “I want to know more about this.” I said,
“There are lots of places to find that. Have you
ever read the book about Jesus?”
She said, “What book about Jesus?” I said,
“Well, people call it the Bible.”
Oh, the Bible. See, again, I never say “the Bible.”
I never say, “Have you read the Bible?”, because
then everybody thinks they know exactly what
you mean. The Bible’s not even really a word.
Somebody just made that word up. It’s not the
Bible; it’s a book chock full of cool things about
Jesus. So why not just say “the book of Jesus”?
People say, “What’s that?” They think Deepak
Chopra wrote that book or something, you
know? So I could say, “Before Deepak Chopra
wrote a book about Jesus, other people did a
few thousand years ago.” [Laughter]
You can have a lot of open-ended conversations
that way. I bet I have a handful of those every
day. I had one this morning with our neighbor
about Jesus where there was no hook. At the
end of the conversation, there was no, “And
would you like to come to church with me on
Sunday?” There was no, “Would you like to
kneel down now and close your eyes and pray
the prayer?”
Those are all things that can be good, and
obviously I’m not against welcoming people
page 10
to church. But instead of praying “the prayer,”
what about encouraging them to pray lots
of prayers about lots of things? But the first
attitude stops us from freely and naturally
talking about Jesus.
I talk about him with people all day, every single
day. Then, through the accumulation of my life,
lots of people come to know Jesus personally. It
gives me the freedom to say that it’s not my job
to convert them, but just to lift up Jesus in their
midst and let the Holy Spirit work. It’s profound,
and it’s helpful for people when they can catch
that. It sets them free.
The Evangelistic Whiteboard
JH: I made a list off the top of my head of the six
most evangelistically effective Vineyard pastors,
and five of them didn’t grow up in church.
CM: Ah-ha. That’s interesting.
JH: Maybe there’s just something about having
grown up in church that does that evangelism
thing to your brain. The minute Jesus comes up
for me in any conversation, I get this anxiety
that I might screw it up. This is the moment I‘m
supposed to be set up for, and I can’t remember
what I’m supposed to say. I’m a pastor, for crying
out loud! But my mind will still go blank.
CM: That’s so true. I feel that all the time. I’ll
be doing a seminar on this stuff, and someone
will ask, “When somebody says such-and-such,
what do you say?” And I’ll say, “Who knows? I
say whatever comes to my mind. I don’t have
any formula.”
People ask me, “Well, what if the other person
says, ‘How can God be so loving when people in
Africa are dying of AIDS?’ What should I say?”
I say, "That's a good point...I don't know." And
the people at the seminar will say, “Well, that’s a
stupid response.”
Just as you said, we’re all wondering if we’re going
to screw it up and we’re going to say the wrong
thing, or we’re worried we’ll say too much. We
have what I call “the evangelistic whiteboard” in
our heads. In these seminars, I’ll ask, “What does
somebody need to know to be saved?”
The people at the seminar start to point out
words and phrases. I write them all down. I
almost always fill up the whole whiteboard or
blackboard with words. All good words, mind
you. You know, “the cross,” “heaven,” “grace,”
“justification,” “atonement,” and “you’re a
sinner,” and “God’s perfect,” – all kinds of
things. But interestingly, usually "Jesus" isn’t
on the board.
Then I say, “Okay. So now you’re standing at the
grocery store line. There’s a lady in front of you
with two little kids, and they’re both screaming.
They’re grabbing candy bars. She looks at you
out of desperation and says, ‘Oh, God, help.’
You look at her and start to freeze up, because
you’re thinking, ‘I wonder if she actually
meant that. I wonder if I should say something
profound to her.’
“Then you think of the whiteboard and all
the words on it. You try to figure out how to
translate the whiteboard of doctrine and say
something to the lady that’s helpful. So what do
you do? You just go, “Oh…’ Isn’t that strange?”
You don’t say anything to the poor lady because
you’re thinking all the wrong things.”
Now, again, it’s not that it’s bad stuff. It’s right
stuff and good doctrine, which you want to have
if you are going to talk about God and the Bible
and Jesus. But it’s not very helpful in that kind
of setting.
I honestly don’t think it’s that surprising that
pastors who are doing some really neat things
didn’t grow up in the church. We have to unlearn
so much.
“Well, yeah. But it’s honest. I actually don’t
know what you’d say about that. I mean, that’s
a bummer and I hate it. I’ve actually been there.
I’ve seen people dying of AIDS. It’s not very
much fun. I don’t know why a loving God would
allow that. You know, that’s a great question.”
JH: So here’s the question. If these great pastors
didn’t grow up in church, what should pastors
tell people so that we don’t train them the wrong
way? Other than telling people to buy your book
and inviting you to our church to speak, how
do we present this idea of talking about Jesus
without trying to “evangelize” people?
Now, I could give a theological answer about
original sin or something and talk into that a bit.
But it’s okay to be honest.
CM: Well, of course I would love them to buy my
books and invite me to their church, because
that’s what I do when I’m here in the States!
[Laughs] But other than that, I think the leader
of the church really needs to model what we’re
talking about.
I’ve been to churches where there is a time for
people to come forward for something, like a
traditional altar call for people to come and
receive salvation. That’s very appropriate. But
how you say it from the front sets the tone.
Instead, if we model the process of following
Jesus, it’s more like requesting a person to
follow Jesus with you, saying, “Let’s do it
together.” Maybe at some point, the Holy
Spirit does intersect that person’s life, and they
become saved. It could be earlier or later than
you would have imagined, but that’s not really
our responsibility.
The Good News Is a Person
Pastors have to know that they are setting the
tone every time they say anything. Obviously,
the words they use sets the tone for all the
people in their church to go out and translate
that into real life.
So if the pastor says to people, “Would you
come forward this morning to accept Jesus
Christ as your Lord and personal Savior? If you
would like to become a Christian this morning,
come forward. We’ll pray with you, and you can
receive Christ.” Those are all fair things to say,
things we generally agree with.
But what if the pastor said this? “There might
be somebody here this morning who has never
said your first ‘yes’ to Jesus. Maybe you’re feeling
stirred in your heart a little, and you want to come
forward and say, ‘Yes.’ Maybe you don’t know
what the ‘yes’ means, exactly. You don’t know
where it leads. You’re a little confused about
some of the details of the issue…wondering
if you’re signing up for something or ‘joining
this religion.’ You’re not sure if you want to do
something like that. But what if you just want to
look into the process of following this amazingly
interesting person, Jesus of Nazareth?”
People come forward, and you pray for them.
Maybe you’ll lead one to the Lord in the more
traditional sense, because they’re weeping and
saying, “I’m a sinner. I need to repent.” But
maybe another person is skeptical and says, “I
feel like I’m maybe that person you were talking
about. But I’m an agnostic, so I’m not really sure.”
You can say, “Great. Would you like to say a small
‘yes’ to Jesus? Maybe you think he’s interesting…
will you say yes to exploring more about him?”
The person might say yes to the exploration.
This way, you as a leader are giving language
to the audience. Then when they’re out in the
workplace, thinking about sharing their faith,
they don’t think, “I need to do an altar call at my
job today.” Nobody can really do an altar call
at their job. But modeling is powerful. That’s all
they know.
JH: Is there anything else you would like to talk
about relevant to this?
CM: Even though I said the word “evangelism”
isn’t in the Bible, the idea of evangelism clearly
is. But we should emphasize the good news.
