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Good Things That Don't Work
Brian Mashburn
July 25, 2010
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Does It Have To Be Hard?
I got a phone call one time from the school principal. She started the conversation with “Mr. Mashburn, I have your son Shade sitting here in my office with me...”
“Uh-oh,” I thought. What could’ve happened?
You can imagine (or know firsthand) the feeling, right? I’m assuming Shade got in trouble. Or hurt. Not sick, or it would’ve been the nurse. I was the one feeling sick.
Until the principal changed her tone of voice (yes, she was intentionally throwing me off emotionally) to tell me that Shade was caught doing something really good, exceeding expectations. It was more than a relief; it changed my whole attitude about getting a call from the school principal forever! No more assumptions.
Generally speaking, when the subject of reaching people for Christ (aka: evangelism) comes up, I’ve noticed some common attitudes and feelings, among Christians, and they aren’t positive.
“Uh-oh,” they think.
You can imagine (or know firsthand) the feeling, right? They assume they don’t know enough to teach someone about Christ. Or that they don’t live a lifestyle that represents Christ well enough to talk about Him with others. They feel “it’s just not their gift” or feel intimidated about engaging someone at that level. They think it means door knocking, or preaching at people, or shoving our message down someone’s throat, or coming across as judgmental. They feel guilty because they aren’t reaching out to anyone for Christ but incompetent in how to do so.
What if there was a way to engage people who need Christ in a way that was exciting? Does it have to be hard? Costly, yes. Inconvenient, possibly. But hard?
What if, with just a conscientious, educated change in how we do things, people in our culture would come to us begging for the message we carry? Wouldn’t that be MORE than a relief when the subject of reaching people for Christ comes up? Wouldn’t that change our whole attitude about it?
What is your attitude towards reaching people for Christ? What is your practice? What is your way?
If you don’t know your practice, then you don’t have one. If we don’t know our practice, then we don’t have one, and we are not obeying the loving commission given to us by the One we owe our lives to (Mt 28:19).