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Subject: "Soul Bagging"
Time: 2:09:00 AM EDT
Author: kpchprather4
Music: The Space Between: Dave Matthews
Yes...I have blogged much this week-and they have been long blogs. You need to know up front that this is a long blog. But I need you to read it. To process it. To consider it. I think this issue is important and we need to take an honest look in the mirror. If you are willing...read on. And for those of you I might offend with this entry, I want you to know that is not my intent. This is pure passion speaking. We must wake up. Read at your own risk.
I mentioned "Crossover San Antonio" in a previous entry, that effort by our convention to share the Gospel all over San Antonio. 20,000 Southern Baptist came to our city-and a large number of pastors, ministers, denominational leaders, lay leaders participated in a massive city-wide effort this past Saturday to survey our communities and engage people with the Gospel. The intention is noble I believe, even though I also believe that going door-to-door is not the most effective nor the most Biblical way to carry out the Great Commission.
On a pragmatic level, going door to door is not effective for several reasons: First, because of the aggressive door-to-door efforts of a few cults, most people (and I would include myself in that list) are not comfortable talking to an uninvited stranger about our soul-life. Second, because of the fragmented and rushed culture that exists in our metro areas, home is the one place of "sanctuary" for most people-that place where they are able to escape from traffic, noise, crowds and the stresses of life. Sanctuary. Our lives are too busy, so we look forward to coming home to family and simply winding down. The uninvited guest at the door, no matter how well intentioned, is more often than not perceived as just another stream in the flow of hectic living. Third, a lot of people have "picked up" on the whole door-to-door thing. Many see the door-to-door method as a sort of spiritual "hit and run"-and when it comes to spiritual matters, most people have a lot of questions, and they would much prefer to sit down and talk about these matters in an authentic and in-depth manner with someone they know, someone who actually sees them as a person, not a number. Someone who demonstrates through their actions they care about the person as an individual. Rushing through a list of questions with a stranger does not resonate with many.
This is not to say God cannot use this method. My point is-we need to seriously re-think what it means to truly carry out the Great Commission. This is where my theological presuppositions come into play: If I understand the Great Commission correctly, we are to "make disciples of all peoples" (all people groups) literally "as we are going..."-meaning, making disciples, evangelism, is a part of daily life-not a program or a once in a while "blitz." The book of Acts certainly has underscores this way of making disciples as God's pattern for connecting with and engaging people with the Gospel. But I digress..I'll blog on that subject in my next entry. This entry is more of a spiritual "rant." I want to offer suggestions as to how we can return to the Biblical roots of making disciples, not just complain. So the next entry, I will try to address that.
Back to Crossover and our door to door blitz. For our people who were involved, there were some meaningful experiences-some new relationships formed, people we were able to pray for, people with needs, people who were interested in further dialogue on God and the things of God. Seeds were planted.
But something happened, at least at this point it looks like it happened. And it disturbs me. I think this thing, if inde it happened, and from what I can ascertain at this juncture...it did happen is a part of our problem . "Soul bagging. " Or, if you prefer...adding a few more "notches on the belt." Let me explain.
I have to walk carefully here. There is a possibility I may be wrong. But all the evidence points to this being the truth, and I have been around enough pastors, ministers and evangelists long enough to know this type of thing occurs. Let me explain:
A man...I cannot divulge his name, not because you know him, but because in case I am wrong, I don't want to be judge, jury and prosecutor of an innocent man. But the evidence doesn't look good. Not at all.
This particular man, well, he is known. Well known and considered to be quite the expert in evangelism. He is known as being the quintessential evangelist. One of the "experts."
He was with us. He went out with us.
At the end of our time of walking through the communities and surveying people, people filed on the bus. Our experiences were different. Some had wonderful experiences. Some found people were not so happy to be visited. Some canvassed areas where very few people were at home (or chose not to answer the door). As we were driving down one street to pick up another group, we saw this man and his co-laborer. We opened the church bus doors and asked: "How's it going?"
"Great," the man replied: "Two people came to Christ so far." He was rather non chalant about the matter. As if this should have been everyone's experience.
A lot of us were feeling rather inadequate at this time. Two people? Incredible. Praise God. But then again-he is the expert. He is the truly gifted one. He knows things we don't. He has something we don't. But underneath the surface, if you listened carefully to what people were saying, there was that underlying, unspoken thought: "Sounds too good to be true." But no one would dare utter it. After all, this man is the expert. We are not. We wanted to believe.
A few people on the bus whispered, "Man...it was tough out there. That's really incredible."
And perhaps that was the man's point. I don't know. I don't know his heart. Perhaps it was important for him to tell us that he still "had it" or maybe he wanted us to know that the expert doesn't fail. I don't know.
Tonight was revelatory. We followed up on those decision cards that were collected after the community survey. We wanted to follow up on all of those who made a profession of faith in Christ. Here is where the story truly begins.
This man was working one particular street. Specific blocks. As we were going through those cards and calling those whom we believed made professions of faith-I was stunned.
One of our church members told me, "Pastor, most of the calls were good, some weren't home, but two people, well, they had no idea why I was calling. One said she wasn't even home and couldn't have had this conversation. The other was an elderly man who had no recollection of any conversation."
Did I forget to tell you that when we went canvassing we had not just addresses, but names, addresses and zip codes? We had some phone numbers as well. In other words-we had all the information needed to know whom we were visiting and how to follow up on the visits. All the information beforehand to fill out a decision card-name, address, phone...