And my central message to people is that the
good news is a person. It’s Jesus! He himself is
the good news. He embodies it. We follow him.
So, in a sense, we’re “Jesus-ing.” We do it by
lifting him up and talking about him constantly
and naturally.
There is no mandate to talk about Christianity
in the Bible. There’s no mandate to do a
comparative analysis with other religions. The
mandate is to call people to follow Jesus. That is
what we are participating in with him.
The method of preaching Christianity as an
apologetic defense of a worldview, over and
against other people’s beliefs, is probably faulty
at best and seriously harmful at worst. It can
actually set back the cause of Christ.
Instead of that, we could be “Jesus-intrigued.”
But remember, we’re calling people to follow
Jesus because they want to. We need to
remember that most people when they truly
meet Jesus — not Christianity — want to follow
him. It’s not a contest – my beliefs against your
beliefs. It’s not a clash of civilizations. We can
relax about it without having to defend anything.
That process sets people free.
JH: I have to ask, are you saying all religions
are equal?
CM: I would say yes! The way I say it is, all
religions are equally inept. Which religion saves
you? None do. If you define “religion” the way
that the world does, it’s a belief system. It’s like
what you mean if you say people in Europe are
all Christians. Or that nearly everyone in America
is a Christian. 90 percent of Americans still tick
the box that states their religion as Christianity.
So if you think of religion as a sociological
distinction, which I believe it is, then I still
believe no religion is better than another. We’re
all equally screwed up.
If somebody says, like you just did, “Are you
saying all religions are the same?” – I confess I
like to freak them out by saying, “Yep, I’m saying
that.” And they say, “What? You’re a universalist.
I knew you were – I knew it. I knew there was
something funny going on here.”
And I say, “You didn’t ask me if I’m a universalist.
I think there’s only one way to heaven, and
it’s not Christianity. It’s Jesus Christ. You’re
just confused because you think Jesus equals
Christianity. That’s the problem. “
If you ask someone from the Vineyard, “Does
the religion of Christianity save you?”, of
course he would say, “No, it’s Jesus Christ.”
But then if he asks, “Are all religions the
same?” and I say yes, he would say, “What do
you mean, all religions are the same?” All of
a sudden, he is defensive about Christianity,
even though he has just said it doesn’t do
anything anyway.
Once again we confuse ourselves with our own
labels. We have confused Jesus with Christianity.
JH: And if there’s one particularly effective tactic
that you’ve come up with, it’s simply to talk to
people about the crucial distinctions between
Jesus and Christianity in our culture. Right?
CM: Yes.
JH: In other times, it just wasn’t so important to
make that distinction. But when we talk to people
in our culture now, that distinction is enormous,
and we’d better make sure we make it!
The Harvest is Ripe
CM: My family learned that there needed to be
a distinction just because we’ve lived in other
places. People ask me how I come up with these
things. Well, my family lived in Beirut for 12 years.
You’d figure it out too if you lived there. In Beirut,
everyone is either Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox,
or Druid. If you go to Israel, everyone is Jewish. If
you come along and talk about Christianity, you
find out very quickly that it has no power. Either
someone is already a Christian because they
continued on page 26
page 11
2010
THE STATE OF
EVANGELISM IN
Jeff Heidkamp / Leith Anderson
page 12
0
LEITH ANDERSON IS THE SENIOR PASTOR AT WOODDALE EVANGELICAL CHURCH IN
MINNESOTA, WHERE HE HAS SERVED FOR MOST OF HIS ADULT LIFE. HE IS ALSO THE
PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS.
Jeff Heidkamp: From your perspective, how is the evangelical church
doing at evangelism in America?
Leith Anderson: It’s mixed. But speaking really big-picture? Not as well
as a few years ago.
JH: How so?
LA: I’m still shaping my thinking on this, but my latest thoughts have
been that we go through phases within evangelicalism (and broader
Christianity) that are approximately generational. Maybe there’s a period
of twenty or thirty years where we fluctuate between a primary emphasis
on evangelism and a primary emphasis on discipleship.
JH: Interesting.
LA: For example, we went through a phase with things like the evangelism
explosion, the church growth movement and seeker churches.
JH: ’70s, ’80s, ’90s?
LA: Yes. But the one thing they all had in common, though they had very
different approaches, was an emphasis on evangelism. There was a lot
of talk, and Campus Crusade movements, and some evidence of those
things coming before that. But the phase before that seemed to put a
great deal of emphasis on discipleship. Evangelicals in America were
more cloistered and segregated from broad society.
For whatever reason, I think now we are re-entering a phase of emphasis
on discipleship. Many churches that have been self-defined as seeker
churches are saying, “Oh, now we’re going to go deeper. Now we’re going
to develop disciples.”
The people that emphasize evangelism typically say, “What we’re trying
to do is to make disciples.” And the people that emphasize discipleship
say, “When we disciple people, they will become evangelists.”
I actually have more confidence in the people that do evangelism
(making disciples) than I do the people who primarily emphasize
discipleship (making evangelists). That’s partially because the people
that are most effective in evangelism are usually the most recent
converts who often have the broadest network of unbelievers.
But discipleship often drives people more deeply into the church culture,
which means their network of friends and acquaintances are believers.
They are therefore less able and less effective at evangelism.
This is the current mood in my take. What I think I need to do, and what I
would like to see others do, is to make disciples. That is the mandate of the
Great Commission. But maybe we should emphasize evangelism in a way
counter to the Christian culture: evangelism must always be our priority.
JH: So do you think the term “back to discipleship” is ultimately
unavoidable, or would you say it’s simply negative?
LA: I think it’s typical. Why do I think it’s happened? Partially because
there is an inevitable cycle. It’s a little bit like churches that have great
preachers for pastors who are poor administrators, so the next pastor
they look for is a good administrator. Then with the next pastor, they look
for a preacher. There’s a natural cycle to all that.
I fear that evangelicals have become less evangelistic, and we are not seeing
the explosive growth of established evangelical churches that we saw in
the 1990s. When we are no longer effective in evangelism, we often turn to
discipleship, which becomes a cover for our decreased effectiveness.
JH: It gives us something to do.
LA: It gives us a “legitimate” excuse for not doing evangelism.
JH: Broadly speaking, are there certain groups of people in Western
society that aren’t being reached very well?
LA: Well, there are always groups. We tend to do best in evangelism
when people are at critical points in their lives: marriage, the birth of
a child, becoming independent of parents, or reaching retirement. But
we’ve been especially effective when people have relocated. And the
economics of this decade have reduced the mobility of Americans.
If anything, we have young adults moving back in with their parents,
rather than moving to another city where they’re not socially connected
(and therefore more open to the gospel).
JH: Right.
page 13
LA: So reduced mobility is a natural trend away from effective
evangelistic opportunity. We clearly have a new challenge in terms of
young adults. My best take is that people who grow up in some religious
setting, evangelical or otherwise, tend to retain the values of their family
and background through the first year away from home – say, in the
military or in college. If they’re going to stray from that, it’s most likely to
begin in the sophomore year or the second year away. Then, people have
historically returned to return to spiritual and religious interests when
they marry and have children.
The marrying age in America was fairly high in the late 1800s and
early 1900s, but came to an almost historic low in the late 1950s and
early 1960s. Now we’re moving back toward the norm, where we have
males in their late 20s and females in their mid-to-late 20s who are
the averaging marrying age. But we also have a lot of people who are
waiting until their 30s. That means, being away from home and being
away from rooted spiritual values has stretched now into a 12-year
period. And people are having children later. The gap away from
traditional backgrounds has grown larger.
