Engaging the Culture for Christ (Part 2)

Often when people desire to engage the culture we go to two extremes: There are the lazy Christians who rarely do anything to engage culture and they just hope their lives are interesting enough to invite questions from unbelievers. Then there are those who turn people off to Christianity by damning people to hell without even knowing them (I’ve been confronted on the streets of Boston by a person who yelled at me and said I was going to hell…and I’m a Christian!).

I’m advocating for the kind of person who does neither of these two things. I try to live like Jesus lived among unbelievers by spending time with them in their homes and inviting them over to my home and loving them regardless of their beliefs or behaviors. I don’t get in their face every single time we get together (or they would stop listening to me), but I have made sure that every single one of my friends knows what I am praying for them that they will come to know Jesus because He is the only way to the Father. Some have come to know Jesus as a result, others are still friends and they often bring up spiritual conversations. Other times I feel that I can raise an issue or confront a behavior because I have that close relationship with them. On the other hand, there are times I know to keep my mouth shut. In other words, I know them and I care for them. They know my message is sincere. While a person holding a sign or yelling through a megaphone could be sincere, the person on the other side will never know it. I want to engage culture with my sincerity because I know that’s the harder road and the more rewarding. With a tract or a sign, I can be sincere, I can be insincere and no one would ever know. So, I never question a street preachers motives, just his methods. Sometimes it is effective, but it’s hard to measure how effective, non-effective, or counter-effective it can be since no one knows the hearts of the people who hear other than God. You always know where you stand when you are sharing Christ with someone you care about.

Now, I must qualify and say that there are times where the word that needs to be spoken to a friend will probably end the relationship, but because that relationship of trust has been built, and the word spoken is out of love, there is always the hope that they will realize the error of their ways and that the Spirit will draw them to Himself. This “relational evangelism” simply means that you are loving people just as we are commanded to do. That kind of love becomes evident to the one receiving the love and the seed falls on fertile soil.

So, I advocate for a complete overhaul of the way we engage culture. We can’t sit passively by and let people die without knowing Jesus. We also cannot alienate people by focusing on one or two issues and neglecting the thousands of other injustices in the world that demand the attention of Christians (as if abortion and homosexuality were the only sins that a person might commit). Let’s start preaching the gospel boldly in the context of love.