It's been a while...

"So would that only be for what you consider to be heaven or are you saved for here and now?"
It's been a while since I have been evangelised and I have to admit it left me feeling a little annoyed but I am trying to work out exactly why? Two well meaning young men tooled up with no doubt the latest in hip communicating tracts accosted me on the street and just came right out with it. "So are you saved?"

I guess I wouldn't have minded if had they introduced themselves even in a nominal way to establish the semblance of a context. Perhaps I wouldn't have minded if I wasn't in full uniform (including cap btw!) trying to raise money to bring hope and fullness to those who experience the hell of life confronting them the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep.

However, I smile and politely say that I firmly believe I am and I wondered whether they too were saved. "Oh yes" they smile. "So would that only be for what you consider to be heaven or are you saved for here and now?"

A new look comes across their faces!

"So you are in The Salvation Army then?" I'm impressed that contextually they are making some connections. "Do you preach the gospel?"

I ask them whether by that did they mean merely the good news that Jesus came, died and rose again, or did they make the connection that gospel was that but ever so much more. I asked if they meant did I align myself to the sovereignty and rule of God and that by implication saying Jesus is Lord is to declare a counter cultural reign or way of living. I assured them most certainly we preach the gospel and we do it to the extreme.

I sensed they were growing tired of me and there is a reprise "so are you saved...?"


"Look do you think I would be stood here doing this if I wasn't?"

"Well we need to go and evangelise now...!" I think I remain patient in tone. "Well all the best", I venture "...and I hope you also get the chance to use your hands"


"Huh..!"

"Don't forget remember to love people with your hands as well!"

As they prepare to go I ask them if they had heard of Lesslie Newbigin, they hadn't. Did they get what Newbigin meant when he said that 'words without actions are dumb' - they didn't, and that is why I think I think I was left feeling a little annoyed - words without actions are dumb in both senses of the word.

Comments

Graeme Smith said…
Ah Gordon I could actually hear the conversation in my head as I read, including the frustration in your voice. It even made me have flashbacks to MiP!

And if definitely made me smile!!!!
9:43 PM
Anonymous said…
Yep, had a similar experience. One of my issues is being evangelized every Sunday by Coprs Officers who seem to be incapable of discerning the body of Christ as they try and get us saved every week and so continue to confuse evangelism with worship.
9:26 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit of sally bashing....

Came across a good bit of Sally bashing over at salvationsoldiers I have to say we try and make sure that everything we raise goes into projects that build local community in Poplar but hopefully if you read this blog you get that sense anyway.
Read more

Lost Voices of Mission...Fred Brown

Image
Along the world famous Oxford street in London's Westend; nestled in among the classy frontage of designer shops there is almost an unnoticeable, unimpressive wooden door. It is more or less alongside The Regent Hall's main entrance onto the busyness of Oxford Street. People pass the wooden door oblivious to the equally unimpressive wooden steps that go up three storey's to what was Regent Hall's youth club. When I was 10 I played on these bare wooden steps totally unaware of the significance behind and upon which I played. Many years later I discovered a university youth work course - as an induction to Youth Work - stopped outside this insignificant wooden door to point out that Youth Work as we know it in the UK started behind this door. ...whether that be the surbanite flower people that flooded the Westend to express their free love; or the hard core drug community this unimpressive wooden door became the 'portal' that blurred encounter between church an...
Read more

Types of Christian Spirituality...

Image
It is easy to think and to limit ourselves to a single approach to Christian spirituality. A 'if it works for me it should work for you approach' tends to narrow our appreciation of other ways which actually impoverishes our experience of spirituality. Urban T. Holmes has developed a means of exploring spirituality and helps develop an appreciation through discovering links between spirituality, temperament and predisposition. The diagram illustrates his ideas together with potential inherent dangers. The vertical continuum speaks and helps us understand our relational orientation to God. This ranges from engaging with God through understanding and theological process to a more emotive response. Horizontally speaks of a persons preferred means of pursuing the spiritual life. Kataphtic speaks of affirmation and the need of something tangible in an individuals spirituality- this may take the form of worship, art, even imagination with the use of metaphors, symbols and images play...
Read more