LA: That’s really good, because that’s exactly the way we have a
20-something generation thinking! It’s okay to be tangential, you know.
That’s an important thing to remember, because we have an older
generation that has to stay on topic and has to be linear. We have to have
all these plans. But we have a younger generation that just isn’t thinking
that way.
JH: That’s right. I get teased from mentors and others about not staying
on topic.
LA: Well, for instance, "The Gathering" is our Sunday night service. It’s a
very young crowd. We do some different things. Early in the service, we
say, “Make sure your cell phone’s turned on." We want all cell phones on,
because we want people to send tweets back and forth within the service
and outside the service. We also ask people to send instant-message
questions about the teaching time. Then I answer some of the questions
at the end. We dialogue about it.
JH: So you are solidified into your “new identity” longer?
JH: I think I heard you were starting that.
LA: Yes. Historically, what has happened is that people have drifted away
from spiritual and religious roots starting at 18, and then they slowly drift
back. Eventually, by the time people reach the age of 70, they are nearly
back to the spiritual place they were at age 18.
LA: People love it. We don’t come close to answering to all the questions,
so we try to have someone on our Facebook page answer the questions
we didn’t get to during the service.
JH: Really?
LA: Some studies would seem to indicate. If that’s true, then…“Well, if we
wait long enough” – you know! But most of us aren’t going to calculate
another 50 years out for people.
However, I do think it says that we have a fresh challenge and a fresh
opportunity with 20-somethings.
JH: So what can existing churches do, and what kinds of churches could
we plant, to reach that group?
LA: I think there are a couple of factors there. One is, in the 20-something
segment there is a wonderful core of zealous, passionate, committed
Christians who are countercultural. They are stunning in their effectiveness,
their belief systems, their evangelistic outreach. Some people have guessed
that it’s 10 or 15 percent of the overall cohort. So we need to build off of them
and give them the opportunity to come to leadership, to relate to the culture,
and to be effective. That’s one piece of it.
A second piece is that we have a generation increasingly postmodern
in thinking. They might be much less linear than their parents and more
persuaded to the gospel by narrative than by deductive argument. I’m
not sure anybody has really been argued into the kingdom. I rarely hear
of people who have really come to faith through apologetic argument.
It’s an important part of the equation, but in every generation it’s almost
always through relationships that people come to faith.
Also, the social networking of the younger generation is a critically
important aspect.
page 14
JH: Maybe it’s a bit tangential, but I’d like to get your take on that.
Sometimes I will use a particular word once in the teaching time. A week
ago Sunday night, I made a passing reference to sex, although it didn’t
have much to do with the rest of the sermon. Well, all you have to do is
use the word – or even the word “six,” which sounds a lot like “sex”! –
and then there are a whole bunch of questions about sex.
What’s happened is, you have people that are listening, and they pick up
one little piece that may not be the central theme of what it’s about. But
I think the old way was to say, “That’s not what it was about, so that’s
an invalid question.” I think the new way is to say, “If that’s the way your
thinking went, let’s go down that path and see where God’s going to lead
us. Let’s see what the learning and interactive opportunity is there.”
JH: Looking at the next 50 years, or even the next 20, what are some of
the most difficult issues that Christians are going to face in your mind –
and how do they play into evangelism?
I think of current controversial issues like homosexuality or pluralism.
How do we address issues like those in an evangelistic moment?
LA: I have no idea what we’re going to face in 20 or 50 years. It will
probably be a very different set of issues than it is now. Two primary ones
you mentioned now are sexual and gender issues – homosexuality in
particular – and exclusivity.
But another huge issue is this: What is justice, and how does it play out
in our broader culture? We have a generation gap that is happening with
that issue.
The younger generation is more concerned about hands-on social justice…
issues like creation care, international relations, and peace issues.
Now, I don’t think these issues are quite as high as homosexuality
and exclusivity in terms of individual conversation. We do have some
serious challenges on those issues. It isn’t that as evangelicals we don’t
have answers; it’s that those answers are not the answers many people
want to hear. The answers appear to be arrogant, unacceptable, and
inappropriate when compared to broadly accepted cultural norms.
In conversation, I would probably say, “Is it okay to talk about what I
consider to be central issues in terms of the gospel message? And then we
can talk about these other issues. Or do you feel like we need to talk about
these things first? If you do, in all fairness, then I’ll give my best answers.”
But always give answers to those issues in a way that is respectful of the
other person’s opinion. Sometimes it’s as much about the way we talk
and present our responses as it is about the actual words. And whenever
possible, especially with younger adults, I would try to do it in a narrative
way rather than an argumentative way. I would rather talk about someone’s
story and history, how they related, and what the outcome was.
But those are not easy issues to speak about.
JH: If you’re going to preach a sermon facing today’s difficult issues, how
important is it for churches to have a public stance on things like that? Is it
something that should be kept in the background, or should we speak about
things like gay marriage and speak about having only one way to Christ?
LA: I’m not sure that I want to be prescriptive. I think everybody needs
to figure out how they’re going to respond in their particular context.
The response in rural Georgia may be different than it is in Northern
Metropolitan California.
Mainly I become concerned when all these other topics distract from the
central good news of the gospel. At the end of the day, I don’t want to
have addressed all these issues without the gospel coming through.
How sad would that be?
Look at Jesus and Paul and the sermons they preached. They were very
good at relating to their times, but they always came back to the central
message of the gospel and the kingdom. That’s what we must be sure
we’re going to do. So should a church take a stand on some of the other
things? Maybe sometimes we have to – as long as the gospel is central.
JH: Say you’re talking to someone like I was, a 25-year-old getting ready
to plant a church. From an evangelistic standpoint, how do you maintain
a focus on really caring about reaching people for Christ for your whole
life? What does a person do at the front end so that they don’t get 40
years down the line and are just keeping the church floating? I want to be
passionate and reach people for Jesus for my entire life. What does that
take? How did you do that?
you’ve played all of the game by the rules, and you’ve gone through all
the hoops, and you haven’t gotten anywhere you wanted to be.
We need to keep bringing ourselves back to evangelism and the good
news of the gospel. Try not to be focused on these other things. See
them in terms of reaching people and hanging out with people that have
a passion for the gospel and evangelism. Who we’re with is an important
part of what we do. We want to be influencers, but we’re influenced by
the people that we’re with. That’s helpful for me, since Wooddale has a
significant organizational structure. It’s really important for me to spend
time with people who couldn’t care less about my organizational structure.
It brings me back to this: What is the highest priority? I’ve been a pastor
here for 34 years, and I see a primary responsibility to constantly,
constantly, constantly bring the church back to outreach. We are not here
for ourselves. We are here for others. To the people in the church, I have
to say, “You are here for the people that are not yet in the church.” I say
to our staff (probably too often!), “The organization does not exist to
give you a job. You work here to fulfill the purpose of Jesus Christ for this
organization. If at some point you can’t do that, it’s not that we’re mad
at you or you’re a bad person. It’s that we’ve got to go on, because we’ve
got to stay focused on what we’re all about.” That’s my job.
But it’s hard to do. When the attendance is down, and the offering
doesn’t come in, it’s hard not to focus on those things.
