why would I want to be like you?

Two follow up thoughts to my previous article.

I realize, of course, that the question I've been asking is the wrong question. Whether we live up to the ideals of the religion that we profess is ultimately a non-issue. What we "offer" when we evangelize is of little significance. What is much more important is what God is offering to the unbeliever through us. Whether or not our own lives measure up to the gospel matters only in so far as our lives indicate something about the nature of God's saving grace. However, as evangelists, we don't point to our own happiness, joy, health, etc. We point to Christ. If our lives had to be the perfect examples of Christian wholeness before we could feel confident enough to share the good news of Christ, we'd never get anywhere.

On the other hand, I still maintain that there ought to be tangible qualities of the Christian life that make it desirable. If we experience in our lives even a fraction of the obvious benefits of living a life with God through knowledge of Christ, the goodness from this allignment with God ought to be overflowing and evident. One of the spectacular benefits of knowing Christ is being able to come directly to God in prayer, knowing with certainty that God hears our prayers, cares about us, and answers our prayers. If I claim this as truth but then fail to have any sort of significant prayer life, what kind of a message does this send to my unbelieving friends? How can I tout around the fact that you need to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior when I myself have such a hard time living that fact out in my daily life? It would be like someone who swore by Fords, insisted that I buy a Ford, but then kept his Mustang locked up in the garage while he drove a Honda around. It doesn' t make sense. I guess I'm getting at the issue of contagiousness. Anybody can be an evangelist, but what does it take to be the kind of Christian that when unbelievers see you, they want to drop what they believe about the world and about God and take up what you believe instead?

A Better Way

I've been thinking a lot about evangelism. One thing I've always found difficult has been articulating my "testimony." One strategy offered to covenant children who lack a dramatic conversion story is to imagine what your life might have looked like had it lacked the saving grace of Christ at work in it. However, that is far too speculative.

Anyway, I've been thinking that evangelism is an audacious task. To ask somebody to become a follower of Jesus Christ is to ask them to become like you. You want them to change what they believe about the world and to adopt your beliefs about the world. You want them to change their behaviors and to behave like you--to go to church, to give money away, to take God seriously, to read the Bible and pray, etc. You want them to change their values and to value you what you value. Doing evangelism says, "my way of life is better than yours and you'd be better off if you became like me." When you do evangelism, you presume that you have something to offer and that it's in your friend's best interest to take you up on this offer.

Evangelism is at it's root condescending.

However, it is not deceptive. If you take the Bible seriously, you realize a lot is at stake. A Christian is willing to put him/herself in this awkward position because we realize that we do have many things of value to offer and that it is in the eternal interest of our friends to adopt our beliefs about the Gospel, etc, and in so doing, to become like us in these respects.

However, is eternal security (eternal life) a benefit of Christianity that draws unbelievers? I don't think so. If people were worried about their eternal security, they'd come rushing to the church. And so we in the church who wish to convert our unbelieving friends must, if we intend to do evangelism with any dignity, be prepared to show how our Way of life is better here and now. I'm sorry I've taken so long to get to this point. But here's my question, is my life as a Christian particularly "better" than that of my unbelieving friends? You'd think it would be, but I'm not convinced that there is anything particularly appealing about my "better way."

Do Christians have better sex? Do Christians have more fun? Are Christians healthier? Happier? More secure? More purposeful? More joy filled? Less stressed? If not, why not? And if not, then what, beyond a condo in the Father's house, do we have to offer that might be of interest to any unbeliever?