Preaching to the Choir
The first time I heard it, I was at church on Sunday night, and I listened to a pastor about the need for an intentional commitment to the local church. He smirked and said, “I know I’m preaching to the choir.” What did he mean? He meant the listening people were already embodying the message he was trying to convey. Sometimes this is used in the proper context, but I’m afraid that in many regions the phrase is wrongly used in evangelism.
The same hurry I faced when I was serving in India is reversed in the Bible Belt region. In India, it’s assumed you are Hindu, so much so that there’s a saying “to be India is to be Hindu, and to be Hindu is to be India.” So if you are from India, people atomically assume you are Hindu. Even if the person from India is not a practicing Hindu, they claim to be Hindu because they were born into it. The same goes for the Middle Eastern person; I have run into many professing Muslims who have not read the Quran in years and know very little about the Islamic religion, but because of their family—they claim it. I’m afraid this is what has happened in many small towns and rural places today.
Personal Experience
At my church, we go out into the community to share the gospel every Sunday from 1–2:30. I used to think if people I encountered told me they were Christians, I should move on to the next. Now I ask people what they know about the gospel, and if they can give me a biblical-based answer. Do you want to guess how many of the people who, without hesitation, confessed to being Christian, could articulate a simple gospel presentation to me? If you guessed none, you would be exactly right. Each of these people thought they were Christians—they clearly had a flawed understanding of what that word really means.
I was talking with one man, and asked how I could pray for him. He asked me to pray for his family and their well-being, so I did that. I then asked after my prayer if he was a Christian. He emphatically said, “I love Jesus!” I said great, “Me too!” He then went on to say that Jesus said “there are many ways to get to heaven, and none of them are wrong.” I was shocked because this man had just told me he “loved” Jesus, but had just quoted the opposite of Jesus’s teaching. I told him that Jesus never taught that in the Scriptures. He then looked at me and said, “There is a special place in hell for people like you.”
Another guy I met in our community told me he had just applied for a job, and I asked if I could pray for this new endeavor. When I was finished praying, I asked him if he was a Christian, and he said yes. He added that he had “been a Christian his whole life.” I then asked him if he went to a local church around here—he dropped his head and said he had not been to church in years. I patted him on the back and asked if you do not mind me asking, do you know what the gospel is, biblically speaking? His face lifted, and he said, "I know I don’t go to church, but I know the answer—the gospel is ‘do unto others as you would have others do unto you.’” I politely said, “That will probably keep you out of jail and get you promoted at your job, but it is moralism and not the gospel.”
The Unsaved Christians
I’m increasingly convinced that the small towns and rural places are the most challenging missional ground in the world. Why? Because unsaved Christians inhabit it. You would be hard-pressed to find someone in rural America that would not confess to being a Christian. Yet, they could care less about a life devoted to Jesus, what the Bible teaches about the character of God, and gathering with other believers to be edified and equipped to live out the Great Commission. Still, they’re “Christian” because they attended VBS as a child or their grandmother sang in the choir. They have little to no knowledge of the biblical Jesus or the gospel, yet they believe they have a penthouse in the kingdom of God in heaven. I’m afraid this epitomizes Paul’s writings in 2 Timothy 3:5, “They have a form of godliness, but deny its power.” Many know a few hymns or southern gospel songs, John 3:16, and we know we should do better, but we have never been truly born again.
What Keeps Me Up At Night
Writing this does not bring me joy. Instead, it brings me sorrow upon sorrow. There’s a church on every corner and a Bible on every shelf, but the Spirit of God has not made these people new, and they will open their eyes in hell. This truth bothers very few because they would hate to offend anyone. Some people have sat through corporate gathering after corporate gathering as a religious duty, but can’t articulate the gospel and could care less about the things of God. They attend church because it’s a family reunion every Sunday. Preachers preach political jargon rather than the life-changing message of the gospel, and we wonder why we are where we are. You try to talk to people about the best news in the world, that Jesus took on flesh and dwelt among us and died in our place and rose again and is seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for the saints. . . and people yawn and say, “Yea, but I’m already saved.” As if to say they walked an aisle once or raised a hand, and although they show zero sign of conversion, they are convinced they are right with God.
It’s my hope and prayer that we see this change in small places and rural towns in my lifetime. Lord, please make these dry bones live.