Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Winsome Church 1

Last week I talked at length about Christians sharing their faith naturally. I said that I would share with you what a church can do to help Christians bring their friends and neighbors to Christ. Never has there been a church that didn't think it was friendly. Most of them are: to each other. However, a church that is going to help individuals lead their friends and neighbors to Christ, must be "guest conscious". I think there are five important components to becoming guest conscious, this week I'll share the first one:

1. The church should expect people to come who don't know Christ and be ready for them. If the church asks its people to bring their non-Christian, hopefully, pre-Christian friends, the church should do what it can to make sure they feel welcome. That takes more than a smile from the usher when he/she hands the guest a bulletin. It means thinking about the guests and what would make them feel welcome: from the sermon that is preached and music that is used, to the decoration and lighting of the worship area, to the way people dress.

The pastor must make sure that an unchurched person can understand his message. He can never use words that they won't understand unless he explains the meaning. As he prepares, he must continually ask the Lord to enable him bring messages that will speak to the hearts of the unchurched. Every service must somehow include the simple message of God's love, the sinfulness of all men, the need for reconciliation, forgiveness and submission to God's will. Not every sermon has to deal with all these things, but they need to be dealt with at some point. Perhaps it could come in the prayer, the songs, a testimony, or a video. Church leaders should think about who they are most likely to reach when doing any planning. Those people are the ones the church wants to impress with its programs, classes, and messages. (I know your church wants to reach everybody, I am sure that is true, but a church that plans for everybody, often reaches nobody.)

How does your church show that it expects guests to come? Or, how does it show that it is not ready for guests?

Next time when we will look at the act of welcoming a guest at church.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Sharing Naturally

In a meeting the other day some pastors were talking about the place of evangelism programs in the church today. Usually, evangelism programs have consisted of classes that teach people to share the gospel. They entail memorizing scriptures that have to do with the God's love and his plan for people to be saved from hell by the death and resurrection of his son, Jesus. An outline of the steps to salvation is also committed to memory. There are many programs available for this. Among them are, "The Four Spiritual Laws", "The Roman Road", and "Evangelism Explosion." As the people are being trained, they are given the opportunity to practice what they are learning among themselves. When they have some degree of proficiency, they go out to try to bring people to Jesus, often going in groups of two or three to visit people who have visited their church. Sometimes they go door to door in the neighborhood of the church, or strike up a conversation at a coffee house or similar place. The idea is to learn how to share the Gospel with people who need it - definitely a grand and necessary idea.

Early in my ministry I was involved in several of these efforts. In fact, I was a trainer in an Evangelism Explosion program. Christians ought to learn those scriptures and know how to lead someone to the Lord. More than that they ought to actually be involved in helping people understand the Gospel and come to a saving faith in Jesus. Praise God that people are sometimes reached in this way.

However, I have a few problems with this kind of evangelism program. The training is very helpful, but most of these programs also encourage the learners to target complete strangers. In some ways, it is very hard to share the Gospel with a stranger, mostly because a majority of people find it difficult to talk to strangers about anything, much less the most important thing in life. On the other hand, if the stranger reacts badly, or simply rejects the Gospel, while it hurts, he is a stranger, and there is not much invested in the relationship. When I worked in E.E. I shared the Gospel with a lot of people that I didn't know. I was not even aware that I had anything in common with most of them. Some prayed with me to accept Christ, I am happy to say, but following up with them was tough. I can't remember any of them who became disciples. It felt like I was getting people to make decisions, but I was unsuccessful in doing what Jesus commissioned us to do "make disciples" (Matt. 28:19-20).

I began to wonder if wouldn't be better, though perhaps riskier, to share with people that are friends. Of course, that is not easy for many long-time Christians, because they have no non-Christian friends. How can a church program friendships? I don't think it can be done. As a young pastor, I didn't have time to make friends with non-Christians, because I was always at a church meeting or a training session. I decided to make time to make some friends that didn't know Jesus. So, I found a way out of some of those meetings, and began playing on a softball team that was sponsored by a local furniture store, joined a service club, and became a volunteer police chaplain. Pretty soon I made some new friends, and I was able to earn the right to talk about Jesus. I found that the Gospel just came out naturally as the relationship grew. It didn't feel forced, as it had when I shared with strangers. My friends liked me, and wanted to know what made me tick. I also found that the Gospel outline, while helpful, was not the main instrument that Jesus used. Instead, God used my life, and my sharing what Jesus had done, and was continuing to do in my life that seemed to move my friends closer to the him. Didn't Jesus tell the disciples to "be witnesses" (Acts 1:8)? Seems to me that is simply telling what He is doing in ones personal life. Some of my new friends started showing up in church. Some received Jesus, and I had the privilege of baptizing some. Following up with them came naturally because it was part of our friendship.

Now, this is important: I didn't set out to make a friend to add a notch to my Gospel gun. I simply went out to make friends and the Lord used that friendship to speak to the hearts of some of them. I had some friends who hadn't chosen to follow Jesus by the time I relocated to another part of the country, but I know that the Lord planted seed by means of the friendship. I trust that someone else may have been used by God to later pick the ripened fruit.

