Baptism/Amazing Grace: A Conversation Over Lunch, Part 21

I think I understand, but this stuff about “mission” and “community” bothers me. It’s probably pretty much true, but doesn’t that mean we have to exclude the lost from our fellowship?

And I’ve been reading some evangelism literature that urges us to be accepting and to include the lost in our fellowship before they become members.

How can we be a distinctive community and yet draw lines? And if we don’t draw lines, how do we continue to be a Kingdom apart from the world?

Those are really hard questions. And good ones. Let me start from a crazily different angle and then come back to what you asked.

Do you remember the Church Growth Movement? And all the seminars on doing church with “excellence”? And the marketing approach to Christianity?

For a while, we marketing the church as though it were a consumer product. We told people about our great children’s ministry and youth program, about our “dynamic” worship, and our great preaching. And people came.

And they acted like consumers. They put their kids in our programs and refused to volunteer to help. They came to church when they felt the need for a spiritual booster shot, but they never committed to the church.

Some got angry when we failed to visit them in the hospital or attend their dad’s funeral, but they never, ever visited anyone else in the hospital or attended the funeral of anyone else’s dad.

We became our marketing. We sold Christianity as consumer goods and services, and so our new members were consumers insisting that we sell them consumer goods and services.

I mean, “dynamic worship” sells much better than “take up your cross and follow me,” but we didn’t build churches; we gathered crowds. We turned the cross of Jesus into Wal-Mart.

Agreed?

Yes, absolutely! My own church has struggled mightily with that very thing. Even today, we’re finding it hard to get volunteers and to hold our members to their commitments. But the marketing committee is still advertising us like a store!

We’re Americans, and therefore we think in terms of commerce. It’s hard to break the habit.

Now, think about this. Suppose we open our doors to the poor and homeless, as Jesus taught. And suppose we love and accept them — eating with them as Jesus did. And suppose that we gather thousands this way — as Jesus did.

How do we avoid becoming our marketing? How do we keep from having a congregation full of people who enjoy the love and the fellowship and the worship and the food, but who’ve never committed to Jesus?

Well, I suppose at some point you have to share the gospel with them … obviously!

Exactly. Which part of the gospel? The part about forgiveness of sins?

Yes.

The part about Jesus dying for us?

Yes.

The part about the Holy Spirit coming to live within us?

Yes.

The part about moral living? The banning of fornication and adultery?

Yes.

The part about heaven?

Oh, yes!

The part about hell?

Well … people don’t like hell. And if you tell them that those outside the church go to hell, they’ll ask about their dead mother. And then they’ll leave you. You’ll convert a lot more if you keep quiet on hell.

What would Jesus do?

Jesus? Well, he talked about hell a lot, but he was talking to First Century Jews, not 21st Century Postmoderns who are all about diversity and tolerance.

So, today, what would Jesus do? Seriously. Would he skip hell?

No. More than once, he ran off many of his disciples with hard teaching. After three years, he only had 120. He was much more about building right than building fast.

I’m glad we agree, but it’s hard, isn’t it? I mean, we can’t save people from a lie by preaching a half-truth.

(Luk 9:57-62 ESV)  57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”  58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”  62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Jesus was harsh! His lesson on eating his flesh and drinking his blood offended many disciples, who left him. He didn’t hold back the truth. Even if it hurt attendance and the contribution!

Then again, Paul says,

(1Co 9:20-23 ESV)  20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.  21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.  22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.  23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Amen. It’s true that it’s good missional practice to express the gospel in terms that speak truly in the local culture. We don’t preach from the King James Bible to people who don’t understand Jacobean English!

But it’s still the gospel that we preach, and the gospel is good news only because there is bad news. We cannot create a generation of Christians who edit God’s wrath out of the scriptures and expect the church to survive to a second generation.

Wow! That sounds right, but surely we don’t lead with hell! Don’t we begin with love?

Of course. Consider Jesus and the women caught in adultery. This is how it ends —

(John 8:10-11 ESV) 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Jesus begins with grace — forgiveness — but he ends with repentance. He forgives her freely — with unbelievable grace — but he insists that she change. He accepts her as she is, but only because he sees her as she could be. And he insists that she do better.

It’s easy and cheap to love without judging. But among families, loving without judging is called “bad parenting.” It leads to self-centered, bad, even self-destructive, suicidal children. I’ve seen it many times. Parents confuse a refusal to judge with love and they destroy their children — who wind up hating them for all their kind heartedness!

We should expect our evangelists to be like good parents — rivers of unconditional love who insist on repentance and transformation.

And just as is true in parenting, there are no rules for exactly how to do this. Sometimes a parent has to offer love and a hug when logic requires discipline. It’s not a logical process; it’s about shaping the human heart. And as is always true in parenting, we’ll get it wrong lots of times, but our love will overcome our mistakes.