Faith Sharing Faux Pas - #2

Spiritual Head-Hunters!  Another way of looking at this headhunting mentality is doing evangelism work to meet some sort of quota.  When we target a neighborhood with an assignment of winning people to Christ and converting x - number of people to joining our church...this is really about hunting!  I don't know of anyone who wants to be hunted like game.  It's not a fun feeling to be sought out like you're some kind of prize. 

In general this type of evangelism work is done with a good heart - however misguided the actions may be.  The issue is that sharing your faith in these types of circumstances is forced, unnatural, and driven by the law.  We act as if people feel they HAVE to do this for them to be living up to God's standards. 

The way we talk about sharing our faith is often scalp hunting verbiage.  We tend to use words that convey an attack or enemy mindset. Let's get real fora minute - the people to whom we are giving a witness adn sharing our faith are NOT the enemy.  Now there is an enemy and his name is Satan.  Satan has fooled people and tricked them into doubting God, but you and I are not immune to that temptation ourselves.  We all are sinful people and deserve God's punishment, but we have Jesus - the one who took that punishment for us. 

There are many alternatives to scalp hunting, so let's take some time to focus on these positives.  How do you talk and interact with people in ways that make them not feel like you are hunting them down?  What are you thinking when you share your faith with others?  What tools and techniques do you use to prevent yourself from becoming a spiritual head hunter? 

Faith Sharing Faux Pas - #1

Liar - Liar! - The first image that comes to my mind when I think of our first faux pas is the Disney movie Pinocchio.  This little wooden boy is not able to tell a lie without being caught, because with every exaggeration of the truth his nose grows - noticeably! Perhaps one of  my biggest pet peeves when it comes to faith sharing is the underhanded way that the gospel is presented.  There are many less than honest tactics employed by well-meaning Christians that destroy the image of Jesus and even brake his heart.  These methods range from the sometimes elaborate bait-and-switch technique to an out and out lie!  I can't stand any of these - and neither can Jesus!

We've all seen these and many of us have even used these models in our own faith walks.  No one like to feel tricked or lied to so why has this model been so widely used in the first place?  For those of you struggling with the idea of what this looks like let me give you a brief example:

I've been associated with churches that have to bring invitation to worship into everything they do.  Nothing wrong with inviting people to worship but we shouldn't blindside people with a call to faith when they're expecting a car wash!  When we lure people in by offering a FREE service: car-wash or no-strings-attached meal then it should be just that!  We shouldn't be clobbering people with the gospel and a call to faith once we get them where we want them.

If you search the scriptures, you'll be hard-pressed to find any example - anywhere of Jesus or any of his followers scheming people into hearing the good news message.  After all our world is full of enough half-hearted promises and boldface lies.  You don't have to look far to find someone telling you what you want to hear even when they have NO desire or intent to hold to their end of the deal.  This underhanded technique is nothing short of a lie.

Now instead of focusing only on the negative, I'm inviting you into the discussion on brainstorming some creative ways to do TWO things: serve the community just for the sake of serving - no strings attached and secondly ways to creatively and purposefully bring the message of Jesus into our daily lives in honest, authentic, and practical ways.