A phrase that has me thinking....
Okay so here is the phrase - "What you win them with is what you win them to..." I heard it the other night watching a webcast of Ravi Zacharias and then found out that it has been used by others in many different situations. In that situation they were talking about reaching our teens and used it to say, "You will never win them to Jesus with entertainment. You will win them to more entertainment. You win them to Jesus with the message and your conviction to it."
"What you win them with..." - the what is the activity or event or content that you are going to be presenting. That activity or event or content has good intentions to get them maybe in the building or to a point of listening to what you have to say (hopefully what God says, you are just the mouthpiece).
So if the ultimate goal is to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to others, then it is really important that "what" we use to get them there doesn't overshadow the gospel message. I feel this is really one of the dangers of the church when it follows the trends of the culture. The culture comes out with something cool and so we mimic it to look cool like the culture to get them in to tell them about the gospel. But what were they drawn to? The cool thing or event and many times, even though good intentions are there, we never get to the gospel message or it is said but the event or activity is so big that you start to see what truly has center stage.
I think this is becoming in me a principle that I will be adopting to my thought process about any new event or activity that applies to the church. Does this event or activity not overshadow the gospel? Does this event or activity lead in a natural way to the sharing of the gospel? Do we give more time and thought and prayer on the gospel message part of this than the activities of the event? Does Jesus have center stage?
People will always show up for a show because we are such an entertainment society but it takes us to think through and implement the message of Jesus that has to be deliberate and concise. I don't want to be a party pooper but I think when we throw a pizza party and a lot of people are excited about the pizza and then we try to squeeze Jesus in between the cheese and pizza sauce that it might be better to start out with "Hey, we are having a pizza party at the church with these activities and a time to talk about the Greatest of all time - Jesus. You're invited."
I need to win them with Jesus so that they will be won to Jesus. Some more thought on this...
Adam
"What you win them with..." - the what is the activity or event or content that you are going to be presenting. That activity or event or content has good intentions to get them maybe in the building or to a point of listening to what you have to say (hopefully what God says, you are just the mouthpiece).
So if the ultimate goal is to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to others, then it is really important that "what" we use to get them there doesn't overshadow the gospel message. I feel this is really one of the dangers of the church when it follows the trends of the culture. The culture comes out with something cool and so we mimic it to look cool like the culture to get them in to tell them about the gospel. But what were they drawn to? The cool thing or event and many times, even though good intentions are there, we never get to the gospel message or it is said but the event or activity is so big that you start to see what truly has center stage.
I think this is becoming in me a principle that I will be adopting to my thought process about any new event or activity that applies to the church. Does this event or activity not overshadow the gospel? Does this event or activity lead in a natural way to the sharing of the gospel? Do we give more time and thought and prayer on the gospel message part of this than the activities of the event? Does Jesus have center stage?
People will always show up for a show because we are such an entertainment society but it takes us to think through and implement the message of Jesus that has to be deliberate and concise. I don't want to be a party pooper but I think when we throw a pizza party and a lot of people are excited about the pizza and then we try to squeeze Jesus in between the cheese and pizza sauce that it might be better to start out with "Hey, we are having a pizza party at the church with these activities and a time to talk about the Greatest of all time - Jesus. You're invited."
I need to win them with Jesus so that they will be won to Jesus. Some more thought on this...
Adam
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