I once read a great article in "Campus Life", the magazine of the Youth for Christ ministry, on sharing faith. The first suggestion it gave was "Don't be weird." Sounds easy, but often Christians seem weird to non-Christians. As we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, he changes us. We are not the same as we used to be. Our values and priorities are changed and they are not the same as those of the "world." However, we don't have to be strange just because we are different. Jesus was very different from everyone he met, but he must have had a winsomeness about him that made people flock to him and want to know him. Too often we Christians have succeeded in becoming different, but somehow we have lost out on being winsome. If we ask the Lord to make us winsome, perhaps we will win some. Paul was very explicit about this in I Cor. 9:22b: "I have become all things to all men so that I might by all possible means save some." What makes this kind of evangelism possible is a real and desperate desire to do whatever it takes to see people find the love, hope and salvation that we have found in Jesus.

Next week's I will share what I think a church can do to help this kind of evangelism happen.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

My Admiration for Ed

Last week Ed Hostetler was killed in a car accident. I miss my friend because I have a great deal of admiration for him. I know he knew that, but I wish I had taken an opportunity to share just how much his friendship and his approach to life meant to me. He was a leader at the church I used to serve.

I have had a lot of church friends, but Ed was a little different. It is hard for people who are not in ministry to understand some of the dynamics of being the pastor, but because Ed had two brothers who were pastors, he had a more accurate idea of what being a pastor feels like. Beyond that, he wanted to understand. From watching his brothers he knew that pastoring is a lonely business. Pastors know lots of people and a lot people know them, but, often, their close friends are not nearby.

Ed was also aware that it is hard for pastors to know who their friends are. Sometimes a pastor finds that church members, which he thought were friends and supporters, suddenly find a reason to not like him anymore. Early in my ministry an old pastor told me, "Be careful of the people who meet you at the train, because they will be the ones that put you on it." Unfortunately, as years passed I saw that happen. Too often, the people who were the most excited about a new pastor's arrival, later became the people who made it difficult for him to stay. Sometimes they went as far as to openly oppose him and try to ruin his ministry. Ed saw that happen to at least one of his brothers, so he was determined to be his pastor's true friend. I was glad to be the beneficiary of that determination.

Ed would stop by my office to see how I was doing. Whenever difficult things happened, or hurtful things were said about me in the church, he always had a word of encouragement, and a prayer for me. In fact, Ed stopped by my house on the night before he left for what turned out to be his last vacation, just to make sure I was all right.

Another thing I admired about Ed was the way he used his retirement. A lot of people can't wait to retire from work so they can play golf, sit on a beach, pick flowers, or watch soap operas, but Ed was very different. When he retired, it was like the Lord unleashed a warrior for His Kingdom. Ed remained highly involved in the life and leadership of the church, but he also became vitally interested in other ways he could take help build God's Kingdom. These included:
- He helped get the church's Missions Task Force off the ground, and participated in both local efforts and mission trips.
- He was very important to the prison ministry, Chairos, which takes Christians into prisons to spend four days sharing the love and message of Christ with men and women who hve been cut off from society, the church, and their families.
- Ed loved being part of the local Christian Motorcyclist Association, even though health concerns forced him to quit riding a year or two ago.

The day he retired from Delphi Electronics was a bad day for the forces of Satan. His life is a wonderful example to anyone who is a retiree, or hopes to be one someday. Ed gave himself to Christ, not only for the promise of heaven, but also to be used by him in anyway God saw fit.

Also, I admired the fact that Ed "got it." Too many people in his generation have forgotten, or, perhaps, never knew what the church is supposed to be about. He realized that Jesus gave us specific instructions: love God, love others, and make disciples. Ed dedicated himself to do those three things, and he was all for anything the church did to fulfill its mission. He was willing to put his preferences, and his comfort aside if that was what was needed to spread the message of God's love, hope, and salvation.

Finally, and most importantly, I admired Ed as a grandpa. His son-in-law died tragicly four years ago leaving Ed's daughter with two sons, a four year-old and an infant. Ed stepped up to try to fill the void for those two boys. Though in his late 60's and not in the best of health, Ed could be found playing little kids' games, chasing the boys around, and, this year, coaching sports teams. What a great example to me, and to others.

I think Ed's epitaph would have to be something like this. "He put God first, others second and himself a distant third." I'm going to miss you Ed, but don't worry, except for missing you, I am doing just fine.

Friday, April 9, 2010

21st Century and Me

OK, Ray Houser has just entered the 21st Century. I know, it is already 1/10 of the way over, but I am finally here. I am resolved to keep running to try to keep up. Sometimes I get tired, and I want to say, "Whoa, I've gone far enough." But I know that only guarantees irrelevance. While no one can help getting older, becoming irrelevant is not predestined. Besides, I want to grow old, not just get old, and that means trying new things and learning new skills. These days are confusing, but they are also very exciting, and they are are filled with great opportunities. For me, my hope is that these days will be ones of great expectations. So...


  • I will keep trying to keep up.

  • I will not be afraid of learning new things.

  • I will try not to think how hard I worked to gain competencies that are no longer needed.

  • I will keep my enthusiasm for what is over the next hill, or around the next curve.

And some day I will be known as that old guy, who is still pretty doggone sharp!

21st Century, Ray Houser has arrived. Deal with it!