TheyCallMePastorBryan

In a comment from heffe on my last post, he quoted John M. Perkins, who said “we have overevangelized the world too lightly.”  I think that this idea is really important in thinking about whether or not proselytizing is spam. Perkins emphasis on overevangelizing too lightly is helpful, because it helps us realize that we can turn the Christian message into spam.  Many of our contexts are at least vaguely aware that the church is about this story of Jesus dying on a cross, and resurrecting, and that because of it we can be born again.  What I find helpful about Godin’s stance in the quote from my previous post is that it helps us to realize that if we take a spam sort of approach to the Christian message, we risk trivializing our message.

Marshall McLuhan famously coined the phrase “the medium is the message,” and it serves in this case to help us understand something about the way we convey our message.  There is another phrase which is very different than McLuhan’s, which is “the methods change, but the message remains the same.”  If McLuhan is right, this second phrase is incorrect because the methods reshape how the message is understood.  So, the impersonal, no context with a person approach to evangelism actually sends a different message(whether or not it is intended) than a relational, contextual approach would. The stance that we take when talking of faith shapes our message, if we are aggressive or being peaceful or even just allowing the other to dog our beliefs.

Now this is true not just of religious proselytizing.  Advertising is proselytizing as well, and maybe a good reflection for Christians is to look at advertising and products and ask which sort of approaches to that seem most faithful to the way of Christ. Although somewhat tangentially related, blog friend, Jason Coker, has a great post on thinking about the church’s use of media and some critiques to keep in mind.

To sum up the question of whether or not proselytization is spam, my response is that it depends. I am unwilling to say that it is, but I think a non-personal, non-relational approach very well can be.

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Seth Godin thinks so.  Here’s what he said in an interview:

Proselytizing, in my view, is like spam. Ringing a doorbell, standing at a bus stop, buying a billboard… those are not permission-based activities. On the other hand, delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them… that works, and it always has, and it’s working better than ever. I think that sharing ideas with people who want to hear them is the essence of what it means to be a marketer, and being a good person makes this a lot easier. (HT:Church Marketing Sucks)

My impression is that he’s being a little loose with the word proselytizing, but I think I get his point.  I generally find it annoying when people engage in cold call style evangelism, where there is no context, just you and a tract.  But that said, I’m a little nervous about making proselytization equivalent to spam, because I know the heart of those who engage in what amounts to the actions that feel like spamming.  But for any who are trying to be faithful Christians, this is a tension to be navigated. How do we communicate what we believe deeply, and believe is important for others to know, without verging into giving the relational equivalent of spam?

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The Portland rain returned yesterday, dumping in swells, at times making it hard to see when driving. It seems only a few days ago that there were blue skies and warmth and we were all starting to think that maybe this year spring would be a little bit early. I was just starting to get there as well, to put aside my pessimism that the rain was just around the corner and to enjoy the nice weather, to put some enjoyment in the thought that spring is around the corner. But in response the rain came back yesterday. It was pouring. Nothing out of the ordinary, but also nothing like what the weather had been like for a while.

The rain was back, dampening our hopes of an early spring, for at least a day or two. Who knows, there’s still time.

I’ve been realizing that so far this winter I haven’t listened to nearly as much depressing music as I usually do by this time in the year. I think in some sense there was enough disappointment in my last year for me to be able to go on without needing to further wallow in sadness and the vague depression that the lack of sunlight seems to bring out this time of year. Sure, I’ve listened to some Bazan songs, but I just don’t find myself that saddened, and I’m definitely not moping around listening to “The Poison” from his Pedro the Lion days pretending that I am nursing a great hurt.

Maybe this post will sound more depressed than needs be, but I think sometimes we need to allow ourselves to be a little gloomy. To look into what is lurking making us feel the beginnings of sadness, and to look it in the face and deal with it. As I write this I realize I start to sound a little like those self help, life coaching types. I received a review copy of Donald Miller’s new book. It feels a little self helpy, and I find myself not sure how much I like it, but continuing to read it because I like his style of writing.

But that’s not really the point. There are times to work on our lives and improve it and maybe even engage in a little self help. But I think there are other times where it’s okay to look at how normal and boring our lives are and say “I’m okay with this.”

It rained yesterday, it will probably rain again today. This is the time of year where we see a lot of rain. And you know what? I’m okay with it.

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My cousin Dan, who wrote the excellent 2009: a year of disappointments post, chimed in with a great quote on doubt, which I felt was worth posting here.  Here’s his comment from facebook.

Good thoughts. Refreshing. It’s hard for me not to get at least a little annoyed when someone says doubting is always wrong.

George MacDonald wrote, “Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to the honest. They are the first knock at our door of things that are not yet, but have to be, understood. Doubts must precede every deeper assurance; for uncertainties are what we first see when we look into a region higherto unknown, unexplored, unannexed.”

It’s an interesting thought to consider and has influenced my thoughts about doubts.

It’s an interesting idea indeed.  Although it’s a little different, I also like Kierkegaard’s stance that faith does not exist without doubt. For Kierkegaard, to have faith is also to acknowledge that one doubts that which they have faith in. For to not have doubts is not faith, but is something that can be based in fact.  Here’s a short quote from him on faith and doubt: “doubt is conquered by faith, just as it is faith which has brought doubt into the world.”

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