We have six values that we state for Wooddale, things like being Biblebased and God-centered and future-looking and disciple-making. You can
read the paragraph underneath each of them on our website. And there’s
one line that says this – and this isn’t a paraphrase: In the deployment of
resources, when it comes down to a choice between serving the people
in the church and serving the people outside the church, our first priority
will be those outside the church.
We bend over backwards to serve people in pastoral care and things
related to it. But if it comes down to a choice, it’s the people that are lost
that come first.
[END]
Book Recommendations:
Leadership that Works
by Leith Anderson
LA: The difficulty with any pastoring, and particularly church planting,
is that it’s a difficult thing to do. It’s just plain hard work. It’s like
pushing water uphill for a long time. You are consumed by survival and
infrastructure issues. Finding a place to meet. Returning a telephone
call. Having enough money in the budget. Dealing with compliance
issues: do you have enough staff? Do you have your W-2s? These things
can become all-consuming until, at the end of the day or the end of life,
page 15
page 16
ROBBY DAWKINS PASTORS THE VINEYARD FOX VALLEY IN AURORA, ILLINOIS, WITH
HIS WIFE ANGIE. HE TEACHES INTERNATIONALLY ABOUT HEALING, DELIVERANCE,
PROPHETIC MINISTRY, AND OUTREACH.
POWER EVANGELISM HIGH RISK, HIGH REWARDS
Robby Dawkins
CE: What do you mean when you talk about “power evangelism”?
Robby Dawkins: Power evangelism is using the “power gifts” –
healing, prophecy, deliverance, and ministry of the manifest presence
of God – to reach people. It can be outside or inside the church with
people who are not believers. Power evangelism in action makes
people curious about Jesus. They realize, “God is real, and he wants a
relationship with me. He cares about my situation.”
Those four areas of ministry make God very present in the moment.
They’re the four things that I tend to use when I talk about power
evangelism. But it also includes any kind of supernatural activity that
brings people into a place of wanting to know more about Jesus.
CE: What makes power evangelism unique and powerful in people’s
lives, as opposed to other kinds of evangelism?
RD: Power evangelism literally brings God into their current situations.
It gives them something tangible to see and to recognize, even if
they’re not specifically on the receiving end of the power.
We prayed for a guy about his kid’s heart problem, and there was
another man with me that wasn’t really a solid Christian. He was
teetering, coming to church because his wife wanted him to. But he
was curious, so he came along. Now, this boy had seven holes in
his heart. Every one of them closed up. He had no surgery. It was a
documented miracle.
It blew away this man on the sidelines. He literally saw this
listless child get up and run around like a completely healthy
child. The child had never done that before. It was bizarre; God
didn’t just heal the holes in the boy’s heart, but he also gave him
strength instantly.
The great thing about power evangelism is that it makes God
tangible to the individual.
CE: It sounds like a few very special people can participate in
healing. God healed the boy’s heart through you. So what does
that have to do with us? Many people think, “I don’t heal hearts. I
don’t see visions for people.” How is power evangelism something
universal that everybody can try?
RD: We have more power and authority than we realize, if we would
try to use it. It’s like a debit card. We have an account, and we might
not know exactly how much is on it.
I was in Armenia, speaking at different churches which were more
Pentecostal. They would say, “You’re this special person that God has
just blessed in that way.” I said, “No, I just try more often.” The more
you try, the more you do see it happen. John Wimber said, “I had to
pray for 1,000 people before one was healed.” The reason why I see
more spectacular stuff is because I’m doing it more. I guarantee I have
the same failure rate as everybody else.
page 17
But failure is not bad. Weight-lifting promotes failure, the actual
muscle fatigue, because after the “failure” you begin to get stronger
and your body is learning. If you don’t fail, you’re not learning. Each
time that we pray and healing doesn’t happen, the failure is wrapped
up in God’s sovereignty and in the fact that we have an enemy who is
still ruling this world.
that I don’t know at all, it’s not always as bad, actually. If I’m asking
my Catholic neighbor, or my Baptist neighbor, or my Evangelical Free
neighbor, I am more nervous that they might have some opposition to it.
There is more out there for us if we would keep pressing into it. I
do agree that some people are a little more specially gifted, but it’s
like anything else – some people are more gifted speakers, some
are introverts and better at reflection, some are better at relating to
others, and things like that. The Scriptures say we should all do the
work of an evangelist. I think that means that we all have power. It’s
just whether or not we’re using it. Going after it is crucial to seeing
more things happen.
RD: I think once you try it and it happens, you’re addicted. My 17-yearold goes almost every weekend, and the other day he led one of his
buddies to the Lord. He had him out within two days praying for people
on the street, and I said, “Son, give him a little chance to be a disciple.”
CE: When people talk about this, they either lay down a guilt trip,
which is easy to reject, or they don’t push at all. You’ve hit this middle
ground of, “Hey, you’re all right. God loves you. Try more.”
It’s developing a culture like the church culture in Acts. There was a
culture of power, a culture of the presence that was there. It’s also
reestablishing in us a culture of the knowledge of who we really are.
So what could somebody do even tomorrow to start using that debit card?
What are some of the “availability” examples you were talking about?
CE: You have a phrase: “Let’s take it to the streets.” That’s powerful,
but a little vague. What do you mean by it?
RD: One example is, I met a mother when I was out in Portland, Oregon
a couple of weeks ago. She said to me, “You know, I’m not out with
gang members like you are. I’m not out in the community. There aren’t
a bunch of drug dealers that go to my church.”
RD: I just mean that you go outside of the church. “Take it to the
streets” is going into the marketplace. At work. At the grocery store.
When you stand at bus stops…a lot of people at our church ride the
bus. They’ve had to learn to do shorter prayers, one or two minutes
long. But we’re Vineyard people. We usually pray a long time! So we’ve
had to bring that down a little bit in different circumstances.
Well, she had a mom’s play date the weekend I was there, and a
woman came in who had a wrist brace on. So she prayed for her,
and the lady’s pain level dropped halfway. She prayed again, and it
dropped another quarter of the way. By the time she was done, the
lady was only feeling a level-one pain when she started out with a
level of ten.
That’s what we’re after. With anybody, in any situation, we are
always around people who need prayer. These two women started a
conversation. The woman who had had the wrist pain asked, “Why
would God care about healing me?” The response can always be,
“Because he loves you.”
We don’t earn or deserve God’s love. But if I had ten Christians and
ten non-Christians, I promise you I’ll see more healing with the nonChristians. I can pray for them, but in order for me to see healing with
the ten Christians, I’ve got to be showing God’s power to the nonChristians too. If God’s power is going to come back into churches,
we’ve got to be showing it elsewhere as well. It could be in a grocery
store, or at the gas station, or during reading time with the kids at the
library. It gives the message, “This applies and it works.”
The further it is away from a religious or spiritual situation, the greater
the response.
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CE: How long did it take until you didn’t feel nervous anymore? I feel
like that’s the number-one reason people don’t try it.
He said, “Dad, I don’t want him to get cold. He’s hot right now. And I
also want him to know this is a culture. This is what we do. We have
power, and this is what we do.” And I said, “You’re right. Go ahead.”
But it can still be anywhere, at any time. We are surrounded by
opportunities for the kingdom to break in, and that breakthrough can
be hinged on our attempts.
CE: There are two things here. One is everyday life: “I’m going to
work. I’m being aware of my normal surroundings.” But you also have
intentional time where you go out for two hours and do something in
the streets.
