Video: In Every Seat
We want to make evangelism doable and fun for ordinary followers of Jesus. That’s why we encourage OAs and share our OA stories with each other.
Hope Baptist Church in Las Vegas made this video encouraging ordinary followers of Jesus to evangelize:
Tell us what you think of this video.
- Is it well-produced?
- Is it interesting (did it keep your attention)?
- What methods does it use to encourage ordinary people to evangelize?
- How do those methods compare with ours?
- In the video, do OAs count as ”real evangelism’?
- Has watching this video made you more positive/enthusiastic about evangelism?
- Has it made you more likely to do some one-on-one evangelism today?
August 4th, 2006 · 45 Comments
Categories: Doable Evangelism
Randy said
am August 4 2006 @ 11:20 am
It is very well produced, interesting and, if I may be so bold…less Baptist than I expected. It’s too long, probably (most video pieces are, in my opinion), but in the Baptist church setting I think this would be amazingly freeing and motivational.
Still a bit of the “attack” language and style, but the emphasis on ordinary people doing this seems pretty similar to the OA thing. They don’t seem to make any distinction between OA’s and evangelism (Just show up).
Jerry Davison said
am August 4 2006 @ 2:02 pm
Wow! Thanks for sharing our videos! I am glad you guys liked it. This particular video was made for a specific evangelistic emphasis our pastor was doing that weekend. You are correct that it is “less Baptist” than what many might expect. We are trying to move our people into the freedom of being who you are in Christ everyday rather than trying to “be a witness” by learning a program or handing out a tract. You might be interested in checking out our pastor’s messages calle “The Life of a Jesus Follower” which is all about letting Christ live His life through us rather than trying to “do Christian things.” I love your blog! Godspeed!
Jerry Davison
jerry@hopebaptistchurch.com
Helen M. said
am August 4 2006 @ 2:30 pm
Thanks for stopping by, Jerry!
Glen Collinsworth said
am August 4 2006 @ 8:23 pm
I am impressed that something that I have just started being a part of, is growing, and being “critiqued” by others out there in the rest of the world. Living in Las Vegas certainly has it’s challenges, not just isolated to the masses, the Christians, the sinners, or the Saints, but sin has no prejudice, and our enemy Satan don’t care how little or much money you make, steal, win, or squander, as long as he can focus your thoughts away from God, Satan thinks he is winning. This is my personal reason for joining the Video Team for True North Video Productions, is so I can do my part to make a difference in someone’s life. I look forward to someday soon having something I co-produced, being critiqued, because that just means “The audience is listening”!
May God bless your ministry and what you are doing here!
Glen Collinsworth
Mark Haines said
am August 4 2006 @ 9:20 pm
This video is great! Is there any way I can down load it to show to my congregation? It summarizes my next message very well.
Jim said
am August 4 2006 @ 11:38 pm
Jerry
Thanks to you and yoru church for attempting something new
Helen M. said
am August 5 2006 @ 6:29 am
Glen wrote:
Thanks for your comment, Glen. We hope to make a difference in peoples’ lives too.
Helen M. said
am August 5 2006 @ 6:30 am
Mark, I suggest you e-mail Jerry and ask if you can get a copy to use at your church – his e-mail address is on his comment.
Jerry said
am August 5 2006 @ 8:24 am
Mark,
I would be happy to send you a copy but I’m not sure you would get it in time for your next message. One idea would be to post it to your church’s website as an added resource for your members. Just email me and tell me what format you need and how soon you need it.
Jerry
jerry@hopebaptistchurch.com
Jim said
am August 5 2006 @ 1:27 pm
I have one questoin about the video
Why did you think it was necessary to include the pastors clips – they felt out of place and pasted on a bit for me- and from a production view they were shot with different lighting and look
Peter Walker said
am August 5 2006 @ 4:25 pm
I like the intent of the video, but phrases like “putting on the armor” (in my opinion) probably need to go. It’s not particularly relevant language in today’s culture, and really brings the notion of “warfare against the world” to mind. Always has. I used to hate singing songs in church choir like “Keep on the Firing Line” for the same reason. Who are we shooting from the firing line? Demons or Satan I guess, but it’s a lot easier just to shoot non-Christians… and each other.
