Truth is ancient; it's grey hairs may make it venerable;
it comes from Him who is the ancient of days. --Thomas Watson

 

8 October, 2005   comments: (0) Today's Evangelism   Bait And Switch "Festival Evangelism" Luis Palau calls his brand of revivalism "festival evangelism", the secular news calls it "stealth evangelism", another blog writer calls it "Six Flags Over Jesus". Call it what you will, it's going on this weekend in our nation's capital. But will this be a God-honoring form of evangelism, or will it instead be a $3.4 million dollar "bait and switch" event? They're calling it DC Festival, and it's being supported by nearly 900 Washington area churches. The event's slogan is "Great Music! Good News!" and it is expected to bring in 200,000 people. So lets assume for the sake of discussion that, somewhere in the midst of this event, Luis Palau is really going to preach a complete salvation message (the good news as well as the bad news). Lets give him the benefit of the doubt, and say that he's not going to preach a message of self-esteem, or one that centers around life improvement for those who "choose Christ". Assuming then, that a complete salvation message will be preached, this event sounds a lot like a case of "bait and switch". Lets take a look at both the bait as well as the switch: The Bait: Luis Palau's website has a link to a Washington Post news article which describes the event like this: "The trappings [of the festival] are a skateboard park, a food court, dozens of volunteer stations, two huge tents for hundreds of celebrity guests, three JumboTron screens to project onstage musical performances. . . What those watching the preparations will not see is any clue -- not even a simple cross -- to suggest the real nature of the gathering: broadcasting the message of Jesus Christ. . . Palau's goal is to attract the secular-minded and unchurched, particularly young people. In what might be called stealth evangelism, his festivals offer no displays of religious symbols, no robed choirs, no clergy onstage, no solemn Bible readings or long-winded prayers. . . Instead, DC Festival will feature top-flight Christian contemporary musical acts. Stars of extreme sports will demonstrate their skateboarding and BMX biking skills, as well as talk about their Christian faith. Faith-based "VeggieTales" actors will entertain children. "There will be something for everybody," Palau spokesman Craig Chastain said. "We want the community to see that the church can throw a good party." [read more] But if a picture is worth a thousand words, then this online video promo for the event, is worth even more. I think you get the idea; the "bait" for this event targets the flesh. Let me be clear at this point, that Im not against things like fun, food, and skateboard tricks. Im simply pointing out that these are things that appeal to the flesh, and they are the tools of enticement for this event. I think you'll see what Im driving at, as we now examine "the switch". The Switch: The Washington Post article continues: "In the late afternoon both days, Palau will deliver his evangelical message, which will climax with an invitation to listeners to commit their lives to Jesus. He will ask those who want to do that to raise their hands, which will be a signal to the 3,500 trained "counselors" stationed in the crowd to approach them and answer questions." You can almost hear the lively music screeching to a halt at this point, as Palau will have to put aside all of the flesh-centered "bait" that brought these unbelievers to the festival. Now he's going to abruptly switch gears, and deal with the audience on another level, a spiritual one. Putting the festival-fun aside, perhaps apologetically, Luis Palau will need to deliver some very bad news that could end up ruining the day for many people there. The great 19th century soul winner Charles Spurgeon once said: "If you really long to save men's souls, you must tell them a great deal of disagreeable truth". So Palau should begin to tell this fun-loving crowd that they are sinners who's righteousness is as filthy rags to God. He will speak of the necessity of repentance (turning away from their sins). It will be a message that conveys self-denial and will tell the crowd to count the costs of following Christ. They will be told not only of the love of God, but also that Jesus came to save sinners from the wrath of God. Does that kind of message seem a little out of place at an event like this? Isn't it somewhat "sneaky" to draw a crowd to this event by flesh-centered means, and then turn around and preach a message of self-denial to that same crowd? As is clear from their "stealth evangelism" remark, even the (secular) Washington Post agrees that there is something tricky about the scheme being used for this event. John MacArthur's book "Hard To Believe" addresses similar bait and switch tactics, which often take place in Seeker Sensitive Churches: Now comes the issue that's behind all the pop music and self-congratulation and "fun" that the seeker-sensitive churches promise: people aren't going to buy Christianity if it's that hard. If it doesn't meet their needs, they won't be interested. If they want six fruit flavors and you've got only two, you've lost them. They need Christianity that tastes great, and if it's less filling in the short run, well, we'll explain all the hard stuff later. There's a name for that in the marketing world, and it's called bait and switch. You advertise a TV for a rock-bottom price, but when the consumer gets to the store, that particular model is unavailable. There's a more expensive one here, however, that's a lot like it. It's not what we promised you. In fact, what we promised never existed. The offer was a sham. What happens at a seeker-sensitive church when somebody takes the bait? He thinks, "Hey, this Christianity thing is not hard at all. Meet nice people, hear an inspiring message and some cool music, get to heaven." But at some point the truth comes out. The hard words of Jesus come out: "It's not about you, it's about Me and sacrificing yourself to follow Me." It's absolutely true that nobody's going to want to be a Christian under those circumstances, unless the Spirit of God is working in his heart. Unless the Spirit of God is doing the work of conviction, is awakening the dead heart, and generating faith, nothing's going to happen, no matter what you do. And then only the true message of Jesus, connected with the work of the Spirit, will produce true salvation. The fountain of grace will open and flow to the self-denying sinner. This is the very essence of grace. It is when we offer nothing in ourselves as worthy of salvation, but affirm our hatred of worthless self, that God grants us grace to rescue us from sin and hell. George Whitefield was an 18th century evangelist who traveled from place to place, open-air preaching to thousands of people at a time. His sermons were greatly used of God during the revival known as the Great Awakening. Whitefield was unashamed to preach the whole counsel of God; the good news as well as the bad news. Read some of George Whitefield's sermons at: http://www.pioneernet.net/rbrannan/whitefield/ Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.68   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism