Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven

[Photo: Jon Schoonover]

Fact: I’ve never been a fan of street evangelism. Meeting people for the first time is awkward enough for me. Adding a full retelling of the Gospel story to that experience is enough to make me unwittingly tinkle my trousers in a very public place. And once that happens...well, you might as well call it a night, because nobody's listening to anybody with a ginormous pee stain on his pants. You can try to say you spilled water on yourself, but they will know you are lying and say they'd better be going, and there's no way you're getting a second date out of that. Not that I'd know anything about that sort of thing.

But it's not just that street evangelism makes me nervous. The whole philosophy behind it seems off to me. 

When you really think about it, asking somebody if they want to go to heaven when they die is kind of a stupid question. It’s like asking someone if they’d like a million dollars. “Hello, sir, would you like a million dollars?” “No, but thanks very much for asking.” It’s almost insulting to pose it as a question that requires a yes-or-no answer. Nobody’s turning that offer down. So why do so many street evangelism teams start conversations by asking if someone would like to know for sure that they would go to heaven when they died? What are they going to say, no?

This is besides the fact that such a statement is more than a little manipulative on the part of the evangelist. Since no one is going to say no to such a question, they have no choice but to listen to the evangelist’s entire spiel about Jesus and forgiveness and sin. Is this really the way Christians should start off relationships with people they want to connect with? By doing their best impression of a door-to-door salesman, hoodwinking them into believing this Good News of ours? And being a bother about it to boot?

I know that’s not the intention. But that’s how it looks. At least to me.

The Gospel of Jesus is simple, but it is not simplistic. You can’t just explain it to somebody in ten minutes, pray a quick prayer, and move on to the next person. Relationships need to be cultivated. Trust needs to be established. Love needs to be demonstrated. We don’t just tell people about Jesus. We become the incarnate Jesus to them. We bandage the wounded. We free the slave. We hang out with the outcast (not to be confused with Outkast, although that would be cool too). Street evangelism does none of those things. It's the drive-thru version of Christianity: conveniently packaged, but ultimately unsatisfying.

I'm not saying that no good can ever come from street evangelism. But I do want to point out how incredibly difficult it is to love somebody well in that kind of environment, along with how incredibly difficult it is to not pee yourself while doing it. Both are bad. Especially on dates. Not that I'd know anything about that sort of thing.

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