As I said, this is a great motivational idea for “Ordinary Attempts,” but can we de-churchify it… maybe even de-Christianize it a little?
Peter
Jerry said
am August 5 2006 @ 6:21 pm
Well, that’s a good question. You have to remember that you are seeing this video out of its original context. This was part of a special message series we were doing and the clip at the end was to tie it back in with what he had been teaching the previous week. While it may seem like a poor production choice it really helped teach the people which is my main concern here.
Jerry
jerry@hopebaptistchurch.com
Jerry said
am August 6 2006 @ 7:37 am
Peter (that other comment was actually in response to Jim’s question),
Again, you have to remember, this video was made for a church. Since this wasn’t addressed to those outside the faith I felt no particular need to “de-churchify” it. Also, ther people interviewed are speaking not from a script but from their hearts and experiences. When they say things like “putting on the armor” it is not because they lack the vocabulary to say it otherwise, they are speaking from what scripture says about our Enemy and his efforts to prevent us from showing Christ to others through the way we live.
I understand the need of some to move away from traditional “Christianese” language and cliches. As a songwriter and storyteller I applaud that. Nothing robs a story of its power like a tired cliche. But I think sometimes we mistake scripture for cliche. I think a phrase like “putting on your armor” is extremely relevant to a war-torn world (it better be since a changeless God inspired it in scripture!). We may not wear the same kind of armor as Paul was referring to but a soldier today doesn’t go to war unprepared. I think people all over the woeld, especially in the middle east can relate to that idea.
I am really enjoying hearing the perspectives of others on the video. believe me, I am taking them all to heart and learning a lot. Thanks, everyone!
Helen M. said
am August 6 2006 @ 11:49 am
I liked that the people who spoke on the video seemed like nice people who cared about others.
Helen M. said
am August 6 2006 @ 1:44 pm
Peter wrote:
I never liked the warfare imagery much either. I realize it’s in the Bible, but – my own life is so unlike being in a real war it’s hard for me to relate to it.
Jim said
am August 6 2006 @ 11:36 pm
Jerry
Thanks for hanging in there with us. I would enjoy hearing your thoughts about our interviews with 3 Lost people. Check them out here.
Helen M. said
am August 7 2006 @ 5:54 am
Jerry,
We appreciate your responses to our honest opinions about your evangelism video.
Please feel free to share your honest opinion with us of the interviews with 3 lost people.
One of our goals here at Off The Map is to encourage Christians to be respectfully honest with one another. The fact is, we don’t always agree. We believe that while discussing our differences won’t necessarily remove them, it will help us understand each other better and learn from each other. It will help us not to misconstrue each other’s motives and to find ways we can be on ‘one team for Jesus’ in the very big picture, even if our specific methods are somewhat different.
We believe it’s best if Jesus’ various teams can learn from each other and then go out and do his work rather than getting distracted into fighting with one another. (No need to help the devil out that way…)
Mike O. said
am August 8 2006 @ 6:23 am
As much as I’m on board with the whole idea of “dechurchifying” things in Peter’s previous comment, I have to agree with Jerry on this one. The purpose of dechurchifying is to better communicate with those to whom “churchifying” would be unwise or even damaging (war analogies, for example). However, if the audience is already churchified, and that’s not wrong it’s just who the audience is, dechurchifying it could very well come across as watered down, pointless and ineffective.
One of the things I love about the Off The Map atmosphere is the desire to communicate in terms that the communicatee understands. That’s what Jerry did … he communicated in a way the comunicatee would understand.
In fact, this is a wonderful example of crossing over from churchified to dechurchified … this video resonates with the churchified audience, and then pulls them across some line into a dechurchified mentality. There is no right or wrong here … if you want to dechurchify the church, you have to first communicate in terms that resonate with them or they won’t hear the message. To mobilize the church to become effective ministers of the gospel of Christ, you have to be able to speak their language, too.
