Are There Boundaries when Reaching the Lost?

Are There Boundaries when Reaching the Lost?

May 6, 2010 by John C. Atkinson

As many of you know we recently did a big event for Easter called “The Ultimate Giveaway.” We gave away millions of dollars worth of “donated” items in hopes of attracting folks far from God to church so they could hear a message of hope and salvation on arguably the most important day we celebrate as Christians.

As you can imagine the Christian critics came out in force! Those that disagreed with us accused us of fostering things like greed and envy. I have a couple of simple questions that I hope will generate some responses!

1) In your opinion, is anything, short of sin, off limits when it comes to reaching those farthest from God? Read the question carefully before commenting because we are not talking about allowing sin for the greater good!

I ask that because we were lambasted by Christians and church leaders who accused us of some ugly things simply because we gave cars and things away at Easter! I guess I just don’t understand how thousands of people giving away their personal stuff to people they don’t know simply because they wanted to them to find Jesus, is somehow a bad thing.

So heres how it went. Our people modeled selflessness and gave, and I am so proud to say they gave like crazy, the things they gave away were given to complete strangers with nothing expected in return, which enticed thousands of people to come to church on Easter that probably never would have otherwise, some clearly for the wrong reasons which was expected, but in-spite of that, 1556 people prayed to begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ for the first time in their lives, and BAF grew significantly as many of those who made that commitment are coming back and worshipping regularly now.

So here’s another question:

2) How does any of any of that dishonor Jesus and the sacrifice He made on the cross?

Are we not called to reach the lost? Isn’t that what going after the one sheep means? If were to go out and make disciples and baptize them as Jesus commanded, doesn’t that mean that to fulfill that command we have to reach people that are not yet baptized or saved? Does taking the Gospel to all nations mean only to saved church attending folks? Obviously we (the Western Church) are not doing a great job of spreading the Gospel as were losing a generation, so wouldn’t doing anything shy of sin be better than surrendering and watching the Gospel die out slowly?

I’m interested to hear what you think, but remember this before you comment, as Christians, how we feel about something certainly matters, but those feelings must also align with the Word of God! Just because your church doesn’t do something a certain way, doesn’t mean it’s wrong!

Please hear my heart, this is not about BAF, this is about a deeper question that we as believers and leaders must ask ourselves, because the world around us is leaving The Church in numbers never before seen! Whats sad is that while this downfall is happening, far too many of us are wasting our time criticizing each other instead of doing what ever it takes to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to very lost and broken world!

Let’s Discuss, and we can disagree, but please do so with respect or your post will not make it on here!

John