Being Salt & Light Does Not Equal Inviting Someone to Church…
Continuing in our series (our much drawn out and often not posted series) on being Salt and Light, I wanted to approach what I believe is the common belief in most evangelical circles. It goes something like this, “If I invite someone to our worship service on Sunday, I have doe my job of evangelism.” I believe the Bible begs to differ.
We are all familiar with what has been coined the Great Commission found in the Gospels (Matt. 28:18-20), that we should go and make disciples, making disciples being the main thrust in the original language. We have often relegated this call to those who are known as “overseas missionaries”, but we must see that this is the call to all those who profess faith and trust in Christ. Much in our evangelical world has taught the practice of evangelism equalling bringing someone into a church service that is “geared” for their liking so that they are not offended by the gospel. This is counter intuitive to what the Scriptures know, as it describes the cross as foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18).
In light of this we must change our thinking. We must be in the world and not of the world (John 17:14-19). So it seems we must therefor, proclaim Christ in word and deed. There is no salvation of men seeing Christ only in our lives, for they will not know it is Christ unless we tell them that He is who has made the difference in us. We must proclaim Christ with our tongues, but back it up with our lives (James 2:14-26). We must proclaim the gospel with our tongues. We must also of necessity back it up with what we do. Is there merit in not only being a good neighbor, but also asking for forgiveness when I am not? If the world looks at us and expects us to be perfect because we claim Christ, we must adjust their view to the right and proclaim, when we have sinned against them, that Christ is perfect and we are not and it is His righteousness that God counts as worthy for us to be received by God (2 Cor. 5:21).
I do not believe that St. Francis of Assisi has captured the whole of Scripture with the saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” I believe it is more biblically accurate to say, “Preach the Gospel at all times and it is necessary to use words and live what we preach (Romans 10:14-17; 1 Pet. 2:12).”
Interesting thoughts you bring up because I have been contemplating these very things. For some reason, we have been prescribed the need to invite others “to church” and have, as you say, relegated what seems out of practical reach to “oversease missionaries.” The problem is that often we are not [consistently] successful in recruiting others to join us on Sunday mornings–which we have decided is what we can do practically–and it invites one to be a spectator rather than a participant. I look at Jesus’ command to the disciples to go into all the nations. We draw the conclusion that if Christ told the disciples to do this that we should naturally immitate this. While I don’t think this is inherently wrong, I look at the rest of the New Testament and instead of seeing Christ telling everyone to go into all the nations, I see instruction, story, parable, teaching and example showing all of us how to live life like Christ…in the world, but not at all of it. I think the scriptures show us how to proclaim freedom, rebirth and everlasting life through how we live life among those around us. This means in word. In deed. In thoughts. The Great Commission was given to the disciples. When we subscribe to the belief that it was given also to us as a commandment, we feel the failure of not fully accomplishing this. We ask ourselves if we were meant to go to some third world nation. We beat ourselves up when we miss an opportunity to share our faith with someone and then our “failure” paralyzes us into thinking we are inadequate. If we live with the intent to proclaim Christ in all of our life–very simply so–we have a greater chance of success. It is very do-able to live righteously (from the Latin for “right-way-living”). With success, we can become emboldened and then more fervent, zealous and effective in proclaiming life in Christ to those who are dead. It takes the pressure off of the believer and lets God demonstrate his greatness through us. Going back to the thought of salt & light: when I salt my food, I pour it all over. Not just a crystal or two thrown here & there to season my food. If I did that, it doesn’t taste any different. Maybe that’s why the world looks the way it does. We have spent too much time just sprinkling a grain of salt here & there rather than sprinkling it all over the whole feast and, thus, changing the whole flavor of the world!!