Love with an agenda?

We had a great church service last night. It's the holiday period which basically means that half of Torquay have moved out to ensure that there is enough room for all the tourists to come in! haha! I think it bothers you more if you own a car, but as I don't, it doesn't bother me - bring on the tourists I say! But essentially it also meant that a lot of people were away from church (three of our families are in Queensland - at the same time!!) So, rather than have "normal" church (whatever that means, as we always try to shake things up a bit and have church look different every week), we've gone to a "Live, Unplugged" version...sitting around tables, and chatting over a NOOMA Dvd.

Last night, we just happened to put on one of my favourite NOOMA's - 09. BullHorn. For those of you who don't know, NOOMA is put together by Rob Bell, author of "Velvet Elvis" & "Sex.God". He's a modern day theologin, emerging church leader and all-round legendary guy if you ask me. His NOOMA dvd's are between 15-25minutes long, and tackle big biblical and Christian issues in a modern and down-to-earth, in-your-face kinda way.

The reason I love BullHorn so much, is that it tackles the issue of Evangelism. Now let me say at the outset, Evangelism is NOT my spiritual gift, so you need to understand my viewpoint is not that of an evangelist, but more as a disciple and friend of people. But to be honest, I struggle with modern-day evangelism which sees us trying to "save" all our "friends" and put another notch in our spiritual belt. You know the sort "Well I've saved 20 people from the fires of hell and damnation, how bout you?"... it grates on my nerves more than anything else, I can't tell you! BullHorn is aimed at that guy - you know the one - who stands there with a megaphone yelling at people on the street corners that they are going to hell if they don't follow Jesus - it's all damnation and fire and brimstone, and in my personal opinion - moves people a step further from God not towards Him.

About a year ago, I was sitting with a young girl in the city, she was 16, and had been on the streets for the past year or two on and off (when the Department didn't have her placed in a foster home which she would leave after a day or two), and had been abused - both physically and sexually for many years. She was a heroin user - more to numb the pain than anything else I suppose. We were having one of those really deep and wonderful conversations, where we were sharing with each other our hopes and dreams for the future - as unprofessional as that may seem to the "professional social workers" out there - I was really connecting with her as a friend, and over the previous months had really started to love spending our time together and sharing with her. On this particular day, one of those Bullhorn guys - with the megaphone and the hell and damnation - was screaming down his megaphone that fornicators and drug addicts were going to hell unless they gave their lives to Jesus right there and then. I could tell my friend was getting really uncomfortable, really angry - and I knew once she was angry our great conversation would end. And suddenly she turned to me and said "You know what Sarah, what he doesn't understand is that I am in hell".... and with that she grabbed her cigarettes and coffee, told me she'd see me next week and started walking. My heart sank, because I knew she was right. She was in hell. Her whole life was hell. She didn't need to hear she was a sinner and that God was judging her, she needed to hear that her Creator loved her, and longed to be in relationship with her. That Jesus heart broke for the way she'd been treated and that He longed to love her, to hold her in His arms, and to bring healing and restoration to her life.

But beyond being for that guy - the message was for those Christians who see that saving a person is more important than anything else. The person who goes out there and deliberately makes friends with Non-Christians, for the sole purpose of saving their soul, and putting yet another notch in that belt of theirs.

The greatest line in the DVD (I think) is when Rob Bell tackles this by challenging those of us who go out to "love" our non-christian friends, in order to save them and says:

"Because loving people with an agenda isn't really loving them is it?"

Bingo! You can't genuinely love people when you have an agenda. You either love them or you don't. There is no agenda's in love. It should be unconditional. I'm not going to go out there and deliberately make friends with people who don't know Jesus and who I probably wouldn't be friends with if I didn't force myself to love them because I'm scared they're going to hell. Because that's not true friendship. I would say at least half - if not more - of my friends do not know Jesus yet. In fact, the only Jesus they know is the Jesus they see in me. But I'm not loving them because I'm wanting to see them saved...I love them because they enrich my life, because they are unique and brilliant and precious. I think sometimes we get it the wrong way round - we love people to get them to know Jesus, instead of wanting them to know Jesus because we love them!

And you know what - I may not be an evangelist, but you'd be surprised how many of your friends who don't yet know Jesus will ask you spiritual questions if you love them without an agenda. Some of my gay friends have asked why I hang out with them even though I'm a Christian, and I'm able to say to them it's because I love them, and they are important to me. When they ask what my church would think about it I'm able to say that even if my church had a problem with it (which it doesn't), I wouldn't care, because if Jesus came back, he'd be hanging out with us, not sitting in church somewhere.

And other friends of mine, who have had bad experiences with church will meet my friends and comment on how non-churchy we are, that we are normal just like them. And I'm able to tell them - the churchy type of people annoy me too! I want to be with people who's faith is real, who have real issues, and real problems, and for whom Jesus is a part of their every day life! And it's surprising how much that actually reaches people.

So BullHorn guy - or evangelist expert - or Christian who's looking to get more notches on their belt - cut it out. Just love people for who they are. Don't see them as Christ-followers or non-Christ followers... see them as friends, who you love, regardless of whether they make a life-long decision to follow Jesus. Because they don't need YOU to save them, they've already got a Saviour, and He did a pretty good job - they need YOU to LOVE them. Jesus will do the rest!