RD: There’s a group at least every week that goes out from our church,
and every other week I go with them. People call us from other
Vineyards and say, “Hey, can we go out with you? Will you take us
out?” It’s almost like tours now, practically.
We go and break up into groups of two or three, no more than that. Then
we just walk around downtown. Sometimes we’ll go into edgier places,
like the bar districts. I like it, because the darker the environment, the
more likely you’re going to see powerful stuff happen. It’s more of a
contrast to what we see as the norm. You feel like the enemy is kind of
whirling a little more, affecting people more in places like that. But it’s
also where you’re more likely to see supernatural things happen.
CE: Do you still feel very nervous about praying for strangers or your friends?
Sometimes we’ll go downtown or to the mall or to Wal-Mart. We just
approach people and say, “Hey, can we pray for you?”
RD: There are different degrees. I actually feel more nervous when I’m
asking somebody that I know goes to another church. If it’s somebody
We also have an intercessory method. Some of our people are more
wired for intercessory prayer, which means they’ll pray beforehand and
ask God to show them places of pain. They’ll see a dolphin, and they’ll
feel like they’re supposed to go to Wal-Mart and look for someone
wearing something with a dolphin on it. Maybe the Lord shows them
something about that—that the person has a knee problem. So they’ll
see a man with a dolphin on his shirt, and they’ll ask him, “Do you have
a knee problem?”
About 70 percent of those turn out accurate. At the very least, it starts
a great conversation.
Those situations happen as part of intentional evangelism. But we also
have the “as-you-go” method, which is how we refer to it. It’s a more
naturally supernatural method.
CE: If you don’t have a vision about someone, or you don’t have
anything to go on, but you want to be faithful…then what?
RD: I just go out and I just look for people at that point – period. I
especially have a heart for the poor. I believe that poor people can
get healed faster and will get touched by God faster. I’ll tend to get a
prophetic word for them more quickly.
CE: So you’re going to Wal-Mart. You’re not going to Neiman Marcus
or anything.
RD: Right. So I’ll just walk through and think, Okay, whoever I feel
drawn to… I might see someone who’s limping, or somebody with a
walker. I was at the pool with my kids, and we saw a woman with a leg
shorter than the other. We prayed for her, and her leg grew out.
So I just look for things that are unusual or that jump out at me. I’ve
realized that the more I do it, the more things I see. And I love seeing
healing happen. Either I’ll look especially for people who need healing,
or I’ll just walk up to someone and pray for them and trust that God
will give me a word for them. It could be as simple as, “I really feel the
Lord wants you to know how much he loves you.”
That’s actually the most powerful prophetic thing you can say to
anybody. That’s what made Touched by an Angel such a popular TV
show for a while. The story line didn’t matter. People wanted somebody
looking at them through the canvas, saying, “God loves you.”
Whether I receive a word or picture beforehand or not, I usually approach
people and say, “Listen, I love praying for people. I love seeing God touch
people. Is there anything I can pray for you about? Any sickness? Do you
need a job? You need financial help?” It doesn’t matter what they give
me; just something to engage in with them. Honestly, the majority of
people say, “No, I’m good. Thank you, though.” Then I say, “Well, could I
just give you a blessing? And could I bless you right now?”
The majority of people will stop and say, “Yeah, yeah. You could
give me a blessing.” I say, “Okay. Can I put my hand here on your
shoulder?” I like to touch them if they are okay with it.
“Father, I just pray that you would just come right now and just bless
So-and-So (I’ve gotten the person’s name by then). Would you minister
to him and show them how much you love him? Father, would you
come? Feed him with your presence. Overwhelm him with the reality
of your blessing on him. Would you make your blessing known to him
right now?”
The whole time I’m doing this, I’m using the five-step prayer model.
I will guide what’s happening, and then I’ll ask questions. Even if I
suddenly know something, I’ll stop and ask questions because I don’t
want to freak people out if I’ve been shown something about them.
Like, I’ll stop and say, “Do you have a daughter? I see a picture of this
younger woman, and I feel like she’s going through…” and I’ll tell them
what I think is happening. If they don’t have a daughter, or maybe the
girl was a niece or someone like a daughter, I still go ahead and give
the word it seems that I received. Within that prayer for them, God
usually shows up somehow.
The important thing is, all of this requires risk. There is no easy way.
There’s no way to eliminate the risk in order for things to happen.
At the very least, if nothing happens – if you don’t get a picture, if you
don’t get a word or anything – I’d still say 85 to 90 percent of the time,
these people are hugely impacted by the fact that you would care.
Right there is a demonstration of God’s power. That you would just
care enough to want to pray for them says volumes. I have huge power
stories, and I have small power stories, but yet, it’s just the fact that
you would care.
I was praying for a guy who died in Puerto Rico. I prayed for him to be
raised from the dead there on the street. But he was still dead. Fifteen
minutes later, the cops were pulling me off. They said it could be a
potential crime scene.
Yet, about 25 people were gathering around watching. People were
crying. The pastor who was my host there in Puerto Rico said, “Do
you know what they’re saying?” I said, “No.” And he said, “They’re so
touched that you would care enough to try. They’re moved.”
Ten of those people came to the church that Sunday. Two of them
gave their lives to Christ. And nothing happened. No prophetic word,
no raised guy from the dead, but two people gave their lives to Christ
because somebody was willing to take a risk and cared enough to do it.
Even in the failure, success happens. Because we obeyed. Because
we went. Our idea of success is the perfect healing: the perfect clear,
prophetic word, the guy being raised from the dead, the being and
believing in 20 minutes or less. That’s our idea of success.
But God’s idea of success is that we go, just because he said so.
CE: So, in sum, God’s power is available to us, even specifically
outside of church. We can see that power come when we pray for
our friends who aren’t churchgoers or when we happen to run into
somebody who looks like they need prayer.
But there’s also power in intentionally going places where we might
have a chance to pray for somebody – and, at the very least, simply
praying God’s blessing even if we don’t have some sense of healing or
prophetic ministry.
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The bottom line is, underneath all of that, there is still risk and faith.
No matter what the situation, if there is no risk and faith, there’s no
opportunity for God’s power to come.
RD: So much authority and power is waiting on us. As people begin to
do these things, they will begin to see things happen. I’ve seen people
who have prayed and nothing happens. I guarantee you they stopped
praying as a result. Remember, things are going to happen the more
that you do them. It’s something that you grow in.
We mature in it! The more we persevere despite the resistance of
things not happening, the more it is actually strengthening us. Satan
tries the whole time to convince us, “You don’t have a prophetic
ministry. You don’t have a healing ministry. You don’t have a
deliverance ministry. You can’t go do these things.”
You’re going to get discouraged. Things are not going to happen that
you want to happen. The point is that you keep going, regardless. You
will see it kick in and start happening again. I hit those points too.
There have been several months in a row where I prayed and it seemed
like nothing happened.
But I kept going for it. Perseverance is key. Press into it and say, “I’m
sticking with it, no matter what, because I know it pleases the Father.”
I tell people that it’s like approaching an automatic door. If I stand
25 feet away and say, “I command that door to open in the name of
Jesus,” or better yet, “God, if you’ll open that door, I’ll walk through
it,” what will happen? Nothing.
Why? It requires proximity. If I approach the same door, what happens?
It’s going to open because it senses my presence. I got close enough.