Helen M. said
am August 8 2006 @ 7:18 am
Mike,
Could you elaborate on how the video ‘pulls the churchified audience across some line to a dechurchified mentality’? I’m not sure what you mean by that.
Here’s something I’ve been wondering – this video is available to anyone, churched or unchurched, on youtube.com (that’s where I found it). I’m wondering if any ”unchurched’ people have watched it and what they think of it.
Mike O. said
am August 8 2006 @ 7:46 am
I don’t know … it gets church people to look beyond the walls of their building without feeling like you have to be Billy Graham. Just be a reasonable, caring person. Phrases like, “it’s just simple things … you go out into the community … the hardest part is just showing up … it’s not always what we say, sometimes we just need to be quiet … what I did Monday thru Saturday to live out my faith … ” The story of the two youths asking teh homeless guy if he played basketball.
Even the pastor part of the video, where he says we all have a story, and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to share that story … that doesn’t sound like 4 Spiritual Laws to me. It sounds like, be who you are, be nice, care about people and let God do the rest.
The people IN the church have a church mentality, that it’s all about getting “them” to come to “us” so we can minister to them on our turf … on “ministry” turf. How wrong is that?!? How likely is it that I’ll let someone minister to me in a mosque? Not very likely. But if it ever did happen, it would be because of a relationship I had with someone in that mosque, and their ability to show me the value of what they’re saying. They would have to minister to me on MY turf first. Then maybe, just maybe, I’d follow them to the mosque. Yet we think people can only be ministered in a church … that they’ll just show up unannounced and uninvited to our church because they somehow sensed that they need Jesus? Sure, it happens, but we need to minister to people on THEIR turf first, and then maybe, just maybe, they’ll follow us to church.
I like how my pastor puts it … he says he wants our church to be a “go to” church, not a “come to” church. He wants us to be a church that goes to wherever ministry needs to be done, and that’s pretty much everywhere EXCEPT in church on Sundays.
I guess I see it “dechurchifying” the MENTALITY of the church, and maybe y’all are talking about dechurchifying the LANGUAGE of the church. Maybe that’s the disconnect … it dechurchifies the mentality.
Helen said
am August 8 2006 @ 11:16 am
Thanks Mike – that was very helpful; I understand what you meant now.
I liked those things about the video too – to me they seemed very much in line with ‘doable evangelism’ principles.
Jerry said
am August 8 2006 @ 12:02 pm
Thanks, Mike! That was an excellent way to sum up the intent of the video. I appreciate your insight.
I would, however, like to go back and address something Helen said ealier that kind of sent up a red flag for me. Helen said, “I never liked the warfare imagery much either. I realize it’s in the Bible, but – my own life is so unlike being in a real war it’s hard for me to relate to it.” I fear we are in danger of missing a vital piece of the puzzle here.
The fact of the matter is that we are at war. We live in what C.S. Lewis calls “enemy-occupied territory.” The devil is real, his war against the church is real, and we cannot simply check out because the idea makes us uncomfortable.
I agree that there is no place for warfare terminology in our relationships with those outside the faith. The Gospel is a stumbling block just being what it is, we don’t need to aggravate the issue by being obnoxious! But just because the battle is spiritual doesn’t mean it isn’t real. In fact, it is exactly because it’s spiritual that it’s more real than we are often ready to admit.
Consider this quote from John Eldredge (one of my favorite authors at the moment):
“Against the Evil One we wear the armor of God. That God has provided weapons of war makes a lot more sense if our days are like a scene from Saving Private Ryan. How many Christians have read over those passages about the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation and never really known what to do with them. What lovely poetic imagery, I wonder what it means. It means that God has given you armor and you’d better put it on. Every day.”
