Evangelism

When I was a senior in high school, I attended a Fellowship of Christian Athletes conference at Carson Newman College. There was a revival service with a man preaching. We were sitting up in the seats of the basketball arena. And, as the man preached about how important it was to be right with God, he tried real hard to make us worry that we were not right with God. He wanted us to come down to the front to commit ourselves to God and make sure we were saved, which meant 'saved from being sent to hell by God.'

I remember sitting there in my seat, and, as some of the young men started walking down to the floor with the preacher. I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember it because it was a defining moment in my life. Something within me felt like this man was tempting me to betray God, to distrust God, and to trust in something that felt unholy but powerful. You see, I loved God, I trusted God. I felt this man trying to talk me into thinking God was out to get me, when I had always been taught and felt deeply that God was exactly the opposite.

And, that very moment I began to feel a calling on my life - a calling to preach the good news, the good news that God is gracious and loves human beings. This so-called evangelism that portrayed God as out to get us but that Jesus stepped in between by sacrificing himself. Well, I can do nothing but call that some real evil bullshit, even if other people call it the way to eternal life.

In the First Letter of John, it says: "There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out all fear." What comes from God through Jesus is love and the willingness and perserverance to save human beings from destruction. As Jesus says in the Gospel of John: "God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."

Very simply put: JESUS MEANS GOD IS FOR HUMANITY, NOT AGAINST HUMANITY. JESUS REVEALS THAT GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN FOR HUMANITY, NOT AGAINST HUMANITY. JESUS CAME TO CHANGE OUR MIND ABOUT GOD AND EACH OTHER, NOT TO CHANGE GOD'S MIND ABOUT US!

And, the good news about God comes across so clearly in the story Jesus tells about the prodigal son who ran off from his father's home and wasted his inheritance on prostitutes and partying. Well, this son ends up poor and desperate and ashamed and comes back home. And, the son has a repentance speech all ready ("father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy of being treated as a son, but ask only that you would treat me as a servant"). But, he doesn't get to give that speech, because when his father sees his son who he thought might be dead, the father is so overjoyed that the old man runs to his son and hugs him and cries out loud! The old man yells to his servants to get the party ready and to give his son proper clothing, because this son who was lost is found, this son he thought was dead, is alive.

That's how God is. Thank God, that's how God is.