Pure evangelicalism needs to be rethought and, possibly, turned on its head.

Think about this passage from Paul's letter to the Corinthians:
I Corinthians 12:29-31
"Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the abilitiy to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! So you should earnestly desure the most helpful gifts."

Listen.

I've been to Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, Pentacostal churches, Catholic churches, Lutheran churches, Quaker churches, independent churches, Unitarian churches, and heard dozens of interpretations of this passage. Nine times out of ten (not a scientific percentage but my personal swag) this passage is used when the number of helpers in the nursery is dwindling or the one Sunday school teacher who works every Sunday is completely burned out. I heard one preacher say, from the pulpit, "...being part of the body of Christ means that sometimes you have to clean toilets!" I remember this because it was one message when he turned on the tears. He confessed to my wife one time that sometimes he felt badly about turning on the tears but he found it was the best way to get people to come up to the altar call at the end of each service.

He was and is a good man with a heart of gold, so please don't think poorly of him. I still love him dearly, but he lived under a cloud. And don't want to live under that cloud anymore. I don't want to be manipulated by preachers with tears in their eyes, or peer pressure because everyone else in the room is crying or going to altar because everyone else in the room is kneeling at the altar to recommit their life to Christ with tears and blubbering and outbursts.
The cloud he lives under is the cloud of evangelicalism.

Not that evangelising is bad - not at all! There is always a place and time for sharing the Truth of Messiah with the lost - even with the sort of boldness where we are willing to lay down our lives to do it.

But instead of living under the cloud of evangelism and torturing ourselves because we don't have the skills or desire to convert people, we really need to live on top of the cloud of love. It sounds hoaky and cliche, but when a life is lived from on top of cloud nine, amazing things happen.

If you read the rest of I Corinthians 12 and keep going through 13 you'll see it's that famous, "love is patient, love is kind," passage we've all heard at countless weddings and in any number of sermons. If Paul knew what we've done to this passage he would probably roll over in his grave. He wasn't talking about marriage, he was talking about loving all of everything with the same agape love Christ had for the church.

I know a lot of you know what agape love is, but, just in case, here's an example:

A friend of mine was in Italy with me and we were walking to the beach. In a ditch on the side of the road we heard a faint whimper and found a puppy which was barely alive. It smelled horrible, it's bones were visible through its skin and it's tongue was swollen. My friend took off his jacket, wrapped up the puppy and we brought it back to our room. He washed it, gave it water, ground up food so it could eat, and nursed it until it could at least get up on its feet. We took it to the vet who said it was a lost cause and we should probably just euthanise it. But my friend persisted, and religiously gave it medicine for worms and parasites, and ground up food for it to eat and took it out for exercise. Eventually, after more than a month, the puppy was outside, romping around with perky ears, a shiny coat and a new lease on life. After a lot of bargaining and paperwork he was able to take it back to the States with him and that dog was a loyal pet for almost a decade.

That, folks, is agape love.

Now, if I haven't totally lost your attention with my rambling, turn over to James 1:27
"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."

Think about this:

It's all well and good that my friend helped a puppy. In our culture doggies are fun and important. And this story sounds very similar to the Good Samaratin. But do I agape love my neighbor when when I see a homeless man and walk on by? Do I agape love my neighbor when I see a lost person and give them a tract or tell them Jesus loves them? Or, how about this, how did God agape love the world? Did He agape love it enough to give his only begotten son so that whoever believes on him will have everlasting life? I think He did.

This is the real meaning of evangelism and what we need to do to turn it upside down. We need to drop this idea that we need to memorize more of the Bible so we can share it with the lost. The Bible will be there and it can stand on its own. We need to run away from this idea that we need to go to stadiums and pass out tracts. When God wants someone He will call them. Instead we should be climbing over each other to be first in line to help an orphan. We should be tripping over ourselves to jump at a chance to put shoes on a homeless man. We should be selling everything we don't actually NEED (HDTV anyone? How about an SUV?) in order to lift even one person out of the ditch. We should be wrestling our flesh into submission so that ever word, every action, every thought comes only from agape love for our neighbor!

For our King.

Gloria in Excelsis Deo!

Shawn.