One Sunday morning a friend of mine got up, dressed in her too tight dress and had a little too much makeup on and went to church. She went to a church where the folks there welcomed her with "You are a sinner and need Jesus" and she was shunned like the plague. See, my friend was an alcoholic. Inside she was longing for something but didn't know what it was. She thought that she would give religion a try.
Well needless to say she figured out really fast that she wasn't like those folks and that religion wasn't what she was looking ofr. My friend fell deeper and deeper and began doing crack and ended up on heroin.
One night she was desperate for money for her next fix and she decided to sell her body. She went to the corner store here near my house to find a john. She began talking to a young man there. He was in his late 20's. He was a rough looking guy. She said that he looked like he was a user and that is why she approached him. He looked like her. The young man told her that he would pay her her price. She got into his car and they drove to a local seedy motel. When they got into the room she began to take her clothes off. He asked her to stop. He told her that he was not going to have sex with her and she became angry because she thought that he wasn't going to keep his end of the deal.
He told her that he was still going to pay her but for the money she was going to have to listen to him tell her a few things. He began to witness to her about his own life and his addiction to crystal meth in his teens. He told her his story then told her about Jesus. She listened only because he was paying her to, or so she thought.
When he was through talking he asked her if he could pray with her. She told him that it was his dime but do it quickly. He did and he paid her and he left her there in that room never touching her.
She took his money and went to the dealer and bought her drugs. She got her fix and she said it was the worst she had ever had. She could not get high enough that night.
The next day she woke up and she said that all she could think about was that young man and his story. She also knew that she had reached the end. She laid on the floor of the dealer's house and said, "Jesus, if you are real and you can clean up that boy and get him off crystal meth please help me". She said that she immediately felt something inside her. She wandered back home and cleaned herself up and went to bed for 2 days. She said that the rest she got that day was almost cleansing. She went on to find a bible group and is now in church and serves as the Treasurer of her congregation. She has her own business and is engaged to be married.
Moral? This man looked like her, identified with her, showed her love and compassion and never condemned her. He spoke her language. He was a bit creative. He didn't shun the opportunity just because it didn't conform to the traditional way of evangelizing. He gave her the message but left the rest to the Holy Spirit.
If the message of salvation is not delivered with the love of Christ the heart of the deliverer it will not be accepted. I have been to a couple of Christian rock/contemporary music concerts where the performers wept openly before God in worship. Where they ministered to the crowd with the love of Jesus in their hearts. I have been to many churches where the preacher basically insulted everyone in the congregation by telling them how horrible they were. Which do you feel got more people's attention and led them to Christ?
Do NOT EVER miss an opportunity to be creative simply because it doesn't conform to traditional ministering and NEVER try to minister to someone with the love of Christ dwelling within you. You will do more harm than good. Most important of all, never assume that it is YOUR place to save someone and never assume that because someone else is doing it differently that it don't work.
Well, that was possibly the most powerful, riveting post I've ever read here, or anywhere. I'm actually speechless.
I am opposed to churches modeling themselves after the world. You can't find a place in the bible where the churches were taught to conform to the world. The "gathering of the saints" was intended to edify the believer. It was never intended to be a show or performance designed to reach the lost. That's what we've turned it into. The guy that witnessed to the prostitude did a wonderful thing. But it's a different thing than making a worship service full of believers an event pointed at the lost.
The church (we believers) are to reach the lost. We're suppose to go into the world and preach the gospel.... just as the man in your story did. But the church was also designed with the intent of meeting to build each other up. That's an important factor as well. So when you have a church (such as mine) where a handful of staff members is not ministering to a congregation, you have a fundamental problem. And this argument that "we have to do it this way or the church will just die on the vine because nobody will be reached" is simply a falsehood.
There is nobody in hell because you and I weren't creative enough to reach them. You can't find a single biblical place that teaches that.