Summer Silence

Normally, I enjoy how summer is the perfect time for sharing the Gospel with people. The weather is warm, people are happy to be outside, you can see tons of families walking everywhere, and there are a variety of venues for starting up conversations. But, recently I've been feeling really frustrated and perturbed about something.

You see, during this summer my community has a ton of festivals in the parks, summer celebrations, and activities where hundreds, if not thousands will go to enjoy themselves. We're talking fireworks shows, carnivals, parades, movies on the streets, and neighborhood celebrations, to name a few. And many of these activities have the sponsorship of local churches in the area, who are willing to foot some or all of the bill themselves. Yet, they aren't taking the time to share the Gospel directly.

I know that this is not specific to my locale, but symptomatic of a larger problem in America where public events that are organized by churches go out of their way to make things so inclusive that they never take the time to share all of the details of the Gospel. They pass out information about their church services, give handouts and toys to the kids, and shake the hands of people passing by, but do not take the time to ask (as my brother Mr. Genor would say), "Excuse me, sir. Are you saved? If you die tonight, do you know you would go to Heaven?"

What happened to the urgency and duty to share the Gospel with people? Why is it that churches are going out of their way to avoid any sort of conversation that could lead to conviction of sin, faith in Christ, and repentance of sin? When did the idea of inviting someone to church by putting up some amusement park rides become equivalent to evangelism?

Worse yet, there are stories on the web of Christian evangelists who go to these events on public property only to be tossed out. What lunacy is that?

In the coming weeks, I'll be passing out tracts at some of these events and we'll have to see what the outcome will be.