Wednesday, February 15, 2006

People are people.

This CatholicExchange article by Mark Shea makes some excellent points on evangelization:

We must choose to love and listen to others as though they actually matter if we are to going to be credible witnesses of the love of Christ. For they really do matter. And they matter, not as "potential convert material" but as persons, right here and now. Jesus knew this and so paid attention to the needs and questions of peasants as well as temple scholars, tax collectors and painted ladies as well as "spiritual" types like St. John the Apostle. And His most devoted followers have always done likewise.

The basic idea is that proclaiming the Gospel is not about "making Christians" but loving people. I think what has always made me cringe from evangelization/witnessing/whatever you want to call it a little bit is the tendency to make it seem like Christianity is a clique and you have to treat people outside the clique very differently. When it comes to going house to house or having events that almost trick people into being told about Christianity, I feel that it makes Christians look condescending.

Once in college, somebody told me that the world is divided between the "saved and unsaved." That really turned me off to organized evangelization because, in reality, it's more of a continuum. The holiest person on earth is still "being saved" just as the worst sinner is. We have to relate to all people as people, where they are, and be authentic to them. It's not about tallying up your conversion score, it's about loving that person as a beloved creation of God.

I am not totally opposed to any kind of organized evangelization, but only saying that real conversions take place in conversations where the Christian has just as much invested in the relationship as the person who is converting.

1 comment:

Gregaria said...

Yeah! I totally agree!