The Ken James Version
By Ken James
June 2008
IT’S A LONG WAY FROM NAZARETH TO NOW
I am not one who is given to a reductionist type of Christianity. That is to say that I do not resort to the “nothing but-ism” that presumes that everything about the Christian life and the life of the church can be reduced to “nothing but” one simple truth or activity. With that said, however, I am convinced that the centuries of Christian experience and the historical wrinkles in the fabric of the faith once delivered to the saints, have all combined to make the whole Christian experience more complex than it was ever intended to be. Thus, as the title to this article reflects, we have moved a long way from the simplicity of Nazareth to the complexities of the “now”.
Recently I visited a new Christian bookstore in our community. As I stood in the checkout line, I took the time to visually survey the store with its shelves stocked with books, games, pictures, DVD’s, CD’s, decorated handbags, gospel-bearing coffee cups, “theology-in-a-nutshell” bumper stickers, T-shirts bearing “infallible” truths, Bible verse-ladened key chains, various other trinkets designed to communicate the Gospel, and contemporary Christian music filling the air, no doubt with the intention of creating the “market” atmosphere so more sales would be made. A compelling thought swept over me (this doesn’t happen very often). I wondered if the Lord knew (yes, I know, He knows everything) that His life, death, and resurrection would become such a focus of man’s entrepreneurial endeavors. Then a second compelling thought (really a question) captured my mind (two in one day…go figure!!). What would the apostle, Paul say if he could return and stand in the middle of one of these stores? I believe that after he got over the shock, he would be passionate about saying “You don’t need all this stuff to accomplish what the Lord intended for his people!”
No doubt, Paul would be met with all the verbiage that characterizes most of our meetings and conferences concerning the complexities of the demographics of the populace that we are trying to reach, the trends of the modern culture, the need for relevance, and the systemic problems in the churches. He would be shown all the books about the “how-tos” of restoring church health, covering the entire gamut of the “ought-tos” of both those in the pulpits as well as those in the pews.
At some juncture in the process, someone would mention something about recovery of the vision and the mission of the church. This would arrest Paul’s undivided attention. He would respond positively when someone would say that the mandate to the church, in any century, is “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
I believe Paul, with a great degree of enthusiasm (he was always enthusiastic about everything he did), would respond with, “Yes, yes, that’s what we did! And we didn’t have all this “stuff”, yet we turned the world upside down with what we had! We didn’t even have the Bible, like you have today, but everywhere we went, people were saved, and we baptized thousands! We used what we had, and, except for a few of us who had an understanding of the scriptures in the scrolls at the synagogues, what we had was nothing but a simple understanding of the gospel of the crucified and resurrected Christ and a testimony of a transformed life under His Lordship. The Holy Spirit accompanied our sharing with power, and lives were changed.”
Perhaps Paul would then pause, take a deep breath, and, with a measure of caution, ask, “You do have a testimony of an exchanged life, and a simple understanding of the crucified and resurrected Christ, don’t you?” He would be met, in Christian circles with a resounding, “Yes, we do!” Then I could hear him say, “That’s all you really need. Now go turn the world upside down!”
No doubt, many of us would bristle and recoil with great skepticism in response to Paul’s simplistic approach to the Christian life. But I suspect that most of our negative reaction would find its support from our insistence on continuing the practice of many empty traditions, our self-serving vocational aspirations, pride, arrogance, and a double-dose of “we’ve always done it this way”. We have become so dependant on those things that serve to create the complexity of contemporary Christianity.
The simple Gospel story and our personal testimonies are the most powerful tools for personal evangelism. Surveys down through the years have revealed a very consistent truth about our churches: Only 5% of our active church members have ever introduced another person to Jesus Christ in a one-on-one encounter. I am convinced that if the believers that comprise the membership of the churches in KNCSB would recover the joy and simplicity of discipleship, and begin to share their personal stories of Christ’s saving power, we would see the reversal of our declining baptismal statistics, and the health of our churches would improve considerably.
In future articles, I will be sharing some suggestions and some principles regarding personal evangelism. If you know the simple, yet profound story about man’s sin, Christ’s birth, His sinless life, His death for man’s sin, and His resurrection, and you have become His child through an experience of His grace and mercy, you don’t need to go to the store for anything. Just share it, and recover the simplicity that was Nazareth.
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