I saw a post about this once Facebook recently, and it is true in my experience. I have witnessed a lot of 'altar call's' and closing bits of sermons leading up to a 'sinner's prayer' where people stay in their seats that leave out important parts of the Gospel.
If I went by what I heard in some churches, I'd think the way to evangelize is:
- Do not tell the audience that Jesus is the Son of God.
- Do not explain who Jesus is.
- Do not explain who God is.
- Do not say much about the cross. Mention it....maybe.... but don't explain it.
- Do not mention that Christ rose from the dead.
- Do not tell the audience that Jesus is Lord.
- If you mention any of these things, do not explain what they mean-- sin, atonement, 'Lord', or 'Christ.'
But make sure to:
- Tell people that Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship.
Maybe include:
- The phrase 'personal Savior', but don't explain what this odd phrase means.
- An appeal to people that they need Jesus to make their lives better.
- An appeal to ask Jesus into their hearts.
Then have the audience repeat a prayer that has them ask God for forgiveness or say they want to accept Jesus, or believe in Jesus.
The approach basically assumes the listener has already heard the Gospel and can fill in the gaps based on their previous understanding. I cringe a bit when I heard 'Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship.' and preaching on the idea that religion is a bad thing for a number of reasons. One reason is, I know that probably in the 1980's, evangelical preachers decided to redefine 'religion' as a bad thing. It was an okay word when I was a kid. Christians did not take offense to it. An old song said, "Give me that old time religion.' Puritan books call Christianity 'religion.' Just about every English translation of the Bible I've come across, with maybe one exception, says that 'pure religion' includes visiting widows and orphans in their affliction and keeping oneself spotted from the world. That' sin James 1. 'Religion' is not inherently evil in our Bibles. There is pure religion, and there is vain religion.
I think the 'personal Savior' thing that preceded the 'not a religion, it's a relationship' emphasis is just plain confusing, since most of the time it went unexplained. I heard an evangelist in the 1980's explain that each of us personally needed to repent. That makes sense if you are dealing with a culturally Christian audience who intellectually acknowledge Christ as Savior but haven't repented. It doesn't help an audience of totally unchurched heathens, though, and our nation is going more in that direction. Without explanation 'personal Savior' must seems some undecipherable jargon to those unfamiliar with it.
And "it's a personal relationship" was not the message the apostles preached. What really bothers me is that the actual Gospel stuff gets left out of so much preaching. Consider this passage:
1 Corinthians 15 King James Version (KJV)
15 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
If we read the sermons in Acts, we read about Jesus being Lord, Jesus being Christ, Christ being slain, and an emphasis on the resurrection of Christ. I see the resurrection here again as part of the Gospel by which we are saved in I Corinthians 15. In Romans 10:9-10 Paul says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you shall be saved. (Singular, translated 'thou' in the KJV.)
Why do so many preachers, even if they do manage to mention the cross, omit the resurrection? And why would they assume the audience knows about these things? Do they really thing people can be saved by hearing that religion is bad and that they need a personal relationship, if the people do not believe that Jesus is Lord, the Christ, Who died for their sins and rose from the dead? If they believe the people need to believe this, why don't they preach it? How shall they hear without a preacher, Paul asked.
I know some of you cannot relate to this. When I grew up, I heard "sinner's prayers", but the preaching that preceded it and the prayer were tied closely to Romans 10, and emphasized Christ dying and rising from the dead. There was preaching on Christ dying for our sins. The sinner's prayer ritual in the mouths of many preachers has become a cross-less thing it seems. I grew up in Pentecostalism, and I can say in recent years I have still heard this approach to 'evangelism', but from some Pentecostals, Charismatics, Baptists, and nondenominational preachers, I've heard plenty of appeals to 'pray to receive Christ' that were not preceded by preaching on His cross or resurrection.
The preacher doesn't share the Gospel, asks people to receive Christ, and then maybe he tells them if they believed that prayer, they are saved. Or he tells them the Devil might try to tell them later they aren't saved. What happens if they get convicted for still being sinners after they have left without hearing and believing the Gospel? Who are they going to blame that on?
I am a strong believer in water baptism. I don't think the ritual of repeating a prayer in and of itself saves, nor do I see this as the approach of the apostles. I do believe confessing faith in Christ is important and repeating a prayer is a way this is done.
I wonder what the next trend to supposedly get people saved will be to ask Jesus in a prayer to be their best friend or to pretend to give Jesus some kind of high-five or what. I had thought that before, and then I heard a sinner's prayer, either without the preaching of the cross or the resurrection or both preceding it, in which the audience was told to repeat a prayer asking Jesus to be their friend. He might have said best friend. I haven't seen the get-saved-by-giving-Him-an-imaginary-high-five yet. I hope it Evangelical 'evangelism' does not degenerate into that.