Consider also this from The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. In this classic book on spiritual warfare, an older demon is teaching his young apprentice how to go about thwarting the work of believers. He says:
“My dear Wormwood, I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves.”
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not one of these “devil-behind-every-curtain” fanatics. I am very suspicious of people that want to blame everything that goes badly in their lives on the devil. Nevertheless, scripture is clear: The Devil is real, the war is real, and if we are not prepared we will be a casualty. It’s not merely a theme in the New testament, it is one of The Major Themes. To ignore it because we don’t like it or don’t feel comfortable with it places us in a dangerously exposed state.
I hope you don’t take this in the wrong way. I am not being judgemental. It is always hard to communicate one’s heart through emails and blogs. I am just concerned that you perhaps are not taking the truth of who our enemy is as serious as you ought to. If I am wrong, I apologize.
Mike O. said
am August 8 2006 @ 1:12 pm
I’m new here, but I see both sides … we definitely are in a war – a spiritual battle. To pretend there is no battle is foolish and the side who doesn’t fight forfeits. But it’s a spiritual battle. Somewhere out here I know I saw that one of the things we’re supposed to be doing is praying for them behind their back so there is at least some acknowledgement that this is a spiritual endeavor. The battle is real and rages on n the spirit … but at the same time, in the physical, all the talk about battle and crusades and lost and all that aren’t helpful. When we give proper weight to both the spiritual and the natural, both sides of the discussion are true correct at the time. The battle … the prayer … is a covert one accomplished behind their back. The physical OA is overt, intentional, visible and purposefully done in front of their face. No battle there, just authentic brotherly love.
Jesus was no Mr. Rogers. If all he did was make nice with people, why did they crucify him? In the physical, Jesus was a lamb. But in the spirit, he was a warrior fighting an enemy to free the captives and redeem us.
Jerry said
am August 8 2006 @ 1:59 pm
Mike,
I agree with what you are saying. I guess I see a disconnect in some people that the spiritual battle happens simultaneously to the physical material act of evangelism. It is raging within as we struggle to even become involved when our enemy whispers not to get involved. It rages around us in the form of distraction, interruption, adverse circumstances, etc. I guess I don’t see them as two different things but as two sides of the same thing.
In my heart, I have embraced this not as a problem to be avoided but an adventure to be swept up into. I am warrior in an epic struggle of good versus evil. Every kind word or act of service done in the name of Jesus is a fierce blow against the enemy. Am I being melodramatic? Maybe. But I prefer to think of it as passionate, And we could sure use a heck of a lot more passion in the church, don’t you think?
Mike O. said
am August 8 2006 @ 4:04 pm
I also am a big John Eldridge/Wild at Heart fan. I like the way you put it better than me.
All I know is that I want to motivate the people in my church to get out there and BE effective ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And for those who can’t seem to get started (and that’s all of them, I think!), these concepts of doable evangelism and Ordinary Attempts really count and serve to advance (another warfare term???) the Kingdom of God.
Helen said
am August 8 2006 @ 5:55 pm
Mike and Jerry, check this out on the blog I host (another Off The Map blog):
Paul Defends Wild at Heart
Jerry, I respect what you’re saying about the battle. It’s just…well, you know, the weapons of our warfare aren’t the weapons the world uses. And since you like C.S. Lewis – remember how each child in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe were given different gifts? Lucy’s gift she used in battle was a healing cordial. God gives us different gifts and different roles accordingly.
Jerry said
am August 9 2006 @ 12:03 pm
Helen,
Yes, I love the Narnia Chronicles! Excellent point. But I think Lewis’ point was not so much the difference between the gifts but that they were meant for war. Up until this point in the story the children, and I believe the reader, is lead to believe that they are in some whimsical fairy tale of witches and fauns and fairies. It becomes something much more when the children receive gifts — wepons! (except for Lucy’s which was a gift to heal those wounded in battle). The point was that no matter what else you think is going on, no matter how much you want to just mind your own business and be nice to everyone, there is an enemy who wants you dead.