It is here that the "expert" and the two bewildered individuals who were surprised to discover tonight that they had come to Christ converge. I backtracked to see who might have filled out cards, reporting conversions that really didn't happen. I guess some people might have thought the church either wouldn't follow up or wouldn't go to the trouble to find out who was on what block when they filled out their reports. Maybe someone thought a falsified report would go unnoticed, but would still show up on the convention's "numbers." I don't know. But when two people say they have no recollection of a conversation or turning their lives over to Christ-well...something's not right.
You see where I am going. The expert, the well-respected man, well, his fingerprints were all over these two "conversion cards." It was his block, his address list-and yes..his words, "Great...two people have come to Christ so far..." echoed in my mind. Two people. Two cards. Two oblivious people. One very angry pastor. Two really confused people.
Perhaps, in his ministry context and capacity, he needed to report back that he had "X amount of conversions." Maybe he had a quota. I don't know. But if this indeed happened, it is unacceptable. Are we so proud to admit that we "failed?" And did we really "fail" if we shared the Gospel and there was no response?
Of course not. Our responsibility is to share the Good News. God does the saving. We don't save people-He does. We are the messengers, not the Message. I wonder at times if we forget that.
This is where we are as evangelicals today-at least in some circles. This scene in my mind is a microcosm of a larger problem: We are truly not engaging people. We are inflating numbers because we want to "look good" or appear "successful." We are fiddling while Rome burns.
You may have heard the phrase, "ministerally speaking." That phrase is tragic...because it is a phrase ministers often use to refer to inflating their numbers. As in, "We had about 50 baptisms...ministerially speaking..." The actual number may have been 29. Twenty-nine...fifty...ball park it. The main thing is to be successful. Or to look successful.
And the most tragic thing about it all is that while we are patting ourselves on the back, inflating numbers, "blitzing" cities...talking big and paying homage to our "experts"-we are losing a nation, a culture, a generation. Not just Southern Baptist. Evangelicals as a whole.
It's much easier to fabricate conversions than it is to truly engage and invest and get involved in people's lives. If it looks good on the reports, that's all that matters, right?
But while we do this, inflate our numbers, engage in hit and run evangelism, soul bagging, and telling ourselves the great lie that all is well and we are on top of things...
People are dying. Dying apart from Christ. Increasingly becoming disillusioned with the American Evangelicalism Lite...we are losing the war. We have seen the enemy, and all too often it is ourselves.
Sound harsh? I do not mean to be harsh. But over the past few years I have become increasingly concerned about the "institutionalization" of the church. We have forgotten that we are a movement, that we are spiritual insurgents, that we are not perfect (so let's take off these self-righteous masks and get real), forgotten that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. We have forgotten that making disciples apart from relationships only ends up with a revolving door to our church and very spiritually confused individuals. We ourselves are losing touch with spiritual reality. And perhaps at the root of it is pride. Fear of failure. Fear of confronting the very real and present spiritual realities that we face in America. Whistling in the spiritual graveyard.
So, we program, have our special events...stick our proverbial heads in the sand and congratulate one another on just how well we are doing-because we certainly are busy, so that must mean we are successful.
We must wake up. We must take a look at what God is doing around the world and ask "Why is this not happening here?" We must be willing to examine what we are doing, why we are doing it and how we are doing it as well as who we are doing it for.We need to get back to the basics, the foundations, and we need to humble ourselves before our God and our fellow man. We either do this-or we will look just like Western Europe within a decade-and if you do your research, you will see that this is cause for alarm.
So I end here. I end by asking questions, namely that we look ourselves in the mirror and be honest. Honest with God...honest with each other...honest with our lost world.
It's time to wake up and confront reality. No matter how painful that may be. Change will never happen if we don't. And the clock is ticking here in America....and we don't have the luxury of spiritual soul bagging. It's time to be about our Father's business. His Kingdom. Not ours.
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From all that I have gathered-it seems to sadly, be true. One person not even being home and completely unaware of what the follow up call was about-and another having no recollection of anyone visiting...
I pray we just start living this out daily. Then we won't need a once a year or quarterly "blitz"-our faith should be contageous as we live it out among those we interact with. That's the real challenge. I think it's much easier to knock on the door of a stranger, start talking and then make the presentation and leave. It's much more demanding in terms of time, to actually relate to the many people we come into contact with daily. But that is what is meant by, "...as you go..." -
Amen... simply amen.
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If the situation you suspect is indeed true, I wonder if the "expert" has ever absorbed the story of Ananias & Sapphira in the Bible. The difficulty with both of these situations is not lying to people, but lying to God. The consequences can be dire.
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wow...you have really hit the nail on the head again. This blog is like a follow-up to your sermon Sunday- did you realize that? Get out of the safety of the boat. I am very bad at knocking on someone's door for any purpose. For all the reasons you gave. I am better at making it "a part of daily life" as you said. It seems more authentic. And when people I don't know ring my doorbell in the evenings, I do not answer. I do not have time for whatever it is. I agree with you- I'm sure God can and does use it though. And to "rsmm..."- I followed your line of reasoning. Amazing. You are right. 18,000+ should have made a ripple at least. They should have. You have both given me a lot to think about tonight.
7/3/07 1:01 AM
I've heard a lot of criticism but little constructive advice. Many are quick to point out what doesn't work, but not as quick to offer wisdom and effective leadership. I'm still looking, but still frustrated. The one thing that I do know is that when I step out in faith and witness for my Lord, I am successful because I am obedient to His will and calling, even if I don't see evidence of that success. If I talk to 10 or even 100 people and only get one positive response, I am probably going to be seen as a failure to many, but not to GOD. Oh yeah, I don't like labels either. The use of terms like "Gen X", "Baby Boomer", "Post Modern" or whatever, places limits on each of us, pigeon holes us, and marginalizes each of us. Let us get rid of the stereotypes and develop unity within the body of Christ.