Speak right to their need
A Pastor I respect wrote this...after he has shared the gospel to a lost soul through the use of a tract, and saw she was untouched still, he writes this:
She had become the victim of a formula. The tract I took her through was set up in a standard evangelical fashion: God loves you, you have sinned, Christ is the only way to God, you must receive Him to have eternal life. But her situation didn’t fit that formula. What finally resonated with her (by God’s grace, after I bailed on the tract) was Jesus’ offer of a new heart. “Yes! I need that,” she said. She could see the futility of her own efforts, the failure of her past attempts at pleasing God, the need for something new inside her. She wanted to trade her mess for the new life Jesus offers. She was practically begging me for the privilege of finding her hope in Jesus. I was trying to get her to phrase it in the language of my tract: acknowledging God’s holiness, turning from sin, and establishing relationship with God through Christ. She was saying, “Nevermind a relationship… I need to be changed on the inside!”
Astute readers are thinking at this point: “Aren’t they the same thing?” Yes. That’s the whole point. So I led her in a prayer acknowledging her brokenness, and turning her life to Jesus, and asking Him to forgive her sin and give her a new heart and never leave her. And under my breath I cursed the tract.
It’s not the tracts that I hate; it’s the formulas. I am realizing now that Jesus never used formulas. He used whatever to talk about the kingdom life. The woman at the well was chatting with him about water, so he offered her living water. The Jews were talking about manna, so he spoke of Himself as the bread which comes down from heaven. The man born blind needed to see, so Jesus spoke of Himself as “the Light of the world” – and then restored the man’s sight to prove it. Modern evangelicalism has reduced conversion to a formula that can be mass-produced in a tract… but it’s just not that simple.
Wow. Jesus never used formulas...Lord, help us to be receptive to You and meet this depraved generation where they are just as you meet us where we are...help us speak right to their hearts, to explain how You meet them right at their needs...whatever that be, a new heart, comfort, forgiveness, peace....thank You that You did that for me.
A Pastor I respect wrote this...after he has shared the gospel to a lost soul through the use of a tract, and saw she was untouched still, he writes this:
She had become the victim of a formula. The tract I took her through was set up in a standard evangelical fashion: God loves you, you have sinned, Christ is the only way to God, you must receive Him to have eternal life. But her situation didn’t fit that formula. What finally resonated with her (by God’s grace, after I bailed on the tract) was Jesus’ offer of a new heart. “Yes! I need that,” she said. She could see the futility of her own efforts, the failure of her past attempts at pleasing God, the need for something new inside her. She wanted to trade her mess for the new life Jesus offers. She was practically begging me for the privilege of finding her hope in Jesus. I was trying to get her to phrase it in the language of my tract: acknowledging God’s holiness, turning from sin, and establishing relationship with God through Christ. She was saying, “Nevermind a relationship… I need to be changed on the inside!”
Astute readers are thinking at this point: “Aren’t they the same thing?” Yes. That’s the whole point. So I led her in a prayer acknowledging her brokenness, and turning her life to Jesus, and asking Him to forgive her sin and give her a new heart and never leave her. And under my breath I cursed the tract.
It’s not the tracts that I hate; it’s the formulas. I am realizing now that Jesus never used formulas. He used whatever to talk about the kingdom life. The woman at the well was chatting with him about water, so he offered her living water. The Jews were talking about manna, so he spoke of Himself as the bread which comes down from heaven. The man born blind needed to see, so Jesus spoke of Himself as “the Light of the world” – and then restored the man’s sight to prove it. Modern evangelicalism has reduced conversion to a formula that can be mass-produced in a tract… but it’s just not that simple.
Wow. Jesus never used formulas...Lord, help us to be receptive to You and meet this depraved generation where they are just as you meet us where we are...help us speak right to their hearts, to explain how You meet them right at their needs...whatever that be, a new heart, comfort, forgiveness, peace....thank You that You did that for me.
posted by Kate at 5:32 PM
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