"LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO JESUS"


Whew! It has certainly been a busy few weeks, full of added responsibilities and no small amount of stress since Pastor Bruce retired on February 28. Daily ministry activities, people “issues” and concerns, the death of a parishioner (with all of the attending details of that), some deeply emotional situations--all of this, on top of trying to handle my own areas of ministry. Then, added to this, the countless details of presenting our huge Holy Week production, “A Living Easter”--my life has not been slow or dull, to say the least!

But in the midst of everything swirling around me, I am adamant about keeping myself centered and solid in my relationship with God. It’s amazing how I can wake up in the morning and feel the pressures of the day as soon as I open my eyes, but everything shifts into its proper place and perspective as I read the Scriptures, my three devotional helps, and I turn to God in prayer. The load is lifted, even the most intense and difficult situations that I know I will have to face later in the day, and I always gain fresh understanding and a certain peace about the responsibilities that lie ahead.

There definitely IS something to this “Holy Spirit” presence that is available to us who follow Jesus; the Counselor-Comforter-Advocate-Intercessor-Paraclete whom our Lord promised to send our way once He ascended to His Father.

I wish we talked about the Holy Spirit more in our evangelical Covenant expression of Christianity! Guess we’re just a little too afraid of getting all pentecostal......

“Following Jesus...” This admonition from our Lord showed up again Thursday in my Oswald Chambers reading.


His daily devotional contained a provocative perspective that I’ve continued to reflect on since reading it. Here it is:

March 24: Jesus said to them, “Follow Me.” (Mark 1:17)

We have come to the conclusion nowadays that a person must be a conscious sinner before Jesus Christ can do anything for him or her. The early disciples were not attracted to Jesus because they wanted to be saved from sin; they had no conception that they needed saving. They were attracted to Him by a dominating sincerity, by sentiments other than those which we say make people come to Jesus. There was nothing theological in their following, no consciousness of passing from death to life, no knowledge of what Jesus meant when He talked about His cross...They did not follow Jesus because they wanted to be saved, but because they could not help following. Three years later when again Jesus said, “Follow Me,” it was a different matter; many things had happened during these years; now it was to be a following in internal martyrdom (see John 21:18-19). (emphases mine)

Is this true? Was it a “dominating sincerity” that caused those early disciples to follow Jesus, “so they could not help following” Him? What exactly were those “sentiments” that attracted them to Jesus; sentiments that Oswald Chambers says were different “than those we say make people come to Jesus” today? It seems that, if these ideas ARE true, then they have important implications for the manner and methods we use today in getting people to “follow Jesus.” Personally, I think Oswald’s ideas are very much in tune with contemporary thinking regarding evangelism, outreach, and salvation--and he was writing a hundred years ago!

Earlier this spring, I read another similar thought from Chambers: “We are in danger of putting the cart before the horse and saying one must believe certain things before one can be a Christian, whereas one’s beliefs are the result of being a Christian, not the cause.” Chambers is shifting the emphasis to a more practical, practiced, lived out, “real life,” “put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is” approach from the strong dependence on intellectual processes and theologically systematic ideas that have characterized most evangelical approaches and understandings as to how and why people come to Christ.

I think the impact of the way Oswald is grappling with “following Jesus” could have a strong, positive impact in our culture today. We are well aware how resistant people are, generally, to former approaches to witnessing. In our increasingly post-Christian society, many people don’t believe many of the essential components of our faith, and don’t even grasp the meaning of the words we toss around when we try to present Christ to them. New times demand new methods (NOT a new message!!!). Sincere relational approaches to evangelism, rather than the more intellectual ones we have relied on to hook people and get them to believe first and then follow, will certainly be more effective in this day and age. I don’t think nabbing people on the spot and coaxing them to “accept Jesus” is what our Lord ever had in mind either. This method comes out of our Western cultural heritage and understanding and approach to life/reality.

What would it look like to help people get acquainted with Jesus first; to experience Him, hear Him, get a grasp of the amazing, unique, topsy-turvy twists and turns Jesus took in His approach to life, relationships, spirituality, etc. before getting people to believe certain propostions and truths about Him? How might people embrace our Savior if they became attracted to Him the way Chambers says the disciples did (“they could not help following”)? Perhaps too often the Jesus that people experience from us who have followed Him for many years is a Jesus of do’s and don’t’s, who demands right and wrong ways of believing stuff, a rather distant, high expectations, holy, unrelatable type of figure who is not very compelling to follow. This is not, of course, universally true, but...I don’t know; I’m just musing here!

But what if Oswald Chamber’s ideas and approach are, indeed, true? Then how will people meet this Jesus; the Jesus the disciples “could not help following?”

Well, probably not in a book. Probably not just by hearing someone preach or talk about it. For most people, probably not through a rational, intellectual exchange or apologetics approach. Maybe by seeing a portrayal of this Jesus (think “Jesus” film, or “A Living Easter”).

Of course, we already know where and how people would meet this Jesus: in and through US! You and me. And in the “body of Christ” on earth, the Church. Basic; simple--the way it has always been!

Now, if this is actually going to occur, it means that we who are going to “incarnate” our Savior must “be” the same kind of living, breathing, active presence that Jesus was when He was incarnate on earth 2000 years ago--again, the same kind of Jesus the disciples “could not help following!” All of our talk and action and interaction and values and convictions will need to line up with the Jesus his followers were attracted to ”by sentiments other than those we say make people come to Jesus.” People will be watching us all the time, wondering if such a life can really be true--and once they see the implications and observe the redemptive, grace-filled, sacrificial and saving truth of Jesus, they will embrace the fullness of Christ with passion, thankfulness, and joy!

Doesn’t this seem like a positive, unencumbered, even exciting approach to reaching people for Christ? A more natural, relational, unmanipulative way for people to follow Christ? Perhaps churches--the body of Christ on earth--could once again grow in America and help people give their lives to Jesus if those of us within churches focused more on being the body of Christ consistently, individually and together, rather than on all the other matters, concerns, and issues that monopolize our time and attention these days. These priorities of ours matter only to us who are already inside the body of Christ. They don’t mean much, if anything, to those outside the Church.


Next Sunday at Hilmar Covenant we will be bringing our “One Step Closer” cards back to church and offer them to God, filled in with the names of people we know and care for--and who we desire to help take “one step closer” to Jesus. Perhaps they are already Christians, and we want to encourage them in some way (“prayer--care--share”). Or maybe they are people who are interested in Jesus and just need encouragement to know Him better. Maybe they are family and friends who have drifted away, or who have never shown any interest in our Lord. “One Step Closer” is a way to show our concern and commitment to help everyone in our circle of relationships to do just that: draw nearer to Christ.

To me, this is the approach Oswald Chambers is encouraging in his devotional. It is an organic, genuine, natural way of living out our faith in Jesus and helping others answer His call: “Follow me!”

What say YOU?