Thoughts on "unChristian"--Part 3

Is it true that “The church is too focused on converts”? Frankly, I wish we were much more focused on converts than we are. My personal concern as a pastor is that most of the Christians I know have little if any concern about seeing those non Christians around them become believers, other than their own children or close relatives. And in most cases, they would be happier if others would take care of making sure that these people become believers.

However, the authors of unChristian (in Chapter 4) find that that younger Americans outside the church believe we are more concerned about notching our witnessing guns than we are building lasting relationships with them. In their interviews they found that only a third thought that Christians expressing concern were sincere, but two thirds of Christians believe that others would perceive their intentions as sincere. While I could prove that these two numbers are not contradictory (there are fewer Christians than population, and it may well be the two thirds of Christians are those interacting with the one third of outsiders!), there are some important concerns raised here by the authors, and they have to do with how Christians evangelize.

The authors affirm something earlier data has shown—large scale evangelism events are not highly successful (at least in terms of long term results), and current non church culture shows no real receptivity to feeling as if a program is being carried out on it. And personal evangelism that shows no continuing interest in the person being approached is highly likely to fail. This should not surprise, nor should this be something that describes most Christian personal outreach. Large events may create interest that can be built upon, and “stranger evangelism” may sometimes pique curiosity, but usual evangelism should be personal and relational. Preaching the gospel to a crowd is biblical as modeled in Acts 2, but when unbelievers were under conviction there, they had the chance to express repentance and be baptized—meaning people were interacting with them on some more personal level.

The chapter also speaks of the difference between conversion as a moment vs. conversion as a process. The authors rightly point out some of the faulty thinking and practices in methods that only aim for a moment’s action, without thought about the rest of life. They also highlight that Christian living is a lifelong process of sanctification in relationship/community. One need not embrace this thinking and give up a passion to see lives changed.

This chapter should encourage believers to consider how they witness, but I don’t think it should cause individuals or churches to be any less zealous to see people “get saved.”