Anyway, I think I have dwelled too long on this subject and run the risk of giving people who don’t know me the impression that I am obsessed with spiritual warfare. In fact, I am probably not as concerned with it as I should be, but God has captured me in different ways that I would much rather talk about than all this talk of battles and wars.
I am curious about your statement “God gives us different gifts and different roles accordingly.” I read your article about why you don’t go to church and I am curious how you reconcile your belief that “an all-powerful, all-knowing God who hadn’t been able to figure out how to save most of humanity from eternal torment seemed meaner than I was” to the belief that this God gives us gifts to help us in our lives. Could you elaborate on that?
Helen M. said
am August 9 2006 @ 12:53 pm
Jerry wrote:
Well…the first statement is not saying I don’t believe in God – just that I don’t believe in a God who is mean. As for the second statement, I’m fine with God giving gifts – because that’s the opposite of meanness.
Anyway – if it’s ok to go back to the video: when you put it on youtube.com did you expect any unchurched people to watch it or is it there for Christians?
Jerry said
am August 9 2006 @ 4:45 pm
Good question. My purposes for putting my videos up on YouTube are manifold: 1) so anyone who cared to could watch it and leave comments, 2) to interest people in going to our website and finding out more about our church, 3) so that members of our church could access and share the videos with their friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, etc. via email, 4) so that other churches and evangelical ministries could see what we were doing and either use them as resources themselves or get ideas from them, 5) to get feedback from other video ministries that would help me improve what I do.
I fully expect unbelievers to watch the video. It is one of the most viewed videos I have uploaded. So far no one outside the faith has left any comments.
My experience has been that people who know they are watching something about God or faith or church or Christianity don’t so much mind a little “church” rhetoric. They expect it and are usually suspicious when there is none, feeling that they are being pandered to or else that we are trying to sneak something by them. I have found most people just want straight talk about God. We should avoid using big Christian words like “sanctified,” and “justification,” and stuff like that because most Christians don’t even know what that means! But I don’t think we should bust a gut to be “trendy” or “relevant” either. Just speak the truth in love from your heart. It’s the transparency and the genuineness of your conversation that people hear, not so much your words. And your life lived out in front of them. We are commanded both to speak the truth and to live it. When we fail to do one or the other, we are dangerously out of balance.
Helen said
am August 9 2006 @ 6:49 pm
Jerry wrote:
Great point, Jerry.
By the way, you said one reason you posted the video was “to interest people in going to our website and finding out more about our church”. Is your church website updated regularly? It seems odd that it has Easter service times listed on the home page in August. When I see that on a site I assume “no-one is very actively maintaining this site”.
I just posted “In Every Seat” on our eBay atheist blog and asked atheists for their comments.
Mike O. said
am August 10 2006 @ 9:20 am
This has been a great discussion to follow to keep me in balance as I delve farther into the OA world. Like a pendulum, it’s easy swing “too far in the other direction” when a revelation hits you. OAs are absolutely essential to connecting Christ to the community. I think of it as bringing Christ to people rather than bringing people to Christ. BUT … combined with a solid understanding of what is really going on behind the scenes spiritually, OAs will bear much more fruit when done with a spiritual intent. I keep coming back to Jim’s words of “praying behind their back.” Effective OAs won’t be purely physical acts of connection, they will also carry a spiritual purpose, perhaps unspoken and unnoticed by the receiver, but at the same time, intended by the doer.
Jerry said
am August 10 2006 @ 10:20 am
Helen,
Aargh! You busted me!
Yes, our website is sadly out-of-date and yes, no one is actively maintaining the site. It’s a long story but it is being resolved as we speak. Our new site is almost set to go live. And we will be posting some of our videos there as well.
Actually, I had planned on waiting until the new site was up and running before I uploaded any videos but I decided to just go for it and see what happens. Ta-da! here we are!
I have some questions for you about your article but I will post them on the proper blog so as not to get sidetracked here. Thanks for the honest discussion. I am really enjoying it!
