Community and Relationship

On page eight of The Art of Personal Evangelism by Will McRaney Jr., the author states “it is not enough to (simply) get decisions: we ultimately desire to develop disciples.” I believe that we want to make more than disciples. What we really want is a continuously growing family. A family that builds a community grows together and depends on one another. Furthermore, we desire a community of faith and love. That was God’s original intent when He created the Garden of Eden, the original community. We want to have a community where I can call on a brother that is a carpenter to help me reach my neighbor who is a carpenter because I’m an accountant that doesn’t speak the same language as my carpenter neighbor. We desire for people to develop a close personal relationship with Christ in order to create an extension of the greater body of Christ at large. Someone was made famous a few years ago by writing a book titled It takes a Village. In order to effectively evangelize, it takes a village of believers in Christ. These believers come with different backgrounds and experiences, all walking and working together to reach out to those without Christ. It is a community of interdependent relationships founded on love, trust and respect. To me, the author starts down the wrong track when he emphasizes following “commands” and talking about “lordship”. We are not a society or culture that can relate to the terms “commands” and “lordship”. This is especially true in the postmodern culture referred to by McRaney. America is a country of personal freedoms. I believe that using these terms, undefined, may have the opposite of the desired effect on potential Christians. People are told that they need to make Jesus “Lord” of their life and they instantly become defensive and cold because they do not understand the context. Instead, we need to define the context of the Lordship of Christ and also be examples of the relationship that God desires. This is a relationship built upon love between members of the family of Christ. Jesus said people would know us by our love that we show our family. He did not say people would know us by all the commands we obey. Legalism does not have a place here. We desperately need to go back to the Genesis example of taking a leisurely stroll with our Father and communicating one with another. I have a good relationship with my Dad. That does not mean that we always agree. We sometimes have heated conversations. Regardless of our disagreements, I love him. We talk. He does not stand around and command me and tell me I better do this and that or he will whack me. A relationship of true love, not lordship, will draw hurting people to Christ. We can then build the context of Jesus being Lord of our lives. When Jesus said “if I be lifted up I will draw all people to me”, I do not believe that He was talking about the physical cross itself, but was really commenting on “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son”. Our demonstration of true love, care and concern for the lost will change people and their hearts and lives. Love never fails.


References

McRaney, Will, Jr. The Art of Personal Evangelism. Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2003. Page 8..