The E Word

I used to tell people that Christians are not in the business of selling Jesus, but anymore it seems they’re in the business of pitching him. Advertising is the currency of evangelism.

Most evangelism I’ve seen (and, frankly, most of the evangelism I’ve inflicted on people) has taken its cue not from the gospels or the gospel, but from sales and marketing.

Confused? Here’s how it works. There’s a pitch, usually made with the help of illustrations, graphs, charts, and a series of leading questions, all intended to back the victim into an impossible corner. There’s no disagreeing with the evangelist. He (and, let’s face it, aren’t the really good evangelists men?) sets it up so there’s no logical way to escape the truth (You’re right, I must agree. I can see now that one sin does indeed make me a sinner, just as one murder makes me a murderer. [Does taking one pen from the grocery store counter make me a thief?]) There’s a sense of urgency over this limited time offer. There's an easy, simple, prepackaged one size fits all prayer to put in the slot and Jesus comes into the heart.

Let me state first what might be obvious. I do believe that there are times of great urgency in our approach to God. I wonder, though, if those moments are not better left to the individual and God. Who is the evangelist to try to create this existentialist moment of angst?

I also believe that the gospel has its own internal logic. I’m amazed, however, every Easter, at the people, churchy and non, who march into church and talk about Jesus coming back from the dead like he’s Punxsutawney Phil. Tell yourself the story of Jesus and see if it makes “sense”. It doesn’t. More about that elsewhere.

I also believe it is vital for all people to confess sin, to confess Christ, to commit to him and his way. But, at the risk of losing any evangelical street cred I might have once had, the “Sinner’s Prayer” often leaves me thirsty. Although there is no universal standard for the wording, it must flow in a very specific way. And it is sacrosanct. Do not mock the Prayer. It’s not in the Bible, but it ought to be. Jesus never used it, the apostles never prayed it, but they should have, and would have, if only they’d seen it. I once told someone that the Sinner’s Prayer wasn’t my preferred liturgical form for initiating people into the kingdom. He left shaking his head, wondering how I could be a pastor. My friend Brian was regaling a girl with a tale of some act of immature barbarism we had perpetrated and ended his story by saying, “Then we went home and prayed the Sinner’s Prayer.” “Really? That’s great,” was all the girl had to say.

But mostly, it’s the dishonesty of evangelism in general that bothers me. In the rush to get everyone to buy our product, we forget to inform our potential clients about potential side effects, like dying for the cause of justice, standing for righteousness, carrying crosses behind Jesus. There’s little mention made that Jesus will not leave you alone. Ever. That’s not always as comfortable as it sounds at first blush. What about having to make decisions based not on my desires, but on this relationship?

Evangelicals, and, I’m afraid, most other Christians in America, dance (rather stiffly) to the drum of marketing. But advertisers are so much more savvy than they were a couple decades ago. Niche marketing is what it’s all about now. There are certain demographics, maybe as small as one, that respond positively when the product is presented in certain ways. Tailor the message to hit that target. So, Christian publishers design narrower and narrower Bible covers. “Extreme Teen Study Bible”, “New Parent’s Bible”, “Good News for Japanese Housewives With Periodontal Disease” (translated, of course, from God’s native tongue, English).

But here’s the bad news for marketers and pitchmen. The gospel can’t be reduced to four laws. It can’t be boiled down to propositional truths. It can’t be simplified to a code or a slogan or a chorus. The gospel is a story, the story that gives meaning to all other stories.

So, there’s the rant. There’s the hole. Where’s the mountain?

For starters, evangelism is what evangelicals claim it’s about. It is introducing people to the possibility of a wide-awake relationship with God. But the way to that relationship is very different for many people. For most, it’s a journey into unknown territory, slowly at first, then with more confidence that Jesus does indeed know what he’s doing. Sure, I realize that for some it’s the whole flat on your ass Damascus road bit, complete with bright lights and voices, but not for most. It’s laden with crises, triumphs, and turning around to go home.

Two stories best illustrate good evangelism. The first is from the first chapter of John’s gospel. Jesus is spotted by John the Baptist (no relation to the writer) and declared to be the Lamb of God. John’s disciples wonder what they ought to do with this information. “Go and ask where he’s staying, you putz,” says John.

They go, ask the question, and hear, “Come and see.”

They end up spending the night, which I never like to do without a toothbrush. Next day, they each go off to find friends. Andrew gets his brother Simon and tells him how impressed he is with Jesus, and how this might b e the Messiah.

“Really?” Peter mumbles.

“Come and see,” is all Andrew says.

Philip finds his friend Nathaniel lolling the day away under a tree. “We’ve found the Messiah,” Philip tells him. “It’s Jesus from Nazareth.”

“Nazareth? Can anything good come from there?” wonders Nathaniel. Nazareth was like the Arkansas of Judea.

“Come and see.”

Neither Andrew with his dipshit brother nor Philip with his doubtful friend felt like they needed to convince anyone of anything. “Come and see. You’ll see.”

The other story I like is Ann Lamott’s story. She tells it so well in her book Traveling Mercies, I won’t try to replicate it. Suffice to say that she experienced Jesus in a little Presbyterian Church, then she felt him hunched in the corner of her room at night, then she sensed him following her like a cat until she finally said, "“Fuck it. Come on in." And he did.

Is there a right way to “do evangelism”? I’m not sure. I have often thought that if we could jettison the term we’d be closer to the real thing. Evangelism is simply being amazed by God’s mercy and saying to anyone who asks, “Oh yeah? Come and see.”

Maybe the reasons we have so much trouble with sharing to good news of Jesus is that we don’t really believe it, we’ve heard too many miraculous stories, and we’re convinced that Christianity is just a set of propositional statements we need to give mental assent.