"Just Love on 'em." Or something.

It feels kind of improper for one blogger to link to another as often as I link to Jared Wilson's blog -- like I'm some kind of blog-stalker or something -- but Jared it just always saying things that very much need saying. In truth, I'd probably go to Jared's church if I could, but Maine to Tennessee is kind of a long commute on Sunday morning. Anyway, his post entitled Attractional and Missional is really, really good. Read it.

Now, I go to a church that operates out of the "attractional" paradigm. We like to practice what we call "service evangelism," which is doing nice things for people (washing windows, distributing cold water on a hot summer day, etc.) in the hopes that they might come to church one Sunday morning. The fellow who founded the church 15 years ago used to say, "Get 'em into church and who knows . . . they just might run into Jesus!"

The big thing, you see, is to get people to come to church. That's the "attractional" model that Jared is talking about. The trouble with this method, though, I'm sorry to say, is that it's quite unlike Biblical evangelism, which is, pure and simple, talking to people about Jesus. The other problem with this method is that a person might come to our church for quite some time and, well, not run into Jesus at all. It's a sad but a distinct possibility. Jesus is not central to the worship, and he is not typically central to the preaching (in other words, we're a typical American church!).

What then? Funny thing is, the church may grow. People may like the worship music, like the laid-back dress code, like the coffee-break in the middle of the service, even kind of like it that Jesus isn't such a big deal around here as they might have expected, and so, yes, the church might grow. And since growth is the goal, the church leaders will assume they're doing something right. And that's how the attractional model plays out on the ground.

Let me give you an example. People around the Vineyard community of churches have a phrase that I think must have begun with John Wimber. The phrase is, "Just love on 'em."

I first heard this phrase at the Vineyard, and over the years I've never heard it from anyone except Vineyardites. "Just love on 'em."

The phrase is always used in a particular context. If someone brings up the subject of evangelism, or of talking to people about Jesus, someone else is bound to say, "All you gotta do is love on 'em. Just love on 'em."

Now, let me be plain; it's a silly phrase in several ways. It's silly, for example, when compared to actual full-bore love that has nothing "just" about it. That kind of love is hard. In fact, none of us do it well. We are not such impressive lovers, by and large, we Christians (I wish we could get that through our heads to start with).

Secondly, "just love on 'em" as a kind of pre-evangelism is not even a Biblical principle, because it leaves Jesus out, or at least it leaves him to some hoped for end-of-the-process when the subject "runs into Jesus," we hope, at church. Thus, we are relieved of the onerous responsibility of having to talk about Jesus with anyone. It's too high a calling, it seems. All we have to do instead is "just" wash their windows. "Just" hand 'em some water (making sure to let them know what church you go to). But if Christ as savior from sin (which is every man or woman's problem) is not preached, how will anyone ever "run into him?"

But, see, if we're not tenaciously preaching Christ, none of the rest of it matters. We will not make disciples, although we may manage a wonderful cutting-edge contemporary church service. In fact, we will not be pursuing the great commission, doing evangelism, or even really loving people. We'll just be playing the game called building the great American church.

Note: See also Nate's post, The Jesus Paradigm in Preaching.

Preaching that does not reveal the Jesus paradigm, that uses Scripture self-servingly to promote subjectively defined values that are not the fruit of the Jesus Paradigm, that focuses on someone other than Jesus(i.e. you, the listener, 0r me, the preacher, or so-and-so, the model Christian/Biblical figure) and how he thought, related to the Father, interacted with a desperate world, conducted himself towards the salvation-agenda that God is inexorably committed to, embraced suffering and death; in the end can be defined as self-righteous, performance-rooted, unBiblical preaching, and can do nothing but produce non-disciples.