Evangelism and Accesorizing Your Faith
Well, if you thought it was beyond Christianity to accessorize the faith, you might be old fashioned. One of the new products offered under the label "Christian" is perfume. A recent, must read, article from the LA Times will fill you in on all the new products the ever-expanding Christian retail market is re-creating from the parallel secular universe. And all of the new creations are under the guise of evangelism. This is taking St. Paul's idea of remaining in the world, but not becoming part of it a bit too far. I would like to remind us all how Paul teaches us in 2 Corinthians 10 that although we live in this world we do not challenge the world in a worldly manner. The Christian is born of the Spirit and the tools of our trade for evangelism should not be perfume or golf balls, but prayer, acts of mercy, preaching, worship, love. Go read the article and discover why one Christian thinker quoted said:
"The effect of such products, according to political scientist Alan Wolfe, is to create almost a parallel universe, one that allows Christians to withdraw from the world instead of engaging it as Christ commanded.
'It's as if they're saying the task of bringing people to Jesus is too hard, so let's retreat into a fortress,' said Wolfe, who directs the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.
'Evangelism is about reaching out and converting the unsaved,' Wolfe said. 'This is about putting a fence around people who are already saved. It strikes me as if they're giving up.'"
That is a pretty powerful critique. Those concerned about promoting the kingdom of God in our culture ought to read and think about this because in the current environment when it is OK to be religious it does not seem OK to disguise the Christian faith for the purpose of evangelism. The faith is subversive enough and God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are creatively at work bringing new members into the kingdom through the foolish and non-sensical message of Christ crucified.
"The effect of such products, according to political scientist Alan Wolfe, is to create almost a parallel universe, one that allows Christians to withdraw from the world instead of engaging it as Christ commanded.
'It's as if they're saying the task of bringing people to Jesus is too hard, so let's retreat into a fortress,' said Wolfe, who directs the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.
'Evangelism is about reaching out and converting the unsaved,' Wolfe said. 'This is about putting a fence around people who are already saved. It strikes me as if they're giving up.'"
That is a pretty powerful critique. Those concerned about promoting the kingdom of God in our culture ought to read and think about this because in the current environment when it is OK to be religious it does not seem OK to disguise the Christian faith for the purpose of evangelism. The faith is subversive enough and God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are creatively at work bringing new members into the kingdom through the foolish and non-sensical message of Christ crucified.
posted by Dale at 11:17 AM
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