The issue of telling others of the salvation that we have experienced being fleshed out in church life requires us to be sensitive to the context in which we speak. While we live in a highly individualistic society, there is also an extreme hunger for community. In two surveys of inactive Presbyterians when asked “If a good friend asked you to go along to church one Sunday, how likely would you be to go with your friend?” an astonishing 86% responded either “very likely” or “somewhat likely.”
Yet that same hunger for community exists in tension with a fear of close relationships. Evangelism, the effective sharing of Good News, cannot be a numbers recruitment program. It must flow out from a person who is genuinely interested in relating to the person with whom they are talking so that their fears can be calmed and their loneliness overcome.
There is a great hesitancy within our society to make commitments. Therefore the church must be patient with those who hesitantly seek to experience community within their midst. Many who risk considering the church experience carry with them deep wounds of the past. Often they are wounds inflicted upon them by past church experiences, but they may be even wounds incurred in nonchurch incidents in their past which make them wary of any community experience.
The church needs to reconsider what it means to be a member and provide a comfortable space for those who are hesitant to make the commitment to membership. There needs to be a way for the community of faith to demonstrate the gift of hospitality to the stranger which can enable them to rest at the inn until their wounds are healed. Like the Good Samaritan, we must be willing to pay the price of their care until they are able to resume their journey.
Beginning tomorrow, I will try to provide a concrete example of how this might take place,
