Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. | Romans 12:9–18
On Tuesday, I wrote on the church; I ended with a list of 5 points of focus for the church to reach the lost (which were stolen directly from Kevin DeYoung). Today, I want to look at these a bit more in depth, as we think through how to bring the truth of God into the world.
GRAB THEM WITH PASSION
Too many Christains are bored with the gospel. We have reduced the world-tilting reality of redemption into a process by which you say a prayer and receive a get-out-of-Hell-free card. That message does not inspire passion or devotion, so the church is filled with people going through the motions.
More than once, I have had parents who seem like they don’t want to be at church, ask me why their kids are not more engaged. Kids follow their parent’s lead. This is true beyond your children; your friends don’t want to join your dull faith either. The first step to reaching the lost is to be passionate about what Jesus has done, and is doing, in our lives.
WIN THEM WITH LOVE
Every person in the world is looking to belong and be loved. Many people come to church because they are lonely and looking for community. While the church is not organized as a social club to give people a place (we are redeemed people unified by our common Savior), our response to the grace shown to us should be love.
This is easy and hard. It is easy because it means that you do not need some additional skillset; no one has to teach you to care about someone. Simply show up, listen, invite someone out for coffee, etc. The issue of loneliness in this world does not require more professionals, it requires more people willing to risk relationship (that is the hard part).
HOLD THEM WITH HOLINESS
While passion and love are important parts of what it means to be a Christian, they are not the end. Maturity in the faith requires sanctification. When we invite people into the church, we are inviting them into the great adventure of becoming more like Jesus. We need to stress this, because this makes the faith anything but boring. The pursuit of holiness and refining of our lives is a much more exciting endeavor than putting on services or organizing VBS. While the things that we do as the church are there to support the journey, if they become the goal, the church becomes nothing more than an event. People don’t need more events; they need something greater than themselves to aspire to. This is what we are called to:
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. | 2 Peter 1:5–8
The encouragement is that we will not fail. As we are refined, we become more connected to those who are helping us to grow.
CHALLENGE THEM WITH TRUTH
Many operate from the idea that to reach the lost is to dumb down the message of the gospel or to make it more acceptable. The idea is that the Bible is too difficult and convoluted for people to understand. A shallow faith does not have the power to answer the deep questions of life. Offering people a simplified message will not hold them when life gets tough.
People want to be able to do the work of applying the gospel and answering practical questions before they actually understand the gospel. I have people come to me all of the time wanting a verse from the Bible to respond to current cultural issues like: sexuality, gender, marriage/divorce, and race; my answer is often: it’s complicated. It isn’t that the Bible isn’t clear; it is that the Bible answers these questions through a robust telling of the story of Creation – Fall – Redemption – Restoration. To understand how the pieces fit, you first have to do the work of getting to know the Author. You have to learn to see the world from His perspective.
AMAZE THEM WITH GOD
The answer to all of this is to connect people to God, rather than to a theology or a church or a person. The church will never be able to entertain as well as Hollywood or connect people as well as Facebook, but we don’t need to. The church and the Christians who make it up are not the most impressive thing. What is amazing is that these unimpressive people have been loved and rescued by a great God.
We should present the world with this God who creates and redeems and gives of Himself so that His people may share in His glory. Augustine famously said: You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you. We who have found this rest must invite others into it. We have been given what we most long for, now we must share it with those in need.