Amway Evangelism

Seth McBee, a blogger I have read for years, has a great post today easking some really important questions. His post, McBee's Musings: Inviting My Neighbors/Friends to Church?: Part 1 is just outstanding and should be required reading for you today. When my wife and I were younger a co-worker of hers invited us over to their house. They all of a sudden were super friendly to us but the reason became apparent. They were trying to sucker us into Amway. I think Seth has a point that we often in the church show love to others with an ulterior motive. They weren't really interested in being our friends, they were just being friendly because they were supposed to and they wanted something from us.

I liked a ton of what Seth wrote (and this is just the first post) but here was my favorite part:

The church's job is simply this: show others what God is like through our actions and our words, and we are to be marked by the love for God and others more than ourselves.

This is not marked by me doing these things to try and get others to think like me, to get others to go to a building on a Sunday, to get others to be a "Christian." NO! We are to merely show and speak what God is like because we truly love God who loves others. If you are only showing others what God is like because you want something from them (i.e. get them to "church", get them baptized, get them like you) that isn't true love, that is a coercive love, a manipulative love. I never want my neighbors or friends to think the reason I am nice to them, the reason I throw BBQs, neighborhood breakfasts, 4th of July parties, etc. is to get them to be like me or to get something from them. How disgusting is that? Actually, one of the first times one of my neighbors came to a neighborhood breakfast he asked his wife:

Why are they doing this? Are they trying to sell us something? Are they Avon salesmen?

Pretty funny, yet pretty sad. Not the neighbors thinking, but the fact that people aren't nice and loving just for the sake of being nice and loving.

I think that is great. We must be very careful that when we love people we aren't doing it just for the sake of getting something from them. As someone who believes firmly in God's sovereignty in salvation, I should be loving people without the slightest hint of demanding something from them.

These are the sorts of posts that ask crucial questions. Are we doing what we are supposed to be doing and just as importantly are we doing so for the right reasons? I am looking forward to the next posts from Seth on this issue and I would absolutely encourage you to read what he has written so far.