Now, there are times that I tried to walk through those automatic doors
when they were locked, so to speak, and I’ve left many a lip and nose
print on them because I bumped into them. But the next day I will still
approach them as if they will open. Assume the doors are unlocked.
On the other hand, if I believe that I’m the ticket, that it’s up to my faith
and my power, then I’ve bought into Satan’s message which says that
you can be as God. It should not be contingent upon my belief in myself.
In truth, I will do it because God says to. Thinking of it that way, things
will happen without it being a guilt manipulation. It’s an adventure. It’s
exciting and addictive. I don’t do it because I think, “Oh, I have to do
this to please God and get him off my back.” I do it because it’s a blast!
My 17-year-old son said it’s like Christmas every time. You don’t
know what’s in the box, but you know either way it’s exciting. Even if
nothing’s inside, it’s still exciting. Unwrapping it and opening it up to
see what’s there – or not there – is fun.
CE: It’s low-pressure but high-risk.
RD: It is. That’s the ticket. I’m convinced that John Wimber picked up
the the risk-taking from Lonnie Frisbee, who was a high risk-taker and
knew more of the practice than the theology. But John learned both
the theology and the practice. Once John caught on, I think he picked
page 20
up and said, “Man, you can just go and go and go.” He kept expecting
something to show up. And we’re seeing it all over the country. The
feedback I get is fantastic. People say, “I never dreamed I could do
this, and now I realize I can.”
My advice for any pastor or teacher or evangelist or leader is simply to
give their people repeated permission to fail. People can say, “Look,
it’s not going to happen some of the time. The results are God’s.
They’re not mine.” Whether it happens or not, it’s all for him.
[END]
MEDIA Recommendations:
Empowered Evangelism,
4-DVD set available at
robbydawkins.com
CUTTING EDGE SPOKE WITH CRAIG SIMONIAN, WHO
PASTORS THE VINEYARD COMMUNITY CHURCH IN MORRIS
PLAINS, NJ. CRAIG SERVES ON THE MISSION TASK FORCE FOR
THE EASTERN REGION AND HAS BEEN WORKING AMONG
MUSLIMS FOR OVER 25 YEARS.
A VINEYARD APPROACH TO BLESSING MUSLIMS
Craig Simonian
CE: With one and a half billion Muslims in the
world, the idea of reaching out to those across the
street from us seems daunting – let alone reaching
out to those on the other side of the world.
CS: It will always seem overwhelming if we see
the opportunity to bless Muslims apart from
God’s empowerment and God’s passion for
Muslims. Our calling isn’t to “take Jesus” to
Muslims, but rather to participate with what
the Father is already doing all around us in
wooing them to Himself.
CE: What would you say to a Jesus-follower
who says that they are not called to reach out
to Muslims?
CS: Our calling is to people, regardless of
whether they’re white or black, rich or poor,
secular or Muslim. I’m glad there are those
who feel called to help us build bridges
between our secular neighbors and ourselves.
Yet the specific calling to the secularist should
never come at the exclusion of any other –
certainly not those of a faith that encompasses
20 percent of the world’s population.
CE: What drives you to work with Muslims?
CS: More than anything else, I’m motivated by
the simple fact that Jesus loves every Muslim
in the world. There simply isn’t a Muslim that
I’ve ever passed by, whether in a supermarket
or anywhere else, for whom Jesus didn’t lay
down His life. It’s what encourages me to love
and bless those around me, no matter who
they are or what they believe.
Muslims in their community. I deeply value the
friendships I have with Muslims. In fact, my best
friend is a Muslim. We don’t want to be naïve,
of course, but we shouldn’t compare the best
of our own faith against the worst of another.
We should recognize that the vast majority of
Muslims are good, decent people, who we have
a lot more in common with than we think.
CE: What then do you think keeps people
from connecting with Muslims in their
own communities?
The greatest ministry we’ve ever been give
is the ministry of reconciliation: the calling
to go out into our communities and world as
peacemakers. That includes inviting Muslims
to be reconciled into an intimate relationship
with their Creator and Savior.
CS: The busyness of life makes it challenging
enough to just make it to the end of the day.
But I also think that what stands in the way
is our wrong perceptions of Islam. Since so
much of what we know about Islam comes
from media outlets, it becomes more and more
difficult for us to sort out truth from fiction.
I would also let Jesus-followers know just how
much they’re missing by not engaging the
This is another reason why it’s so important
to get to know Muslims – so that you can hear
page 21
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page 23
from them, not Sean Hannity, what it is they
really believe. It bothers me when some people
define me as a Christian by what some other
Christians say and do.
loving, respectful hearts on both sides. Great
relationships were formed. I’ve now been
invited by the Imam to share my testimony at
his mosque where over 600 attend.
to remind yourself of how incredibly diverse
Muslims are. Remember, only 20 percent of
Muslims are Arab. The other 80 percent come
from all kinds of cultures and traditions.
As much as we understand Jesus’s call to love
our neighbor, you can’t easily love what you
fear. Misunderstandings are at the heart of
some of our fears regarding Islam. As a matter
of respect and showing love, it’s important to
give Muslims in our community a voice. We
need to be dialoguing with them.
CE: Having interacted a fair bit with Muslims,
what would you say are some of the
misunderstandings that exist between Muslims
and Christians?
So while there may be some Muslims who
dislike some of America’s democratic values,
the vast majority of Muslims are coming here
because they really believe this country is a
land of true opportunity. That’s not to say that
there aren’t aspects of our culture they dislike.
(But that holds true for Christians too.)
CE: How have you and your church done this?
CS: In different ways. A few of our home
groups, for example, held a dinner at one of
their homes and invited an Imam from a local
mosque to come and speak to them about
Islam. We’ve also taken several groups from
our church to two different mosques, where we
shared a meal with Muslim groups and had an
open conversation about our two faiths.
Last year, our church invited an Imam from
another mosque to join me in a two-hour
dialogue in which he and I spoke about
specific areas of misunderstanding between
Islam and Christianity. We spoke about
everything from the Israeli-Palestinian issue to
the 72 virgins some believe are promised to all
men in paradise.
Most recently, our church hosted a Vineyard
Muslim Summit led by Rick Love, who is the
Vineyard’s consultant on Muslim-Christian
relations. Rick and his team taught a twoday conference on how Christians can reflect
Jesus’s love to Muslims around us. The same
conference has already taken place in three
other cities around the country, with more
scheduled for 2011.
At the end of this conference, we hosted a “Love
Your Neighbor Dinner” and invited members
of a large university mosque to come out and
join us. The Imam of that mosque was asked
to speak for 25 minutes on “Loving God and
Loving Neighbor” in Islam. We did the same
after him. We had an amazing discussion with
the 18 Muslim men and women who came.
CE: Can a Vineyard pastor who isn’t well versed
in Islam pull something like this off?
CS: Without a doubt. This isn’t a debate.
It’s a dialogue that simply requires honest,
page 24
CS: Sadly, there are quite a few. Ironically,
many misunderstandings can be cleared up
within minutes at a gathering like I described.
For example, many American women look at
Muslim women who are covered and think to
themselves, “It’s too bad that she has to dress
that way to please her man.” And yet, at the
same time, Muslim women look at American
women who, relatively speaking, are scantily
clad, and they think the same thing.
The truth is that many Muslim women are not
forced to cover themselves. But they choose to
as an expression of piety.
