The mission we have been given as Christians by Jesus is to go into all the world and spread the Gospel. It is to make disciples and to teach people to do all that Christ commanded. As we strive to fulfill this “great commission” we realize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. People in every generation and every region are different. This means different approaches are necessary.
If we were in a remote village overseas, where people have never heard about Jesus at all, our job would be straightforward: tell the story. Likely, because the story is new to them, they would at least be interested in hearing it. It’s almost hard for me to imagine sharing the message of Jesus with people with no understanding at all. They would have no misconceptions, no bad experiences with Christians, no knowledge of confusing church scandals. Just a blank slate.
Christian nation, sort of
This is not at all the situation in America. Almost everyone who lives in this country has some sort of impression of the Christian faith. It would be a rarity to find someone who has never heard of Jesus, Christians, church, and so on. Christianity has seeped into every pore of American culture. We are surrounded by people who have varying degrees of understanding and practice of the teachings of Jesus. Even people who don’t profess to be Christian often hold to many of the values found in the Christian faith.
It is said that America is moving toward becoming a post-Christian society. That may be true, but the fact is that the vast majority of people in America identify as Christian in one form or another. They may be Methodist or Congregational, Unitarian or Universalist, Catholic or Presbyterian, Pentecostal or Episcopalian. They may be Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses. They may be a mix of several of these. In fact, many claim to be “spiritual but not religious” and have pieced together their own worldview that incorporate many Bible ideas like God’s love, heaven, and the golden rule.
My point is that almost everyone around us has some form of the Christian faith. I understand that there are Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Atheists, and other expressions that have not morphed from Christianity. But the majority around us—and especially in the south—have some form of Christian faith.
Dead faith
The challenge lies in the fact that many who identify as Christian have what the Bible calls a “dead faith.” They have a form of Christianity without substance. It doesn’t mean they are shallow or immoral people. In fact, there are many who are deep thinkers and highly moral who are totally dead spiritually.
This is hard to explain in our day because everyone feels they are spiritual. You know, people feel spiritual watching a Terrance Malik movie or looking at the stars. They feel spiritual at a live concert. They feel spiritual when they witness a baby being born. All humans are spiritual beings and experience transcendence at times. That’s not what I’m talking about. From God’s perspective, a person is spiritually dead if they are devoid of the indwelling Holy Spirit—if they have not been born again, if they have not experienced the new birth.
I’m all set, thanks
So our unique mission field is filled with multitudes of people who have some kind of form of faith but are devoid of real substance. How can we reach people who don’t think they need to be reached? Even though I live in New England, which tends to be the most secular part of America, I’ve rarely met people who didn’t have some form of Christian faith. A lot of people don’t attend church, but they still hang onto a general biblical idea of God being good and a hope of heaven after death. It’s a very strange and challenging situation. We dwell amongst people who believe they already have a better version of what we are offering.
To make things more complicated I think most people feel proud of their worldview. It’s something they’ve worked on their whole lives! To suggest that they are wrong about God can offend them deeply. To suggest that a person is a fake Christian can provoke them to anger. What should we do?
Fruit
I want to say here that we don’t always know for sure whether or not a person is authentic or not. Sometimes it’s hard to tell, and only God can discern motives. However, Jesus did say that we can recognize the authenticity of a person’s relationship with God by their fruit. Just like we can tell that a tree is a lemon tree by the lemons hanging from the branches, we can tell that a person is a lover of Christ by the way they live and talk. In many cases, it’s obvious that a person has an outward form of Christian faith with no substance. They don’t realize that what they have is a dead faith.
It’s like being on an airplane that we know is going down, and the only way to survive is to strap on the parachute provided by the airline company. But, strangely, many on the plane refuse to put on the parachute provided and, instead, strap on the homemade parachute they brought with them.
What they have looks like a parachute, but it will not save them.
This would be an interesting predicament, right? If we were blunt we might say, “If you use that homemade parachute—you will die!” This would be a true statement, but they would likely just get mad at us.
What I’m trying to say is that most people around us, in the mission field God has planted us in, think they are fine but are not. They have some form of Christianity but without the real substance of relationship with Christ. They have Christian ideals but no genuine experience of transforming grace. They have an outward form of religion but no Holy Spirit within. We can’t just preach the Christian message to them. They will look at us like we have three heads. They will hear our message as nothing more than our particular flavor of what they already have.
Ice cream
It’s like telling someone they need black raspberry ice cream or they’ll die. But they already have watermelon sherbet—their favorite flavor. They don’t need ice cream; they already have some. They don’t want our flavor; they already have a favorite flavor.
Can you see why it is so difficult to fulfill the mission of Jesus? In America, it’s all about individualism and personal preference. Most don’t want the Christian message we hold out because they already have their own version. The response is often, “If it works for you, then great, but don’t impose your religious views on me.”
So we are silenced as we essentially watch multitudes of people who think they are okay head toward a cliff into eternity without true saving faith. What can we do? How can we reach people who are convinced they already have their own superior version of what we are offering? It seems impossible.
There’s hope!
The exciting thing is that I’ve seen many people with a form of dead faith come alive in Christ. People with empty religion are awakened to the fullness of Christ. It happens! All the time! Here’s how.
A person with a dead form of Christian faith is graciously led by God to interact with Christians who have a genuine experience of new birth. This could happen outside the walls of the church in work relationships or family. But it often happens when a person begins coming to a church filled with the life of God. They might come to the church just to meet people, to network, to look for a spouse, to get help for their kids, to get financial support, to get inspiration, or any number of other reasons. But regardless of why they come, something begins to happen. They taste and see the glory of God.
Little by little (usually), they begin to see the beauty of Christ. They realize there is much more to the Christian faith than they realized. They are moved by the tangible presence of God. They are deeply convicted of sin and start obeying Christ in every area of life. The taste of the real has a way of exposing the fake in a way that we want the real.
I recently visited one of the lovely couples in my church in their home. They put out some fresh strawberries to enjoy from their neighbors organic garden, picked that day. When I popped one in my mouth the flavor was so potent I wondered if I ever had a real strawberry. That one experience may have ruined me. I’m not sure I can settle for normal pesticide-saturated strawberries that have lived in the back of a truck for weeks.
What people need is a taste of the real. Make room in your church and life for people to taste and see the fullness of life in Christ.