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From the Seats to the Streets…

/ pastorlynnmalone / Leave a comment

Driving affords me the opportunity to listen. I do a lot of both! As I was driving last week, I was listening to a podcast. One of the points the podcast made was concerning a trend in the contemporary church. The point? Evangelism must move from the seats to the streets.

An Old Model

What do I mean? For generations now, the method of evangelism of the church has been to invite people to church (meaning a congregation), let them hear a presentation of the Gospel and lead them to a decision of faith. For generations of believers that method worked reasonably well. That method is not working anymore.

How do we know that method isn’t working? It’s not working because less people are attending church. That’s among Christians. As a matter of fact, the only demographic that is increasing is among men in Gen Z. Every other demographic in the U.S., is decreasing in terms of church attendance.

While it is great news that young men are coming to church more, it is still disturbing that others are not. Here’s your statement of the obvious: If even Christians are attending church less, then non-believers are attending less than that. Duh!

If non-believers are not hearing the message of the Gospel, how will they know Jesus? By taking the Gospel from the seats of the church to the streets of daily life.

That is as it should be. That is how the Gospel message spread in the beginning. I suppose that means the way forward is by going back…back to the beginning of Jesus’s ministry.

John the Baptist

I’ve been reflecting on John’s account of the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry this week (John 1:29-51). Now, that’s some rich Scripture right there! I tell ya’ what…that John the Baptist…he’s got it going on. No, seriously. He really does. He was the first person to take evangelism from the seats to the streets.

Think about it. John the Baptist came from a priestly line. His father, Zechariah, was a priest. That means John was in the priestly line and would have been trained to follow in his father’s footsteps. He was trained to be a Temple priest. As we see in the Gospel accounts, John’s temple was the wilderness and his altar was the Jordan River. Talk about from the seats to the streets!

If anyone knew the significance of a sacrificial lamb, it would be a temple priest. When John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (John 1:36), it announced the purpose of God in the life of Jesus, and the end of the Temple era and its on-going sacrifices. His was an announcement of the new and living way to life…a new and living encounter of God.

And, John pointed his disciples in the direction of Jesus. That is the role of evangelism…pointing others to Jesus.

As a pastor, I appreciate John’s selflessness, even if I struggle with what that selflessness means. I mean, as a pastor, I want to point others to Jesus, but I don’t want them to follow another preacher in doing so! Revealing my own insecurities here, aren’t I? Jesus’ appearance on the scene meant John was loosing followers. John knew, however, that he wasn’t called to make disciples for himself.

Perhaps that’s a lesson we pastors need to learn. We’re not making disciples for ourselves. We’re not making disciples of our preaching or teaching. The purpose of posting our sermons on YouTube or writing books (or blogs) is not to create a following or build a “platform,” but rather to point others to Jesus.

We would do well to remember our purpose. People come and go in our congregations (they seem to be going more these days). Unless we’ve done something intentionally to drive them away (shame on us if we have), we need to have the humility to not take it personally. We simply ask the question:”Was I faithful in pointing them to Jesus?” That is what matters most.

Here’s the truth pastors: If people are looking for a great preacher, they can find one better than you and me on YouTube (or the internet generally). They can find a more polished preacher. They can find a more charismatic preacher. They can find a better looking preacher, a more educated preacher, a more…well, you fill in the blank.

Pastors, let’s just use the gifts the Lord gives us to point other to Jesus. That’s the model.

Andrew and Philipp

See? Andrew pointed his brother Simon (Peter) to Jesus. There’s a sermon in Andrew’s attitude, too. We’d discover by reading the rest of John’s Gospel that he had a knack for pointing others to Jesus (and he didn’t do it by inviting them to the Temple). And, Philipp too! He pointed Nathaniel to Jesus.

That’s how evangelism works! For evangelism to work properly it must move from the seats of the church to the streets where we live.

I think we missed the lesson we should have learned from the Covid pandemic. Most churches pivoted to online and social media connection. They were forced to shift their focus from the seats to the streets. Once the pandemic passed, many of those same churches reverted to their old ways, hoping everyone would return to their seats. It didn’t happen, and based on current trends, it won’t in the future.

Don’t misunderstand me, though. Don’t stop inviting others to church. It is still true that 80% of the people who attend a church for the first time do so because someone invited them. Invitation still matters.