This is my experience based on moving a lot and living mostly in two countries on nearly opposite sides of the world. If this is not your experience and you always hear the cross and the resurrection proclaimed in an evangelistic situation, good for you.
If I went by what I heard in some churches, I'd think the way to evangelize is:
- Do not tell the audience that Jesus is the Son of God.
- Do not explain who Jesus is.
- Do not explain who God is.
- Do not say much about the cross. Mention it....maybe.... but don't explain it.
- Do not mention that Christ rose from the dead.
- Do not tell the audience that Jesus is Lord.
- If you mention any of these things, do not explain what they mean-- sin, atonement, 'Lord', or 'Christ.'
But make sure to:
- Tell people that Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship.
Maybe include:
- The phrase 'personal Savior', but don't explain what this odd phrase means.
- An appeal to people that they need Jesus to make their lives better.
- An appeal to ask Jesus into their hearts.
Then have the audience repeat a prayer that has them ask God for forgiveness or say they want to accept Jesus, or believe in Jesus.
The approach basically assumes the listener has already heard the Gospel and can fill in the gaps based on their previous understanding. I cringe a bit when I heard 'Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship.' and preaching on the idea that religion is a bad thing for a number of reasons. One reason is, I know that probably in the 1980's, evangelical preachers decided to redefine 'religion' as a bad thing. It was an okay word when I was a kid. Christians did not take offense to it. An old song said, "Give me that old time religion.' Puritan books call Christianity 'religion.' Just about every English translation of the Bible I've come across, with maybe one exception, says that 'pure religion' includes visiting widows and orphans in their affliction and keeping oneself spotted from the world. That' sin James 1. 'Religion' is not inherently evil in our Bibles. There is pure religion, and there is vain religion.
I think the 'personal Savior' thing that preceded the 'not a religion, it's a relationship' emphasis is just plain confusing, since most of the time it went unexplained. I heard an evangelist in the 1980's explain that each of us personally needed to repent. That makes sense if you are dealing with a culturally Christian audience who intellectually acknowledge Christ as Savior but haven't repented. It doesn't help an audience of totally unchurched heathens, though, and our nation is going more in that direction. Without explanation 'personal Savior' must seems some undecipherable jargon to those unfamiliar with it.
And "it's a personal relationship" was not the message the apostles preached. What really bothers me is that the actual Gospel stuff gets left out of so much preaching. Consider this passage:
1 Corinthians 15 King James Version (KJV)
15 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
If we read the sermons in Acts, we read about Jesus being Lord, Jesus being Christ, Christ being slain, and an emphasis on the resurrection of Christ. I see the resurrection here again as part of the Gospel by which we are saved in I Corinthians 15. In Romans 10:9-10 Paul says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you shall be saved. (Singular, translated 'thou' in the KJV.)
Why do so many preachers, even if they do manage to mention the cross, omit the resurrection? And why would they assume the audience knows about these things? Do they really thing people can be saved by hearing that religion is bad and that they need a personal relationship, if the people do not believe that Jesus is Lord, the Christ, Who died for their sins and rose from the dead? If they believe the people need to believe this, why don't they preach it? How shall they hear without a preacher, Paul asked.
I know some of you cannot relate to this. When I grew up, I heard "sinner's prayers", but the preaching that preceded it and the prayer were tied closely to Romans 10, and emphasized Christ dying and rising from the dead. There was preaching on Christ dying for our sins. The sinner's prayer ritual in the mouths of many preachers has become a cross-less thing it seems. I grew up in Pentecostalism, and I can say in recent years I have still heard this approach to 'evangelism', but from some Pentecostals, Charismatics, Baptists, and nondenominational preachers, I've heard plenty of appeals to 'pray to receive Christ' that were not preceded by preaching on His cross or resurrection.
The preacher doesn't share the Gospel, asks people to receive Christ, and then maybe he tells them if they believed that prayer, they are saved. Or he tells them the Devil might try to tell them later they aren't saved. What happens if they get convicted for still being sinners after they have left without hearing and believing the Gospel? Who are they going to blame that on?
I am a strong believer in water baptism. I don't think the ritual of repeating a prayer in and of itself saves, nor do I see this as the approach of the apostles. I do believe confessing faith in Christ is important and repeating a prayer is a way this is done.
I wonder what the next trend to supposedly get people saved will be to ask Jesus in a prayer to be their best friend or to pretend to give Jesus some kind of high-five or what. I had thought that before, and then I heard a sinner's prayer, either without the preaching of the cross or the resurrection or both preceding it, in which the audience was told to repeat a prayer asking Jesus to be their friend. He might have said best friend. I haven't seen the get-saved-by-giving-Him-an-imaginary-high-five yet. I hope it Evangelical 'evangelism' does not degenerate into that.
This is my experience based on moving a lot and living mostly in two countries on nearly opposite sides of the world. If this is not your experience and you always hear the cross and the resurrection proclaimed in an evangelistic situation, good for you.
