Evangelism: Elevator Speech...

Given the huge number of people who haven't a clue what we are talking about when we speak of our faith, speaking of our faith perhaps becomes our biggest challenge. We are habituated to the phrases and concepts with which we grew up--phrases and concepts that grew our of the time when most people knew the Christian story and accepted its validity as a world view even if they didn't actively practice its tenets.

So, have we thought about what we would say to someone that might make sense? We should.

My faith community gave this a try on Sunday morning. We had our children "judge" our statements...good to go, not sure I understand, and OK, I'm clueless about what you just said. It gave us some idea of how our words were heard. But our kids are raised in the church, so they still have a clue.

Here are some examples of reasons people gave on why they were "Christian."

Common statement, but one with huge question marks:

Believing in God and worshipping with other believers.

For those of us who understand the gift of grace, who "believe" and who enjoy worship or see its importance, this is great. For anyone else...unintelligible and exclusive.

Response: "If I don't believe...I'm out.  If I don't worship...I'm out. This is great for you, but I just don't see the point. "

We have to know the point. We are called to tell others the point.

Here's another starting place:

I am fully me, broken and human, and I am loved anyway. I am able to love others who are also broken and human. I am allowed to fail. I am allowed to give.

In a culture that demands perfection for worth, that insists one who is not perfect is un-lovable, that never allows failure, and that spreads the gospel of "take care of number one," the church's counter-cultural message is one of grace and acceptance. The only thing missing in the statement is the verbal recognition that these words represent God's kingdom...one that holds us to a standard foreign to our culture, one that enables us to live this way, and one that invites us in before we ever start living this way. We are loved. Period. Not after we learn to live "in the kingdom."

The challenge is to learn to articulate our "reasons," to ourselves and to others...especially to those who are "clueless." We may need to learn different reasons. We have to practice with each other, though. We have to listen carefully and critically until we learn to express ourselves in a way that truly communicates God's grace.

"Comments" might be a good place to practice this...