What will be more impactful in today’s world is for those committed disciples of Jesus Christ to engage others daily with the saving message of life in Jesus Christ in the places where they live and work. Point them to Jesus because of the relationship you have with them.

Evangelism is about relationship. Our relationship to Jesus and our relationship to others. John could point Andrew and John (who would become the Apostle) to Jesus because of their relationship. Andrew could point Peter to Jesus because of their relationship. Philipp could point Nathaniel to Jesus because of their relationship. See why it matters?

Here’s the thing: relationships happen in the streets, not in the seats.

Oh, well! I ramble on. Here’s your takeaway: Wherever you are today, point others to Jesus. That’s your task. The redemption of the world depends on it.

Until next time, keep looking up…

“More” Controversy…

/ pastorlynnmalone / 3 Comments

Apparently, I should have chosen to be “more” controversial during my self-proclaimed “Year of More.” One of the neat things about writing a blog is metrics. WordPress tells me how many people have viewed my blog, what pages they’ve clicked on, what countries they viewed from, and so on. It’s really pretty cool.

Here’s the metric I find most interesting: the blogs with the most views and the most clicks are ones that deal with more controversial topics. The more controversial the topic, or at least if I can come up with a “click bait” headline, the more views the blog receives. I’ll be anxious to see the number of clicks the headline to this blog generates.

There are certainly plenty of topics to write about when it comes to controversy. Our world is becoming more polarized (well, at least in the good ole’ US of A), and this polarization makes every subject controversial. I bet you (if I was a betting man) that my article on controversy has the potential of being controversial.

Seriously, people have sparked controversy by saying or doing something that when the person said or did whatever it was, had no intention of sparking controversy. Yet, someone got offended by what the person said or did, so controversy arose. Civil discourse has ground to a halt in our culture. Oh! There’s discourse. It’s just that none of it is very civil.

There is controversy in the political realm. If I wanted to create a firestorm of controversy, I would say that I voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. I might have to close my comments section and delete the post from Facebook because of the responses I would likely receive. The problem is that I could conversely say that I voted for Hillary Clinton and get the same vitriolic response, except those responses would come from different people. No, I’m not going to tell you who I voted for in 2016. Suffice it to say that I held my nose while I voted, and that’s as controversial as I’ll get in that regard.

There is controversy in the cultural realm. Let’s see…I could do a Google search of the most controversial topics for 2019 and find abortion topping the list. I’m pro-life, just so you know (and that’ll stir no little amount of controversy, I’m sure). Of course, even Google has become somewhat controversial as there have been recent concerns about privacy issues (Google is now “Big Brother”), spying, censorship, tax avoidance, sexism and racism. I suppose I should stay off Google, but really, how does anyone stay off Google?

Other topics on the “controversial” list are gay marriage, gender identity, LGBT (I know, I’m leaving out some letters, which in and of itself is controversial) adoption rights, Planned Parenthood funding, women in combat, the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Confederate flag, and the death penalty. I could go on, but you get the picture—our culture abounds with controversy, and following the debate on any issue on Youtube is like falling in a deep, dark hole (be careful…Youtube is owned by Google!).

The debates in larger culture have made their way into the church, too. Controversy in the church? Oh! My! Our denomination (the United Methodist Church) is currently embroiled in a debate concerning same-gender marriage and the ordination of homosexuals. We are divided (almost as equally as the broader culture) on these issues (read my position here), and the debates have been ugly at times. These ugly debates have taken place amidst calls for “unity,” which interestingly enough, has become its own controversial topic.

Unity. That’s an interesting concept. How do you define it? Do we even know it when we see it? Can there ever be genuine unity? After all, opinions, someone said, are like armpits. Everyone has them and most of them stink. I have my own ideas about unity…and unity in the body of Christ…but I’ll save those for another controversial blog…perhaps one entitled “More Unity.”

There is one place, though, where I will choose to be ardently controversial—the power of Jesus Christ to change a life. I will continue to proclaim that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him. Yes, even those simple proclamations are controversial and I may have to close my comments, but so be it. I really don’t mean to be controversial. I really don’t mean to offend. But, if believing Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, then call me controversial. I only ask that you do it in a civil way.

Until next time, keep looking up…