But one evangelism technique comes to us from both progressive and evangelical Christians. Today, let me show you show you the Christians who profess great curiosity about the god we’ve rejected. And then we’ll see how this tactic actually works for them.
WELL. The best-laid plans and all that! I found something to lead us up to J.D. Greear’s skidmark of a post from last week. Y’all need to see this first–if only to prepare yourselves. It seems that evangelical leaders have come up with yet another way to sabotage their young Read more
Today, I’ll show you what Beach Reach is, some of its history, and why it’s a perfect example of the SBC’s goals and shortcomings.
In this report, the SBC introduces us to the people they hope will totally save their bacon as a denomination. Let’s meet the EVANGELISM TASK FORCE, and learn what they’ve been doing all year!
Their behavior might seem just bizarre, but it all makes perfect sense when we understand what they really hope to achieve. Today, I’ll show you three different ways that such people act out–and why they do it. You’ll see that they’re getting exactly what they want, in that moment.
Christian evangelists act, in a very real sense, as salespeople of their ideology. And they are not making a lot of sales these days. They can’t even keep the few customers they still have! So evangelical churn has become a serious problem–not just for evangelicals, either. Not long ago, we talked about a Christian who thought he’d figured out a brand-new sales tactic. In that post, I touched on the two tactics Christian salespeople typically use. Today, I’ll expand a little more on the first of them, confrontational evangelism–and why it fails, and why Christians can’t stop using it regardless.
For many years, Christians have been trying to convince everyone that human beings have a “god-shaped hole” in their beings that cries out for belief in their particular god to fill it. But that’s not true. Rather, many people suffer from a god-shaped wound—created by the salespeople who want to fill it with their product.
The marketers in broken systems have this unfortunate tendency to sell two different and diametrically opposed things to potential consumers. It’s not just a Christian thing; it happens in most broken systems. People in them don’t see that they’re doing it, and the people they’re selling to may not even realize that’s why they distrust the sellers and reject their product. But it happens all the same.
In comments last time we met up, we learned about yet another set of those guesses, all presented as amazing new ideas that would totally work to convert people without backfiring and making evangelicals look like pickup-artist creeps.
It’s a collision that doesn’t need to happen, and one that no longer gives the results Christian leaders want.