To the Point:
Lay Sister White right to one side: lay her to one side. Don't you
never quote my words again as long as you live, until you can obey the
Bible. When you take the Bible and make that your food, and your meat,
and your drink, and make that the elements of your character, when you
can do that you will know better how to receive some counsel from God.
But here is the Word, the precious Word, exalted before you today. And
don't you give a rap any more what "Sister White said"-"Sister White
said this," and "Sister White said that," and "Sister White said the
other thing." But say, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel," and then
you do just what the Lord God of Israel does, and what he says. - EGW, Spalding and Magan Collection, p167.
Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.
- Kurt Vonnegut
Got a favorite quote? Send it to BestPractices@ameritech.net. |
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Effective Outreach:
"You Can't be Friends with an Amway Salesman"
by Best Practices editor Loren SeiboldThis
is not my line. I credit my friend Ron Carlson from KS-NE. He said it as we were talking about
how churches, if they're not careful, can treat potential converts.
One new to our faith walks into church,
and (assuming he or she encounters someone who will even be friendly with them - not always the case) the visitor may cease to be a person and become a project. We have
nothing to learn from them; we need not even listen, except to
look passingly courteous while we wait for our chance to get her
jewelry off, or convince him of the Sabbath, or get her to stop smoking - and so earn another notch in our Bible. Friendliness is
warm-up
for getting them to do what we want them to.Back in seminary, a couple invited us over for Saturday night entertainment. "How nice," we thought. "We're making some new friends."
After some snacks and small talk, they sprung it on us: "We've gotten
into a business opportunity that we would like to share with you." It
sounded altruistic, but it wasn't. The
goal wasn't friendship, but making money off of us by getting us to sell stuff for them.We politely said
no. From then on, the evening languished. And they never
invited us again, proving that we had never been potential friends, just potential customers.In
my first participation in an evangelistic campaign, I remember how the
evangelist's wife and record-keeper spoke of "interests". "We had 40
interests here tonight." They weren't quite people; they were
statistics on the hoof. It would have to be a pretty naive "interest" not to
sense when there's no
genuine, disinterested interest in him or herself, don't you think?Do you see Jesus ever
regarding people merely as "interests"? Is our product genuine
peace, goodness, kindness and friendship - the attractions of Jesus - or
accessions? And yes, they are quite different. Too many of our churches
have little peace, goodness, kindness and friendship to offer. All
they have is membership.It's not about us. It's not even about our church. It is about loving people, like Jesus did.Thoughts on evangelistic attitudes? Write BestPractices@ameritech.net. |
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