Some of you might identify with the following experience. There are people who have or will try to convert you to Christianity and you feel like a project of theirs. They have an agenda and you feel like they are treating you like an object. Their love for you is based upon whether or not you become part of their religious group.
There is another camp which I will call the radical grace camp. These are those of us who declare how good God is, simply because we cannot stop from doing so. Frankly, we don’t care who hears about it or not. We cannot help ourselves. If there was no one to listen, we would still talk about Him because it is too frustrating to hold it in.
I’m sure you can see the difference between these two mindsets. One is focused on changing you and one is focused on declaring how good God is. One tries to get you to “become one of us” and the other offers a “room of grace” where anyone can come and find rest.
Why the arrogant evangelism? The answer is that sometimes, if not often, Christians practice the very thing they preach against. They preach against following the rules as a way to get God’s affirmation. We are simply to trust Him and receive His affirmation. Yet, what happens is we inadvertently turn evangelism back into a rule we have to follow. We believe we can feel better about ourselves and our position before God if we can convince someone to follow Jesus.
I can identify. Even just the other day, I could feel a small, negative emotion of arrogance inside of me while I was talking with a friend about God. I realized that I was subtly trying to convince him of what I believe to be true, so that I could feel good about myself. Subconsciously, I was trying to carve a little notch to show that I’d converted someone. I don’t like it when things like this happen, but it is simply a fact that it did.
From a person who generally feels affirmed by God, you'll feel the difference. You won’t feel like the person is trying to convert you. You’ll feel like they are simply sharing with you about who they are as a person. They will share with you openly about their real sin, about God’s rescue of them, and about the great romance they’ve been taken into. They might even invite you to follow them into this great romance, yet you’ll feel that your personal autonomy has been genuinely affirmed, no matter what you choose. You will feel most comfortable with these kinds of Jesus followers because they will treat you like a person instead of an agenda.
To those of you who follow Jesus, let’s remember to share openly about this great romance since it is too ridiculous not to do so, yet let us affirm the personhood and individual decision making of everyone we meet. God has already done so.
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