The message at Grace this week was powerful and piercing for me. Over the course of the last few years I have become more convicted about this sliding of the Gospel message and Sunday reinforced this belief.
Several years ago I listened to a message titled Hell’s Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort, an evangelist from New Zealand. In the talk he speaks of his evangelical frustration of seeing upwards of 85% of the “decisions for Christ” he led people in, turning into what he called “backsliders”. After reading others and conducting his own research he discovered this was all too typical, with major denominations reporting tens of thousands of conversions leading to mere dozens of new believers who could be found in fellowship a year later. Instead of questioning the initial decision, he believed we misfocused (I love to create new words) our efforts on follow up and discipleship.
The revelation of Comfort’s message is that the church in the 20th century shifted focus from salvation to life-enhancement. We’ve all heard (and said) it…..Jesus has a wonderful plan for your life….Come to Jesus and he’ll clean you up…you have a God-sized hole in your heart….you’ll never know true peace, love, joy and happiness until you give your life to Jesus….etc. What we commonly call backsliders are people who never slid forward in the first place. They accepted the invitation in sincerity because who doesn’t want meaning and happiness? They’ve tried drugs, sex, Buddhism, money…why not give this Jesus-thing a go and see what happens.
Instead having never repented of their ways, never having seen their sin as exceedingly filthy, not holding themselves up to the light of God’s perfect standard they come not for the King and his grace – but for the benefits (peace, joy, purpose) of the King’s table. Using the text of Mark 4 and the parable of the sower, Comfort shows that Jesus foretold of these “stony ground hearers” who receive the word with great joy but, having no root, quickly fall away in the face of any hardship. These are not struggling, carnal, or backslidden believers, rather they are still unbelievers - goats among the sheep that “go out from us, because they were never of us”.
Comfort’s solution to this is to use the Law, the 10 Commandments as a means to show unbelievers their state before a holy God. That they are by nature enemies of God, rightly deserving punishment and hell for their deeds. As I listened to the message Sunday, I was reminded that we present only a “get out of hell free card” and a story of life enhancement with our witness. By not focusing on how awesome the gift of grace, we produce “Christians” with no real commitment because they don’t understand how great the price paid by Jesus and the cost of discipleship.
On the off-chance that you are still reading and I have not bored you to tears….let me know what you think. There’s been no discussion in weeks and I feel like Andre and I are drifting apart without a good blogument!
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3 comments:
I'm still here!
I too believe the church has focused too much on the "benefits" of Christ without showing/teaching them a life changing life style. I think the problem rest of too few "willing" workers. Everyone in the church has a role to play to reach the lost. The role people play in getting people into the door is effective (as we see with large numbers stating they accept Christ). However, there is no follow up after that event. There is no one there to take someone under their wing and show them the ropes. Hence, backsliding occurs. In my mind that's where we, the church, fail and not the person who accepts Christ. The apostle Paul traveled a large area to preach the message but he always wrote letters to "check in" or visited when he could. It was in those letters and visits that he would teach about Jesus' life and how to apply it to ones life. Today's church doesn't have an effective follow up process and people fall through the cracks.
Again, the apostle Paul said it's not starting the race that's important but how and if you finish it. Currently the church is great at starting but lousy at finishing. Should the church get most of the blame? I don't know.
Looks like we might be on a roll....
I agree w/ most of what has been discussed. When I look at the book of Matthew 28:16 the great commission instructs us go and make disciplies it does not say to just have them accept Jesus and then you get to take off.
Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians stated "we loved you so much that we were delighted to share w/ younot only the Gospel of God but also our lives as well because you had become so dear to us" The dude spent some signifcant time w/ them, it doesn't appear that they were passing out tracks one night and gone the next. They invested time in the disciple process.
The other model to consider is Jesus's model. Robert Colemann wrote a book called "The Master Plan of Evangelism" In the book he attributes the best way to disciple new or older believers is to follow the example of Jesus. The book can be redundant at times but there are thought provoking concepts.
So what is our role? What is the role of the Church. I believe that the church needs to not surgar coat their beliefs and make sure that they tackle the hardstuff but I think an equal burden lies on us and that we need to accurately be sharing the gospel and focused on discipling. Aare we ourselves discilping anyone - that's a big fat no for myself.
One last question...it's a technical one. How can you tell the differnce between a struggling, carnal, or backslidden believers versus somone who has accepted Jesus (based on the great benefits that they receieve from being a christian i.e. get out of hell card) but then falls away.
disclaimer: if any or all of this does not make sense or if there are numerous spelling errors it was due to the fact that I am currently under the influence of drugs.
Thanks Joe for your comments and we can talk more later about your drug problem...
Also thanks to everyone for using scripture to back up your points. It's good to see.
Joe bought up a good point regarding who's who. A backslider, in my mind, is someone who says they accept Christ, goes to church once or twice then "disappears". For me the biggest test to see if your faith is "real" is going to church. It's too easy to stay home Sunday morning (cold, wet outside). If your faith is true and you want to connect with God then an active church life is important. So someone who had an active church life and then "disappears" would be someone who has fallen away from the faith.
Now this leads us to another point regarding discipling: it's for everyone (new and old). We are all called to form relationships and share the faith. That's how we learn and grow in the faith. We are not called be an island to ourselves.
So, THANK YOU ALL FOR HELPING ME BE TRUE AND GROW IN MY FAITH TO GOD. YOU GUYS RULE!
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