I remember watching this comedy sketch and making a note that said I’m sure car salesmen wouldn’t behave like this to get the sale, but I’m not too sure about church salesmen. Of course the English culture is very different to the American one in this regard. Although we have a number of British Christian broadcasters and there are some prominent Christian speakers and personalities, only a few could be said to be anything like their American cousins in the ‘performance’ aspect of ministry.
It got me thinking though about how we treat evangelism and sometimes it can almost take on a marketing strategy – give them the leaflet, explain the product, get them to say the prayer and seal the deal on the sale, then onto the next person. It can almost be as though Jesus and the gospel are a product we’re to sell and a sale is made when someone agrees to be a believer says the prayer or signs the card or takes the dip in the huge tub.
Anything wrong with that? Isn’t it missing something? It is typical as well of us to put things in neat separate and distinct categories so the evangelists are over there doing the sales work and the pastor/teachers are over there helping people get used to the product. Yet isn’t there something even more – dare I say it – organic and natural in terms of how we’re meant to be living out commitment to Christ and seeing people accept Him as Lord? As in isn’t it just as much a case of the person who engages, being the person who disciples? Even then maybe the team approach isn’t just about a process of passing the person from expert to expert, but seeing us together and being a part of us together growing in knowing Jesus together?
Big thanks to Marcus over at The Simple Pastor for initially posting this video.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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