Tag Archives: evangelism

“My Word will not return unto me void”

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On the road this week, I’m sharing some “blasts from the past.” Here’s a post that gets looked at a lot.

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“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Is 55:11 KJV)

This verse is sometimes used to say that giving people a Bible is enough, for it is God’s Word and God’s Word will not return void. Personally, I don’t think that’s what this verse is saying. I think that “my word” here refers to God uttering a decree; when God says something it will happen.

Still I have long held to the belief that anyone can and should be able to understand the Bible on their own and, through that understanding, learn the truth and become a Christian. While still believing in the power of God’s Word, I have some doubts about that exact process. Here’s why:

  1. As I’ve been discussing recently, God’s Word was not originally delivered in book form, not originally distributed to the masses in book form as it is today. Therefore, that cannot have been God’s original plan. It could be a way for people to come to the truth, but it’s certainly not intended to be the most important way. In fact, this whole idea didn’t spring up until the last few centuries, when printed Bibles were readily available.
  2. The Bible never makes the claim that everyone can just read it and understand it. As troubling as that sounds, it’s true. Faith in biblical times was not built around people sitting at home reading God’s Word. They had to come together to do it. And they didn’t have trouble with the idea that someone would need to explain it.Look at Nehemiah 8, when Ezra stood and read the Book of the Law to the people following their return from exile. Notice that the Levites were explaining the meaning as Ezra read: “Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.” (Nehemiah 8:7-9 ESV)Look also at the eunuch’s words in Acts 8: “So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.” (Acts 8:30-31 ESV) Philip didn’t reprimand him saying: “Of course you can understand. Anyone can.” He taught him.
  3. I cannot think of even one example in the Bible where evangelism is done by giving someone a Bible. Again, look at Philip and the eunuch. The eunuch had the Bible in his hand, yet Philip was sent to teach him. I believe in the Bible and the power of the Bible. I just don’t see where God says, “Hand out these books and people will become Christians.”

God works through people and through relationships. He always sent a prophet. He didn’t just hand Moses a book. Jesus wrote no book. People need God’s Word, but “Bible-only” evangelism isn’t God’s way.

Help that harms

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Tony Campolo wrote an excellent article last week that ties together several things that I’ve written about on this blog. He points out the harm that Christian relief has done in Haiti, not only now, but over the last few decades. He also reminds us that the hot trends in mission trips (building houses, etc.) aren’t helping the people we intend to help.

Really dealing with poverty takes long-term planning and carefully thought-out strategies. It’s not simple.

Maybe I’m just playing the role of Chicken Little, crying that the sky is falling when everyone knows that it’s not. Or maybe I’m able to see that the emperor has no clothes. Whichever it is, at least Tony Campolo agrees with me. Misery loves company.

Edit: (3/8/10, 9:45 a.m. CST) — Jay Guin’s blog reminded me that I could well include a couple of resources here:

  • When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Dr. Brian Fikkert of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development and the Department of Economics and Community Development at Covenant College
  • Tending to Eden by Scott Sabin

Relief efforts and Christian priorities

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There’s something else that concerns me about our rush to send relief to disaster areas. I’m wondering if we aren’t focusing a bit on the wrong things.

Again, I know that I’m running the risk of sounding calloused and uncaring. I recognize the need to reach out to hurting people. But I’m wondering if the materialism of the culture we are living in hasn’t made it easier for us to focus on physical things than spiritual ones.

Look at the society around us. Have you noticed that spirituality has nothing to do with wanting to help out with disasters? I’m not saying that makes it bad; I’m saying that it’s not something uniquely Christian.

But didn’t Jesus say to help the hurting? Of course he did. But never at the expense of our mission to the world. The unique thing that we have to offer is the good news of Jesus Christ. We’ve got to hang on to that, even as the world drives us to focus on physical things (good and bad). We are called to focus on the unseen, not the seen, on the eternal, not the temporal.

I’ve often wished that we could somehow see the pictures of the spiritually starving, with bloated souls longing for nourishment. I’ve wanted to be able to show the earthquake of sin, the hurricane of wrongdoing that devastates family after family. In a materialistic society, we are moved by physical suffering and economic loss. We understand lack of food and water. Everyone is touched by these things, not just Christians. It’s part of survival, the “herd instinct” that makes someone dive into a swollen river to try and save a stranger.

We need some priorities. We need holistic programs that serve body and soul. We need to be willing to stick to longterm efforts, rather than jumping from emergency to emergency. If we feed and heal and house and clothe, yet don’t lead people to Christ, are we really doing them good in the long run? In the LONG run?

In 21st-century America, it’s easy to raise money for relief projects. Christians, non-Christians, everyone wants to give to help. At some point we need to ask ourselves, should the church look just like the world in this? Do we not have something more to offer, something more important?

If not, we should probably shut our doors.

People need the good news

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Yesterday’s post spurred some interesting conversation about just what it is we teach people as they are coming to God. Let me state plainly that I believe that people need to hear the good news about Jesus. I prefer to begin a study by going through one of the gospels, just to make sure that the person knows the good news. If the person is not a Christian, there will come a “what shall I do” moment, and then I might use a presentation like that of Acts 2.

People need to be converted to a relationship with God. They need “doctrine,” but doctrine won’t save them. They need to become part of the church, but teaching about the church won’t save them. Salvation is about being in a right relationship with God. People need Jesus Christ.

In Argentina, we once examined the different tracts that we had brought with us from the States. Out of about 15-20 tracts that we had, only one was about Jesus. We realized that those pamphlets didn’t represent what it was we wanted to teach people.

People need the good news about Jesus Christ. That’s what we need to teach them.

The magic formula for having a successful Hispanic ministry

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cookiesHere are the three magic steps to having a successful Hispanic ministry…

[cricket, cricket]

OK, so there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to Hispanic ministry. If I only communicate one concept about Hispanic ministry, that’s the most important one I’ve got to share. I hear too many people say, “This worked where we are, it will work anywhere.”

We have to remember that Hispanic is an ethnicity. It’s not a nationality. It’s not a race. It’s not even a culture. It is a multiplicity of nationalities, races, and cultures. It’s even a mix of languages to some degree, for some Hispanics speak only Spanish, some speak only English and some are bilingual.

There are areas where most of the Hispanics are immigrants. There are other areas where it is the Anglos who are the newcomers, where Hispanic families were living before the United States came to them. There are places where most of the Hispanics are minimum-wage workers. There are others where Hispanics are leaders in the community. Some consider themselves outsiders, foreigners; others are fully integrated.

Because of this, the fact that one church in Georgia has had tremendous success with a Guatemalan preacher doing outreach to immigrants, doesn’t mean that same model would work in San Antonio. Where some churches have grown while doing services all in Spanish, others need to be bilingual, while others should be doing everything in English. [Dan Rodriguez from Pepperdine did studies of successful Hispanic evangelical churches; the fastest growing ones had English-only services.]

I’ve got thoughts, ideas and opinions to share about how churches can best serve a multicultural community. But the most important concept is: we must be flexible. We can’t use a cookie cutter approach.