January 20, 1999
EDITORIAL:
Eliminate evangelistic mixed signals
___Has anyone ever sent you mixed signals?
___Maybe she told you she loved you with her lips, but her eyes flashed hatred. Perhaps he called you a good neighbor, but he allowed his hounds to trample your garden. Possibly she spoke of affection, but her body language said, "Keep away!"
___Mixed signals confuse. Inevitably, the negative overpowers the positive. Actions trump words. Pain and alienation result.
___"Mixed signals" provided a significant sub-theme to the 1999 Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference last week. Speakers illustrated how Christians often undermine evangelistic words with off-putting deeds.
___"I'm concerned that in America we evangelical Christians are known more for what we are against than what we are for," evangelist Luis Palau acknowledged. We say we love people. Yet we so vehemently condemn them for their lifestyle, choices or beliefs that we close their ears to our Good News.
___"Compassion is the mark of the Lord Jesus Christ," Palau stressed. And yet compassion often is the last thing sinners see in Christians, he lamented.
___Dennis Jernigan poignantly illustrated that truth. He grew up in a Baptist minister's home. He played the piano in worship from age 9, attended church every time the doors were open, graduated from a Baptist college. And as a young man struggling with homosexuality, he tried to commit suicide.
___Jernigan's fellow Baptists didn't know about his homosexuality, but he heard their hatred. They sang songs of love, but "I heard what they said they'd do if they ever got their hands on a gay," he recalled. The hatred and hypocrisy he experienced drove him from the church and, worse, from God.
___Jernigan, now a music evangelist, came back to faith through Christian music and an intense personal experience with Christ. But countless other homosexuals aren't so blessed, he said, noting the church's harshness propels them from the very love and healing they desperately need. "Hate the sin; love the sinner" often translates simply, "Hate the sinner."
___ Sometimes apathy, ignorance and laziness overwhelm Christians' attempts at evangelism, Ed Young Jr. explained.
___Churches claim they want to reach people for Christ, but they can't or won't present the gospel in a way that communicates to non-believers, said Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine. He described a recent trip to Las Vegas and told how "user friendly" the city is--especially its gambling industry. "Las Vegas has nothing to say but says it so well," he observed. "The church has everything to say but doesn't know how to say it."
___Hmmm. Maybe that's because too many of us have lost what Ellis Orozco, pastor of Corpus Christi Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, called the key ingredients of Christian faith--"burning desire and quixotic extravagance."
___Do we passionately want to see people come to faith in Jesus Christ? Are we willing to take on the devil and all odds to see them born into Christ's kingdom?
___Divine desire and heavenly extravagance straighten out mixed signals.
___So, Baptists disagree on some issues. But can we call a moratorium on mean-spiritedness--in our churches as well as our denomination--in order to undergird the integrity of our claim that God is love?
___Of course, Baptists despise sin. But can we so love all people that even flagrant sinners cannot resist the compelling love of Jesus radiating from every word we say and every action we take?
___Far too often, Baptists send mixed signals to a lost and dying world. Internal bickering casts doubt on external proclamations of love. Self-righteous anger undermines self-giving compassion.
___We must speak clearly, then back it up with clear deeds. We must tell people Jesus loves them, and so do we. And then we must demonstrate that love in every action we take. Eternal lives are at stake.
___ --Marv KnoxFrontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!