CE: I would imagine there are a lot of
misunderstandings regarding women in Islam.
CS: There are. And with 1.5 billion Muslims
in the world, there is a tremendous amount
of diversity in practice. There are hundreds
of unique ethnic groups in some 52 majorityMuslim nations (and 40 other countries with
large Muslim populations). When describing
Muslim women, there is no overarching “they.”
Some Muslim women are required to fully
cover themselves in public, and some choose
to be countercultural by doing so. Women in
some countries are omitted from the public
sphere, while in other Muslim countries,
women serve as heads of state. Likewise,
there are some countries where women are
very limited in terms of education. But in other
places, the percentage of female graduate
students is far greater than in the U.S.
CE: What are some of more significant
misunderstandings that keep us from building
bridges with the Muslim community around us?
CS: Someone I know recently asked me a
question about Muslims. He told me that his
Muslim coworker was a very kind person, but
he felt a bit conflicted. “After all, don’t they
hate our way of life?” he asked. Whenever
you hear “don’t they” questions, you have
CE: So do Muslims tend to be positive toward
some of the democratic principles that
Americans value?
CS: Many value our democratic principles very
deeply. John Esposito wrote a book named
Who Speaks for Islam?: What a Billion People
Really Think. It reflects one of the largest polls
ever conducted in the Muslim population.
Most Muslims around the world deeply value
the political freedoms, self-determination,
civil liberties, and freedoms of speech that
Americans enjoy. They even respect and value
what they consider to be a fair judicial system,
which is why the abuses they see at Abu
Ghraib, for example, are so offensive. Some
might think, “How much Americans must hate
us to forsake their judicial principles like that!”
CE: What are some first steps for us as
Vineyard churches to begin connecting with
the Muslims living around us?
CS: A simple Google search to find the nearest
mosque will begin an awesome adventure for
churches. You can call a mosque and ask for
the Imam. Ask if you could meet him at the
mosque sometime to talk. The Imams I know
have been very responsive to this.
Then visit, but go as a learner, asking lots
of questions. Share with the Imam the idea
of having a “Love Your Neighbor” dinner
where members of both communities of faith
can attend. From there, you can go beyond
conversation to real action. You could even
engaging in a joint community project. There
are many possibilities.
For more information on upcoming Vineyard
Muslim Summits, please contact Rick’s Love’s
executive assistant at tim.mcdonell@gmail.com.
Grace and Truth
Considering Jesus’s call to grace-oriented,
truth-filled, and loving interaction with all
people, what approaches might we take in the
Vineyard as we work to bless Muslims? To help
answer that, Rick Love and a team of others
have put together a number of key biblical
guidelines to help guide you as you reflect the
love of Jesus to your Muslim community.
and to respect Muslims' own interpretation
of themselves. Never compare the best of
Christianity with the worst of Islam.
4. Be wise in our words and witness.
In Colossians 4:5, Paul calls us to share our
faith wisely. In chapter 1:28, he says, “We
proclaim Him, admonishing every man and
teaching every man with all wisdom, so that
we may present every man complete in Christ.”
from one end of the world to another in a
matter of seconds.
What we say, and especially what we write,
is no longer a private matter. It’s like a
politician making a private comment while
his microphone is accidentally left on. When
one evangelical leader in the U.S. insulted
Muhammad, a protest immediately followed in
Solapar, India. The protest turned into a deadly
riot that killed eight people and injured 90.
1. Be faithful to God’s truth — the whole truth.
In our desire to bless and love Muslims around
us, some may be so concerned about offending
that they shy away from communicating the
core convictions of our faith. Yet the motive
and manner with which we convey that truth
will go a long way in terms of building longterm friendships with Muslims. It doesn’t have
to happen in one sitting, but we can and ought
to share the truths of the gospel in a way that
is respectful and gracious.
2. Be Jesus-centered in our interactions.
In James 3:17-18, we are told what this
wisdom looks like in practice. “The wisdom
that comes from heaven is first of all pure;
then peace-loving, considerate, submissive,
full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and
sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise
a harvest of righteousness.”
We must choose not to operate out of a
position of fear, glossing over vital truths or
telling only one side of the story. Choose to
pursue the wisdom that comes from heaven,
not of earth.
When dialoguing with Muslims regarding faith
and practice, our desire should always be to
remain Jesus-centered. In 1 Corinthians 2:2,
Paul says, “I resolved to know nothing while
I was with you except Christ crucified.” By
focusing on Jesus, we’re able to highlight the
heart of our faith.
5. Be respectful and bold in our witness.
It shouldn’t be a Christianity vs. Islam debate
or a political argument. It’s about putting Jesus
on display through your words and actions.
Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith
(Hebrews 12:2).
In 1 Peter 3:15, we’re told to “always be prepared
to give an answer to everyone who asks you to
give the reason for the hope that you have. But
do this with gentleness and respect.” You don’t
have to choose between boldness and respect.
They are not mutually exclusive.
3. Be truthful and gracious in our words
and witness.
In blessing Muslims, it is so important that we
be accurate when speaking about who they
are and what they believe. Overgeneralizations
and exaggerations are routinely made in
the media. This should not be the case with
followers of Jesus.
Jesus cautions us in Matthew 12:36 to be
careful about the words we speak. We’re
commanded in Exodus 20:16 to not bear false
witness against our neighbor. We’re called by
Jesus in Matthew 7:12 to do unto others as
we would have them do to us. So we should
strive to speak truthfully about Muslims
Our witness to Muslims should reflect Jesus’s
call to truth and love. Our presentation of the
gospel should never be done at the expense of
any other person or religion. It’s not about being
politically correct. It’s about being biblical.
The Lord calls us to be both respectful and
bold, though many of us tend to fall short on
either one side or the other. Paul’s example in
Acts 17, speaking to the Athenians, showed
a respectful, gracious, and bridge-building
approach to the Athenians.
6. Be prudent in our Google-ized world.
Leading up to September 11th of this year,
news of a small congregation of 35 in Florida
made headlines around the world. Needless to
say, the idea of a church burning copies of the
Qur’an does seem to be an attention-getter.
News which would hardly have reached the
next town over 100 years ago can now travel
A lifetime of blessing Muslims can be derailed
by one offbeat comment jettisoned throughout
the world via the Internet. You can try and
clarify your comment, but the damage is
already done. Words are powerful, which is
why “a man of knowledge uses words with
restraint” (Proverbs 17:27). Whatever you say,
say it with the understanding that perhaps
millions are listening.
7. Be persistent in our call for
religious freedom.
Because we ought to affirm a fundamental
human right of religious freedom for every
person and community, it follows that Muslims
and Christians alike should have the right
to change religious beliefs and practices
according to their conscience. We should
stand against all forms of religious persecution
toward Muslims, Christians, or anyone else.
But even in a context where such religious
freedom is not extended to the Christian,
Jesus-followers should defend the right of
any human being to believe what they choose
to believe. Muslims who live in the West are
free to respectfully express and share their
faith with non-Muslims, while followers of
Jesus who live in the Muslim world should be
equally free to express and share their faith in
a respectful way.
8. Be peaceable and uncompromising in
our dialogue.
Dialogue with Muslims and Christians provide
us with opportunities to understand Muslims,
build relationships, engage in peacemaking,
and share our faith in Jesus. Through our
conversations rooted in grace and truth, we
have the opportunity of sharing why our good
news is called such.
