"Wrongselling" the Gospel

[Wilson L. Deaton]

God's love is so great, etc., that we probably can't "oversell" the gospel but I think we are perhaps guilty of what I'm calling, "wrongselling" it.

In the same essay that precipated my, "Missions/Evangelism and Popular Culture," thread, the author tells of being in Sears and hearing Como singing over the P.A. He comments:

"All of a suden I heard a line that brough be to halt: 'The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.'

I stopped and looked around the store, and thought, 'In what sense and in what way are the hopes and fears of all the years met in this store tonight.... What about the child looking longingly at the bicycle? Is that hope met in the coming of Jesus? How about the woman who is trying to look cheerful, even though she is desperately worried that her husband will come home tonight drunk again from this year's Christmas party, and beat her up like he did last year? Or what about the man....?'

I think that we need to reflect carefully and think deeply about the ways in which the hopes and fears that we encounter in shopping malls are met in the babe who was born in Bethlehem."

The concept was alluded to in regards to entire sanctification by Dennis Scott in another thread when he wrote: "Some preachers have been known to claim that a second work of grace did some things that were a little more than it actually did, too."

Never mind the "second work," are we also guilty of "wrongselling" the entire gospel (first work, too)?

What should we be telling people concerning the gospel as it relates to the day to day problems they live with?

Wilson

[Barb Bouldrey]

We should tell people that Emmanuel, God with us, is with us through all the problems of life. That is something that the world does not have.

God does not take away our problems. He walks with us through the problems...sometimes even carrying us when our strength is gone.

Years ago the Gaithers sang, "I found happiness all the time, wonderful peace of mind, when I found the Lord." That was wrong theology. It is not true.

So often I sit with people at the hospital or in their homes or at a funeral home and hear, "I do not know how I would make it through this without the presence of the Lord. How do people who are not Christians make it?"

Even in our darkest hour, God is with us. That is one of the greatest benefits of the Christian life.

Barb

[David Cash]

This may be splitting hairs, but might there be significance in what is meant by "The hopes and fears of all the years are [I]met[I] in Thee tonight?" The word "met" might be translated as "addressed" rather than "fulfilled." In the sense of "addressed," I think the song sells the gospel correctly. Sure there are things I really want and things that I fear that don't change from year to year inspite of Christ's presence in my life. On the other hand, there is a perspective regarding these matters that I can have as a Christian that might be missing if I weren't one. For instance, I can still look at the verse about all things working together for good, etc. and look at my disappointing life and have hope that it really is moving in a worthwhile direction. Without that hope, we'd all live as one famous guy put it "lives of quiet desparation."

Now if we pretend that salvation gives us everything we want and nerves of steel on top of it all, we're going to be disollusioned as will be the people we preach to.

As far as the Christmas song is concerned, I'm inclined to give the author a bit of poetic license and recognize that the central hopes and fears of the human life are indeed met in Christ.

It is challenging when preaching to talk about the transforming power of Christ for the reasons brought up on this thread. On one hand, if people will get saved and really surrender to Him, Christ will make a huge difference in their lives. On the other hand, I recognize the need to add the qualifier that they aren't going to be instantly perfect, etc. It isn't as dramatic this way, but it would be hard to be honest without it.

David Cash

[Dennis M. Scott]

Sometimes we "proclaim" the story with a specific end in mind that might be a little different than the end originally intended. Preachers have softly - and sometimes not so softly - manipulated emotions and circumstances to reach some milestone or number or seekers, etc. While the old time camp meeting preachers aren't around in large numbers now, that strategy hasn't completely disappeared. I guess those things "worked", but they also somehow tainted the Message.

I do acknowledge that our responsibility goes beyond merely proclaiming. We are to persuade, and seek those whose hearts the Lord has prepared. Ours cannot be simply a "I've told you the truth, and if you don't accept it it's no skin off my nose" kind of attitude. We are communicate the very best we can, as though their souls depend on it - because they do.

That urgency doesn't, however, give us the right to compromise the essence of the Gospel in our presentation. The ends doesn't justify the means, if the means is inappropriate. Tricking someone into the Kingdom demeans the King. Effectiveness must be weighed in the balance of ethics.

Yet the presentation must be contextual. God in Christ was contextual: He came at just the right time. This is a different time, and the context is different. Consequently, we must be certain what is essential, and somehow meaningfully communicate without clouding with that which might be merely cultural. It's a fine balance, and the present generation may be determined faulty fifty years hence just as those of fifty years ago are evaluated today. It's one of those tensions within which we operate.

And our walk must not drown out our talk. We don't have the option of attaching to our presentation a little footnote that says, "Please disregard the manner in which I have conducted myself. You don't need to know me, you just need to know God." Whether or not we want it to, the Gospel is pretty firmly imbedded in who we are and how we behave.

[Randy Wise]

I do acknowledge that our responsibility goes beyond merely proclaiming. We are to persuade, and seek those whose hearts the Lord has prepared. Ours cannot be simply a "I've told you the truth, and if you don't accept it it's no skin off my nose" kind of attitude. We are communicate the very best we can, as though their souls depend on it - because they do.

Certain people from other religions as a defense against their religious beliefs believe that christians have a psychological need to preach to them. In such as case I would state their rejection doesn't affect me. As far as Love is concerned it is not just what you say it is what you do.

Randy