Jerry said
am August 10 2006 @ 10:27 am
Mike wrote:
Good point. I would take it a step further and say that ocassionally the spiritual purpose will be spoken and noticed by the receiver, and that’s okay. I have found that if they are interested enought to allow the conversation to reach that point, then they really want to know what you have to say. Many times they want you to tell them what you know about Jesus. This is where sensitivity the Holy Spirit is so important. He will guide you how much to say, how to word it, and when to speak.
Helen said
am August 10 2006 @ 1:53 pm
Jerry, thanks for taking comments about my article to the other blog.
I will be interested to see your church’s new website when it’s unveiled. I think it was a fine choice to upload your videos before the new website was ready – I just wanted to make sure you realized that listing Easter services does make the current one look somewhat unmaintained!
Some atheists have posted comments about your video here (on our eBay atheist blog) – you might like to take a look:
Would like atheist responses to this video
Feel free to jump in there too and respond to people. It’s for anyone, not just atheists.
DoableEvangelism » Blog Archive » Effective OAs carry a spiritual purpose said
am August 11 2006 @ 7:53 am
[...] Mike O. wrote the following in the comments section of Video: In Every Seat: This has been a great discussion to follow to keep me in balance as I delve farther into the OA world. Like a pendulum, it’s easy swing “too far in the other direction” when a revelation hits you. OAs are absolutely essential to connecting Christ to the community. I think of it as bringing Christ to people rather than bringing people to Christ. BUT … combined with a solid understanding of what is really going on behind the scenes spiritually, OAs will bear much more fruit when done with a spiritual intent. I keep coming back to Jim’s words of “praying behind their back.” Effective OAs won’t be purely physical acts of connection, they will also carry a spiritual purpose, perhaps unspoken and unnoticed by the receiver, but at the same time, intended by the doer. [...]
Andy M said
am August 16 2006 @ 11:59 pm
Hi,
I’m new to the blog and the discussion, but thought I’d jump in with some observations. It is interesting concerning the war images and armor references, as Jerry mentioned the warfare is spiritual as is the enemy. One thing I’ve observed watching Christians my whole life is that so often they confuse the nature of their enemy. NEWS FLASH!!! people are not the enemy! Christians have been described as the only army who shoot their wounded. The Bible talks about an enemy who walks around like a roaring lion seeking people to devour. So the threat is real. . . but as is so often forgotten, people are not the enemy.
One of the shameful tragedies of the crusades is that human beings took up their swords (literally) and in the name of Jesus, made sure that people agreed with them. But the message of Jesus is really the opposite of that. Jesus calls people who follow him to lay down their swords and following his example, pick up their towels to “wash the feet” of their brothers and sisters . . .even strangers. That kind of service is humbling and dirty. How many people live with the mentality that they can’t get their “church clothes” dirty, but spend their lives missing what Jesus is about (the whole point) because they don’t want to get “dirty.”
It seems to me that OA is about being real, honest, ordinary. It can be a real problem when people who say they follow Jesus (but miss what he is all about) are real, honest, ordinary they’re just not nice, selfless, or all that helpful. The key to lifestyle evangelism is living a life that is worth sharing with people. Seriously what’s so great about being mean, angry, bitter, judgemental, selfish, and rude?
Getting back to the video, I know the people in the video and can say that what people find engaging and less Baptist is the result of those people simply being themselves and sharing their hearts (what really moves them) on camera.
Sorry if I rambled. Oh yeah, btw, didn’t Lucy get a dagger along with the healing cordial?
Andy M said
am August 17 2006 @ 12:21 am
It’s interesting that no missionary in their right mind would go to another country without learning the language and culture of the people they were trying to reach. Picture if you will a bhuddist monk or an Islamic Imam in full regalia showing up at your door or at the mall, speaking to you about their religion in a language you didn’t understand. Would you honestly give them more than a passing dismisal? But how many Christians do the exact same thing? They go to work or the park or a family picnic, speaking a language (Christianese) their friends and family don’t understand and with no sensitivity or seeming awareness to the real cultural differences between them, spout something they heard someone else say and call that evangelism. A testimony is something you’ve experienced, something that happened to you. It is not simply the last story you heard someone else tell.