9. Be loving toward everyone.
page 25
It’s clear to us as Jesus-followers that God’s
command in Leviticus 19:18 and Luke 10:27
stands for all time: “Love your neighbor as
yourself.” Our neighbor is anyone in need.
Whether a stranger needs a cup of cold water
on a hot day or a word of encouragement,
we’re meant to “be Jesus” to those around
us, whatever their ethnicity or religious views
may be.
Jews living under Roman occupation
understood how radical Jesus’s words were.
He was calling them to love even their Roman
neighbors. In fact, Jesus told them that if a
Roman soldier called upon people to carry his
pack for him for a mile, they should carry it for
two miles.
Jesus calls us to love one another as ourselves.
We’re called to love even our enemies – and we’re
called, in Romans 14:19, to do all we can to make
peace with those around us. This is so important
to Jesus that, in the gospels, He describes both
peacemakers and those who love their enemies
as “sons and daughters of God.”
As great as the challenges might be during
this time period, we have been given some
amazing opportunities to reflect the love of
Jesus to the world around us.
Adapted and summarized from Rick Love’s
booklet entitled “Grace and Truth: Toward
Christlike Relationships with Muslims.” You
can purchase copies of the unabridged, fullcolor booklet at vineyardusa.org.
[END]
continued from page 19
were born Orthodox or Catholic, or they’re already
a Muslim or a Jew and don’t want to become a
Christian. They already have a religion.
It makes you think, “Oh. Well…so then either this
gospel message I gave my life for and moved over
here for doesn’t work, or else people are really
hard and resistant, so we have to press on” –
which is what most mission enterprises are about.
The idea is, “Just try harder and try more of it.” But
Jesus said that the harvest is ripe, and he didn’t
qualify that.
What if he meant it? What if the harvest is actually
ripe everywhere, at all times, in every country,
every situation? The harvest is ripe!
This has been my actual process: I lived in
Lebanon the first couple of years of mission work.
I got there and realized no Muslims or Jews or
Christians or Druids wanted to join my version of
evangelical Vineyard Protestantism. Nobody did.
So I wrestled with this: “Is it me, or is it them? Do
I have the message wrong, or do they just have
hard hearts?”
Then I rediscovered John 4, and I thought, “Oh,
my goodness. I’ve heard this verse all my life, and
it actually says the harvest is ripe. It doesn’t say
it’s not ripe right now. And Jesus didn’t qualify it.
So what if these people really are ripe? Well, then
that only means one thing. If I believe Jesus, if this
is real, if the Bible is true and Jesus is the actual
way, then the only thing left that could be wrong
is my presentation. And what if I’m actually not
giving them the gospel? What if I’m trying to give
them Christianity, Vineyard style, and that’s not
working? What if what they need is just…Jesus?”
True, people might need a context to live that
out, and sometimes the context smells and feels
a little more like the Vineyard. That’s fine. But the
Vineyard is not the gospel. Christianity is not the
gospel. The gospel is Jesus.
Even into my second and third years, there was
still a process of reinterpreting what that meant
for me. What was “Christianity”? What was Jesus?
It took some work, but as soon as I had that process under my belt, everything changed. What we
were doing became very powerful and effective.
If you bring that back to America, I can’t tell
you exactly the same thing. We’re not really a
Muslim culture. In some ways it’s actually more
page 26
difficult, because we have this faux-Christian
culture already. So, as you said, it becomes
even more important to distinguish between
simply being a Christian and actually following
Jesus, because everyone around us already
thinks that they’re Christians.
If I’m talking about a Christian message of
Christianity, it boils down to this: “Our religion
is better than what your old religion was,” or,
“Our version of Christianity is better than your
version of Christianity.” It becomes very confusing.
Whereas, if you just focus on Jesus and call people
to him, it can be stunning.
I’ll preach this message at a church, and the
people just go crazy. They say, “I’ve never heard
this. This is amazing.” I say, “How can that
be? You’re in a very good, healthy, evangelical
Christian church. How can this Jesus message
sound so fresh and exciting?”
It’s because we’ve hidden Jesus under the
religious system of Christianity.
I think it would be a good idea to simply focus
on Jesus.
[END]
Book Recommendations:
Speaking of Jesus:
The Art of Non-Evangelism
by Carl Medearis
Events
NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2011:
REACHING THE UNREACHED
How does Kingdom of God theology correlate with reaching the
unreached people around us?
Where: Glendale, AZ
When: May 2-5, 2011
plant a church?” and “Where do I start?” We will also have time for
discussion, worship, fellowship, and prayer.
Location: La Viña, Mundelein, IL
More info: Contact Homero Garcia at (847) 845- 7941 or email
hckkgarcia@comcast.net.
More info: visit http://www.vineyardusa.org/site/nationalconference
CHURCH PLANTER TRAINING: BUILDING A
HEALTHY CHURCH PLANT
CHURCH PLANTING BOOTCAMP
When: February 11-13, 2011
When: Friday, March 11 – Sunday, March 13, 2011
Location: Vineyard Christian Fellowship at the Barn, Landenburg, PA
What: This will be an intense weekend open to all men and women who
want to explore the adventure of following God in church planting. Our
More info: Email Phil Chorlian at phil@njvine.com
goal is to help you identify the necessary qualities of a church planter,
CHURCH PLANTING BOOTCAMP IN SPANISH
learn how to recognize, recruit and begin training your potential team.
When: April 8-9, 2011
What: This church planting boot camp in Spanish is for anyone remotely
interested in exploring the possibility of planting a Spanish-speaking
Vineyard church in the U.S. If you happen to know of someone in your
congregation who might be considering the possibility of planting a
church in Spanish, let them know about our boot camp. We will address
to conduct an honest evaluation of your gifts and abilities, and then
It’s a great opportunity to learn from some seasoned church planters
who have been around the block a couple of times. But be careful…this
weekend just might change your life.
Location: Minneapolis, MN
More info: Check the Midwest church planting website at www.
causeconference.com or email churchplanting@duluthvineyard.org.
fundamental questions such as “Am I a church planter?” “How do you
Seek
Seek is a ten-week, thirteen-session course for those who consider
themselves on the “front end” of faith and are wondering whether Jesus
might play a role in that. Seek evolved over ten years ago out of a similar
course from the Greater Boston Vineyard. Church members found that
the earlier course’s powerful but argumentative approach to faith was
failing to meet the questions and needs of the participants. What they
discovered in the shadow of places like Harvard and MIT is that these
smart people weren’t looking for abstract truths about faith. They were
looking for an experiential faith.
many longtime Christians have experienced. It often proves to be a
unique training ground for leaders as well as a formative driver of some
church identities.
Seek includes an emphasis on the practical aspects of faith, ample
opportunities to ask questions, and informal discussions with a
consistent group of people. Each evening includes dinner, a short talk or
presentation, and a small-group discussion.
To learn more about Seek, or to purchase the DVDs, send an email to
seek@notreligious.org.
One particular benefit of Seek is that anyone who is experiencing
Jesus themselves can lead the course. The entire course was also
professionally filmed at WGBH Studios. Leaders who are hesitant to
teach the material themselves can plug and play the talks, then lead the
discussion groups afterward.
While Seek has given many churches and individuals a great vehicle
for directly speaking to seeking people, it has also been influential in
shaping some churches at a deep level. Seek requires a different, more
open-ended way of speaking about faith in small-group settings than
page 23
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