Monday, March 28, 2005

Selling Salvation

Well, Easter has come and gone. I would have to say that overall, this Easter was pretty good. Saturday night I attended a Catholic Easter vigil service. It was very nice. I didn't even notice it was three hours long. I am pretty sure they had about a million baptisms. After each and every baptism, they sang a little song. The way they played it, it was pretty hokey. It made me laugh. It went something like "you have put on Christ, you have been baptized, alleluia, alleluia, you have been baptized." It had some sort of musical feel, it was great. One of Brian with a big C's roommates was getting confirmed, so that was cool. Now, let me get to the main point of this whole post:

On Easter morning, I went to a service. It was a very nice, very typical Easter service, you know with lots of singing, lots of kids running around, and of course the "oh it's Easter Sunday, so this a great Sunday to whip out the plan of salvation day." It seems to me that the only time I hear sermons directed towards non-Christians are on key days like Christmas and Easter. That's cool; I know that is when most non-Christians will maybe grace the door of the church building. The pastor of this particular church said that he wanted to talk about the resurrection of Christ, and that his main goal was to "convert" the non-Christians to Christianity. That was cool with me too, although I am not a big fan of the word convert. I know it says in Matthew 26 or 28 or 16 (I'm not sure) to Go into all nations and preach the gospel... so he should do that. The problem I had with all of this is that it seemed so much like a sales pitch; I expected the projectors to spit something out on the screen to the tune of "send in three easy payments of 19.95 and you too can be a Christian!" Now, he was not saying at all that money was involved in the process of salvation, but it just seemed like an infomercial. He would talk a little, and then give off some verses, and then say now listen to this person. Some person would get up there and talk about their life before Christ and how their life has changed and now is just so absolutely wonderful. He had a few different people get up there and talk. Like I said, overall it just felt like a sales pitch. It kind of made me uncomfortable when I thought about it after the fact. It seems sometimes we try to lure people to Christianity by giving them this sugar-coated view of it. We make sure not to bring up the fact the true commitment to Christ is going to be hard. Oh no...then people wouldn't want it. We just want them to get their fire insurance, or as Tyanna would say "dunk them and leave them."

Now here is what I think:

Some people quite possibly are turned off from Christianity because a lot of people who profess to be Christians aren't truly committed to Christ. If people actually saw people committed to Christ, they may be more willing to come to Christ themselves. They will see that it is hard, but know that there must be something there for people to be willing to endure hardships that come with Christianity. They will see that there truly is a happiness that is brought about by a true commitment to Christ. They don't want a sugar-coated sales pitch. All they want is to see people with a true commitment. I think that we can evangelize much better through actions than through words. Our words don't mean anything. If we are willing to help other people, they will see true religion which is this: to take care of the poor and visit the widows or something to that effect. I don't know if any of this made sense. I just get sick of hearing these sales pitches that may make people feel all giddy, and then they say a "salvation prayer" and Ka POW!!! They are Christians! I think there is more too it than that. Alright. That's all for now.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Saint Paul agrees with you when he says: "For we are not mere peddlers of God's word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence."

Anonymous said...

I really liked this post. I think the verse that you quoted is from James. I'm sure you've heard this quote but I like it alot.

"Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words" -St. Francis of Assisi.

um... yeah... said...

matt - word!
adam - word!
rose - word!

i liked this post, too! in fact, i think i decided i hate easter, but you can read more about that on my blog sometime soon.

ps - i'll crack up someday when you spell my name right. haha! i really don't care, it just makes me laugh.

Anonymous said...

Ty...I guess I have no freakin clue how to spell your name. Please enlighten me :)

Matt..Thanks for the verse. If I would have known that, I would have used it in my post.

Adam, yep..it's a good quote.

Anonymous said...

I agree. I am aware of the II Corinthians quote, but I had not heard the one from St. Francis. He pretty much hit it on the head.

I also share your distaste for Easter as well, Ty. Possibly for different reasons, although I will bet they are similar.

Rose: How does one misspell Ty? lmbo.

JB

Anonymous said...

Ha... I didn't mispell ty..i mispelled tyanna...is it tyana, ty? I dont know

Anonymous said...

Ha... I didn't mispell ty..i mispelled tyanna...is it tyana, ty? I dont know

Anonymous said...

look at that...it posted mine twice..what is up with this stupid blogger???

Anonymous said...

I hate all holidays.. they are all scams.. You forget about Christ with all of them. Being a Christian is not all that easy. You almost need a sponser to keep you out of trouble everyday!

Better watch out.. If I post something, someone all knowing might chew me out for not knowing anything since I am not edumacated!

Too bad I learned at Church in Sunday School and not Collage.

Wolfe

Anonymous said...

Rose:

I can't seem to solve that little number shuffle puzzle in less than about 120 moves. I devised a pretty efficient algorithm for solving it, but my goal is to be under 100 moves. Maybe that is unnrealistic and depends on the shuffling of the numbers.

Has anyone else consistently averaged less than about 120 moves?

JB

Anonymous said...

OK. I know how much everybody cares about this, but I think I have improved my algorithm to the point where I can average around 100 moves on the number slide puzzle.

My best was 85 moves. Has anybody beaten that? My bet is that Matt has.

JB

Anonymous said...

I did it once in about 73 moves I think, but that is because the way they shuffled it made it really easy. A lot of times I give up before I finish, so you are much better than me...Sometimes I think it is impossible.

Anonymous said...

It is always solvable. The last two rows are the key.

Did you look up the standpipes yet? Just Google for "Grand Standpipe" Or just go to this link: www.builtstlouis.net/watertowers/watertowers1.html

My first mistake may have been in thinking this was interesting to anyone but myself, but you know how I like history, and these cool towers are a part of it.

(I won't mention them again - much - in your blog. lol)

JB

JB

Anonymous said...

test test

Anonymous said...

I got it in 1 move.. The key is in the middle piece. If you move it right it moves the entire puzzle for you..

Wolfe

rose said...

I promise I will look at standpipes soon. Maybe I will even post about them :)

um... yeah... said...

beernuts/jb and all: a shameless plug to read my blog and share your thoughts on easter:

http://joshandty.blogspot.com

i AM curious...