with intention

On the visible community

Jim Wallis' book formed our discussion last night @ our gathering. People had mixed feelings... what do you think?

“Our need in the rich countries of the northern hemisphere is for a fresh consciousness of conversion. In the midst of social conditions so oppressive to others and to ourselves, we must again turn to Jesus…But first we must examine and honestly face up to the ways our evangelism has been corrupted and our conversion distorted.” – The Call to Conversion , Jim Wallis

Corrupted Evangelism

“Evangelism in our day has largely become a packaged production, a mass-marketed experience in which evangelists strain to answer that question which nobody is asking.”

(I Peter 3:15)

· engages in endless contortions to convince people that they are missing something that Christians have.
· aggressive and gimmicky – methods are reduced to salesmanship and showmanship.
· special activity awkwardly conducted in noisy football stadiums or flashy TV studios,
· behavior management

“Unless accompanied by a clear demonstration of what it means to follow Jesus now, the evangelistic message falls on deaf ears or, even worse, calls people to a conversion empty of real content”

Distorted Conversion

Wallis states that our self-centered culture has produced a self-centered religion. “In other words, the question is how Jesus can help us make it in the present order, not how we can respond to the new order.”

· Presented as a way to help us uncover our human potential – our potential for personal, social, and business success
· Modern conversion brings Jesus into our lives rather than bringing us into his.
· Jesus is here to help us to do better that which we are already doing.
· Jesus doesn’t change our lives, he improves them.
· Conversion is just for ourselves, not for the world.
· We ask how Jesus can fulfill our lives, not how we might serve his kingdom.

Wallis goes on to say that the result of this distorted conversion is “ ‘saved’ individuals who comfortably fit into the old order while the new order goes unannounced.”