Reaching out or just reaching?
I just attended my first ever citywide evangelistic campaign. The Luis Palau Nashville CityFest was flawless and fun. The music was loud, hip, exciting and the sermons were compelling. But as I watched the stereotypical clean cut Christian man walk with great purpose across the path of a seasoned homeless man I wondered, “Who is this reaching out to? Surely not this man.”
The festival went on and the bands began to play, a sea of people started to move. Four artists performed and in between there were testimonials and BMX videos. This is surely appealing to a younger audience. Soon I realized that these bands were Christian bands, so these fans must be Christian fans. I wondered again, “Who is this reaching out to? Surely not non-Christian teens who have never heard this music.”
Later LeAnn Rimes took the stage and I thought, finally we have a genuine “draw” for the outside world. This is no longer a Christian ghetto block party, or was it? When Toby Mac closed the show singing, “Where my [Jesus] freaks at?” why was the whole crowd excited? Was it because these were all his freaks? What about the non freaks, just trying to get through 80,000 people to get to the Hard Rock Cafe? What were they saying, “I want to be a freak too?” Is this reaching them?
I can not fault the Palau organization for effort, or for spirit, or for love of God. But, I wonder how relevant was this event to the seeking world? My fear is that this is no longer an effective means of evangelism. Billy Graham is near the end of his life and so too is the modern crusade method of evangelism. We need to find something new. The bait and switch tactics are no longer effective and were never ethical. Christians can’t lure people in for a rock concert and sell Jesus instead. People have gotten too smart (perhaps they always were). We can only give what we have: God, his message, his gift, his love, our love.
A wise minister said, “What you win people with, you win them to.” If we win people with rock concerts we’d better have enough to last a lifetime. But, if we win them with Christ, he’ll last a lifetime. We don’t have the energy to put on CityFests every week and I’m not sure that we should.-
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May 22nd, 2007 at 7:47 pm
I agree with you. I just finished this book called Postmodern Times. I think that the new way of “reaching out” will be through personal relationships. In “postmodernism” people have identity by their cultures and sub-cultures. I think that through that, we will be able to reach out to people in their own groups. What say you?
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:22 am
Relationships have been and will be the greatest evangelistic tool. We each have a circle of influence (our subculture) and are able to effectively communicate with them. The problem comes when a church, or churches refuse to reach out beyond their culture or sub culture. This leads to a church without any diversity. So, we need to find ways to intentionally build relationships with those who we would not normally.
May 25th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
You’re right about the problem being with under-diversified churches. Perhaps all church-people should listen to Toby Mac’s “One World” or “Diverse City”.