Here is the next one in our line of Saturday blasts from the past. If you're new to us, let me remind you that we are reading through a series of old articles from The Briefing. They were articles about being a ‘factotum’ (i.e. a servant)—practical articles about living the Christian life and serving others with the message about Jesus. This week and next week, we will be looking at the topic of consumer friendly evangelism.

A few weeks ago, I was evangelized in my front garden. There I was on a balmy Sunday evening quietly cultivating a few weeds when it was done to me. I was presented with the gospel of environmental salvation. It was very appropriate really, being Sunday and my hands creating new life in mother earth. But I hated it. I always recoil from evangelists, even this very pleasant Greenie. The only way I could cope was to tell him I too was an evangelist and to show off the battle scars from our common despised vocation.

Christians have a communication problem. We want to tell people of the gracious loving Father who has given up his Son to make them his children, but evangelists are perceived as narrow-minded, bigoted, moralistic ratbags who infringe upon other's civil rights. The stereotype puts us on the back foot from the outset. We have a poor public image.

But hold on, doesn't the gospel lead to poor PR? After all, the gospel speaks about standing under the judgement of God. Col Marshall continues:

Good PR may work in telling people to buy a new toothpaste, but we are telling people that their lives are going the wrong way—to hell. It's never going to be popular. The gospel will always divide and create conflict.

Jesus was perfect in human relationships and look where he ended up. And Paul wasn't exactly a model of healthy public relations. We see them contending for the true God, tearing down idols and falsehood and so becoming an intolerable threat to the religious power brokers of their day.

However, it is a distortion to make their battles for the faith the model for our evangelism. Both Jesus and Paul related very differently to the false shepherds and the lost sheep. Lost sheep are to be sought out, nurtured and protected. This is the atmosphere of evangelism, reflecting the tenderness of the Shepherd calling and comforting his lost sheep.

Hostility and rejection will always be a part of our PR, but consider these two questions:

1. What is the focus of the hostility: God's gracious invitation or a caricature of the gospel?
2. Are we obscuring the message of God's Fatherly love by our speech, behaviour or corporate activity?

Fishing, not big game hunting

Jesus called his disciples to be fishers of men, not game hunters. And in his day, he would have had in mind something a bit smaller than a two metre marlin. I'm sure Jesus did not intend the implications I am drawing (especially since the disciples were professional fisherman using nets). For Jesus, the image of fishing expressed God's work of salvation and judgement. However, fishing with a line and hook captures an image for Consumer Friendly Evangelism. Fishing requires a certain subtlety and finesse. We could blast the river with a few kilos of nitro, but that's not exactly fishing.

Evangelism can be reduced to this sort of blasting, firing facts and arguments at a rapid rate, exploding the dynamite in the first few seconds. We get excited and nervous when the opportunity for the gospel arises, and we go for it.

The essence of fishing is getting a slippery customer onto a hook, and the main trick is to use the right bait. How can we get people hooked by the gospel—listening, curious, letting down their guard, nibbling at the line? How can we attract people so they want to talk with us about Christ?

So let's finish with a question to ponder: “What bait will draw people to Christ?” We'll think more about this next week.

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