Video is the language of American culture. It’s not a bad place to start to share the stories of who Jesus is and what our relationship with him is all about.
Helen M. said
am August 17 2006 @ 6:32 am
Thanks for your comments, Andy.
I completely agree about learning and then using the language and culture of any people we’re trying to communicate with.
Helen M. said
am August 17 2006 @ 7:03 am
Oh, yes, Lucy got a dagger. But only for self-defense, as best I understand
Jim said
am August 17 2006 @ 9:53 am
Andy
Thanks for your insights and inspiration
Andy M said
am August 17 2006 @ 2:50 pm
Doesn’t that imply that she would need the dagger to defend herself against a real (non-imaginary) enemy and that it’s intended purpose (for defense) was different than the intended purpose of the cordial?
I’d like to follow up on my earlier comment about people not being the enemy. . .
That means all people (not just other Christians). It means the world too. I spent my formative years in the buckle of the Bible Belt in America Greenville, SC (that’s Bob Jones country) where most of what I heard from pulpits was railing against “the World” and it’s unGodly influence and agenda. So many Chrisitans view the World as the enemy to be combatted, protested, and attacked at all costs. Essentially “the World” is made up of people. (Remember people are not the enemy. . .) To use Jesus as an example, the Bible says that God loved “the World” so much he gave his only Son so that whoever believed and accepted him as God’s Son might not spend eternity separated from God but have Life (both now and forever). Who did Jesus reach out to and hang out with? Wasn’t it “the World?”: tax collectors, soldiers, prositiutes, fishermen, lepers, beggars? For whom did he reserve his harshest criticism? Wasn’t it “church people” (religious people) of the day? People who totally missed what the Kingdom of God was really all about?
I’m afraid that much of what the world sees as “the church” is not really about what Jesus was about. The song wirter got it right when they said “What the world needs now is Love sweet Love.” The Bible says, “God is Love.” I would ask Christians, “How much of your life is about God’s Love? Do you know what that looks like? Have you experienced it yourself? Have you shared that story with anyone else? Or more importantly, Have been God’s love in somebody’s life? What did that look like? How did you feel before, during, and after?”
Helen said
am August 17 2006 @ 2:53 pm
Andy, have you been to our ‘ordinary attempts’ blog yet? There are lots of stories on there of people showing God’s love to others.
DoableEvangelism » Blog Archive » Conservative Christian changes mind said
am October 12 2006 @ 9:47 am
[...] A couple of weeks later I posted my first comment on an Off The Map blog. I think my first post was comment #18 on August 4th in a blog entry titled, In Every Seat, a video produced by Hope Baptist Church in Las Vegas. Jerry (who produced the video) and I hit it off immediately. I thought the video was fantastic, and still do. Jerry and I are still friends, and are still on the same page theologically (both conservative). In fact, I’m currently doing a devotional called “The Life of a Jesus Follower,” which his church produced. It’s very good and I recommend getting a copy of it for your church or personal use. [...]
Tonie said
am January 27 2007 @ 11:55 pm
I used to be a believer, Videos like this used to mean something to me. Until I started reading the stuff my leaders told me never to bother with. How we believe by Micheal Shermer or videos like The god who wasn’t there. I can’t believe just how much great information is being surpressed for the will of God. I’m trying not to be bitter, but how can I not feel lied to? The people I’m sure all mean well and the soft music might bring someone to there altar but let me ask which altar? with over more then 3000 different denominations of protestants alone, Where should they go? Just show up. It said in the video. Should I go to the closest church to me? Which is a mormon church. They would agree with 100% of your video.
Helen said
am January 28 2007 @ 2:23 pm
Thanks for your comment, Tonie.
I know how you feel; I used to go to church every week and now I don’t go any more.