April 13, 2012
Walk on By
In trying to connect with the youth in the community we instituted a
Youth Council for teens that is patterned after the City Council. One of their
projects was putting on a job fair for teens, and for a first annual event I
was really impressed with their efforts and the organizations that participated.
However, I was unimpressed with the US military representation. Their booths
were set up, brochures were displayed, but all the personnel were standing
around talking to one another. I went past their tables twice, but no one even
made eye contact with me. When I finally forced myself into their conversation
I told an Army sergeant I was disappointed they weren’t engaging the students. Her
excuse was, “Well Ma’am, I’ve been
talking to two new recruits who are signed up and will be going to basic
training as soon as they graduate in May.” As a believer I think I have a
tendency to do something similar when it comes to spreading the gospel. I
gravitate to groups of seasoned believers or try to reach out to those who are
new recruits and babes in Christ…all the while the unsaved may be walking by
and I don’t even so much as make eye contact with them.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Sometimes the core issues of problems are obvious, yet unseen. I sit at my table to eat. I go to my office to work. When I’m in the store, I’m usually shopping. And at the post office I deal with my mail. I know some other folks who go to church to evangelize the lost. I chuckle a bit. Of all places to be around our community, churches are places where the fewest lost are encountered, yet the found are far more encountered. And that should be the place for evangelism instead of worship? But then again, I guess I could spend my entire day working at my table and then go to my office to eat dinner.
-----These soldiers should have been bright enough to apply a little situational awareness. They have places to meet for new recruit initiation and other places for their training. That whole job fair was set up for meeting the public, not training. And what did they do? They ate dinner at the office!
-----I don’t want to attend a church that meets for evangelization. That’s like sitting down in your favorite reading chair with a greatly educational book and reciting your ABC’s. Well, gee! What a curmudgeon am I! And I must hate the lost! No. I eat where the food is. I work where the job is. I play where the toys are. I evangelize where the lost are. I fellowship where the brethren are. And I go to church because I need their fellowship, and, I hope they want mine.
-----If I happen to meet a lost soul at church, I will be delighted to evangelize. That is just a smaller situation being a component of a larger one. But I’m not sure the last time I encountered a lost soul at church. Oh, I know they are there! But they hide it. They don't go to the church of the heavenly acting like hell? No way! They go there acting as heavenly as everyone else. And if you don’t know them, then you don’t know the difference. And if you don’t know the difference, then all you can do is make-believe you know, or get back to worship and let the people who do know them be responsible to their own evangelistic duties. For when I bring a lost soul to church, it isn’t to brush my responsibilities off onto the church. It is because I think curiosities might be piqued within them by their observing some worship. I am becoming more and more ashamed of the worshipless ways we meet to express ourselves towards the Worshipful. And I don’t think it is a good impression on the lost either.
-----I think we too much expect our training ground to be the recruiting booth. To me, this goes beyond not making sense. It is sheer foolishness to think there should be no training ground for the church. The church has either not done well in setting up recruiting booths, or has not done well in recruiting volunteers to man them. Therefore to assuage our guilt let’s just play like the training ground is the recruiting booth, and heck with worship. Maybe if we all perceive Him as less worshipful, then He will appear more jolly and pleasing to the celebrants. Thus we could be wonderfully flooded by lost souls wanting everything of delight, but nothing of surrender, and not much more of training.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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