Religious Conversion Code of Conduct – Part 3

Dahlia of the day: Cheyenne.

The August 7^th edition of Presbyweb carried a link called, “Progress Seen Towards a Christian Code of Conduct on Religious Conversion.” Yesterday I talked about “sheep stealing.” Today I am going to begin looking at ways Christians can be respectful of a person’s beliefs and still seek to introduce them to Jesus Christ.

We used Rob Bell’s Nooma DVDs for our devotions on our recent sailing trip. One of the DVDs had man in his home getting ready to go somewhere—I thought he was getting ready for work. Rob starts talking about a man who stands on a street corner “witnessing” to passers-by with a bullhorn. It turns out that the man in the video was getting ready to go to a major sporting event—he was bullhorn man.

“Guy” worked for the college where I was the Chaplain. Guy was raised in a home that was VERY anti-Christian. Guy was “good” in every sense of the word—and, he wasn’t a Christian. You see, he was afraid that if he became a Christian he would have to stand on a street corner, yelling at passers-by that Jesus loves them. (Note: Guy became a Christian after another staff person and I spent many hours with him—doing normal, “non-spiritual” stuff. We talked about what Jesus meant to us when the opportunity presented itself.).

It is unfortunate that so many Christians believe that “evangelism” is an event instead of a way of life.

People talk about those things that excite them. The last few days I have been talking with a person who is EXCITED about baseball—from little league to the professional ranks. Another person was excited about cars and that is what he talked about. Still another was talking about a grandchild. Still another was talking about going down to a nearby river to read his Bible.

What are you and I excited about? What are the members of our church excited about? All we have to do to find out what excites a person is to listen to them for a while. If Jesus doesn’t come up in the conversation periodically then I would suggest that they aren’t excited about him.

I think that one reason our evangelistic efforts don’t respect people is that they are programmed “events” that force a believer to do something and talk about something that doesn’t excite them. The first step in having a great code of conduct in evangelism is for Christians to fall in love with Jesus all over again.