“Just make 5 easy payments of $19.99 and you can have your very own (insert useless household item)… BUT WAIT! If you call now we’ll double the offer!”
I have no idea how many times I’ve heard this sales pitch during my life, but I’m certain it’s in the hundreds. Men and women like the late TV pitchman Billy Mays have used these words for years in an effort to do what salesmen have always done – create a sense of need in the consumer – but with a twist. Unlike regular salesmen or stores, they not only want to convince you that you need this product, they want to help you get it as easily as possible. They offer the promise of making your life so much easier or more efficient with this new gadget, and you don’t even have to leave your couch to do so. Everything they sell is about making your life easier and better (kitchen gadgets that save time, pills that help you lose weight without changing your diet, exercise equipment that builds muscles with no effort, etc.) and they go out of their way to make it as pain-free and convenient as possible for you.
And, that’s exactly what the church is in danger of becoming in many cases.
Lonely? Come visit us and we’ll help you make friends. Want to choose your level of involvement and only focus on your clique of friends? Go ahead, we’ll build a special, age- and interest-segregated group for you, complete with activities that keep you separate from those folks you don’t know. Got kids? Bring them to us and we’ll teach them the Bible and won’t expect you to. Not really interested in making a lifestyle change to follow Jesus? That’s ok. We won’t talk about sins that occur within our doors (pornography, fornication, anger, gossip, etc.), we’ll just take a hard stance against what everyone else is doing. Not really interested in getting involved? No problem, just be there on Sunday mornings – unless, you know, something important like a football game comes up. Want to have the assurance of heaven without ever growing in Christ? We can do that!
These options do exactly what the As Seen On TV products do. They offer all the ease and comfort and self-esteem a person wants while striving to make it as simple for them as possible. It’s hard to get people to come to church and get engaged, so I guess that means we’e just supposed to settle for whatever they want to give and then we can build a church experience for them based on that. Is that what Jesus really called us to when He said that His disciples would have to take up their crosses daily (Luke 9:23)? Is that kind of Christianity the kind that will lead people to imprisonment and martyrdom as we see all throughout Acts and church history? Is that the kind of Christian service that God will expect when He reviews whether we were good and faithful servants (Matthew 25:21, 23, 34)?
What people need to know when we introduce them to Jesus is that He is calling them to revolution. It’s time to put to death the old man of sin (Romans 6-7) and take up your armor to fight against the forces of this world (Ephesians 6:10ff). People want something they can fight for, something that gives them a sense of purpose beyond themselves. A Christian experience that asks nothing of them and makes it as convenient and pain-free as possible for them to be members does nothing for them. As we lead people to Jesus, we must present them the same question Jesus presented His potential followers in Luke 9:57-62: are you willing to give up everything to put Him first? Are you willing to commit to something that will change your life and love God with all your heart, soul, and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5)?
How do we make that appealing? We don’t. God does. When we tell them that God requires their very lives of them, the example of love, grace, humility, and faith that He has given us to walk in is what shows them it’s worth it. Jesus asks them to give up a lot but we need to let them see and hear that it is completely worth it and we wouldn’t change a thing. They don’t want an easy way out. They don’t want a tv pitchman selling them a cheap product that requires no effort. They want Jesus. No, they NEED Jesus. We aren’t called to be salesman, we’re called to be harvesters.
By Jack Wilkie