So the past few weeks I was bombarded with facebook IM’s and phone calls asking me if I had heard the latest Matt Chandler sermon. The sermon which can be found here aired on the seventeenth of January and contained some pretty harsh words for us Way of the Master fanatics.

In the sermon he divided evangelism up in two camps. The relational evangelist and the Way of the Master Evangelist or as he called it “The Shotgun Approach”

I believe that Matt Chandler was very honest and what he said (for the most part) was correct.

Now please, breathe out all the air you just inhaled and lets continue.

The relational camp never gets around to sharing the Gospel using words and the Way of the Master camp does tend to generate a lot of pride-filled die hard “It’s Ray’s way or the high way followers.”

I want to be very clear from the front. Both statements are correct. However there is a very important reason that the title of this post contains an asterisk.

The Gospel can be presented to people you work with over time, in small chunks. It can be presented during times of crises, at Starbucks, in music, in poetry and many other ways contextually speaking. I think us Way of the Master folks can very easily become filled with pride and discouragement when 99% of the Church refuses to come out with you on your weekly outings but we have to remember that sharing the Gospel surrounded by drunks at 2am on a Saturday night is not everyone’s cup of tea. With that being said the relational evangelist cannot say that street evangelism is “not their thing” until they have tried it first and more times then not the relational camp uses their method of evangelism as an excuse to do nothing at all.

There are different places, times and ways people share the Gospel but the message of the Gospel cannot be contextualized.

And this is where I think the heart of the issue is.

In the sermon Matt Chandler mentions “The Law” when describing Way of the Master and then goes on to describe his shot gun approach to sharing the Gospel on an airplane by telling the person beside them that he teaches Hedonism and explains to them Joy in Christ.

I think this was unclear and has left people confused.

You see when sharing the Gospel it is vital that the one being witnessed to knows that they have personally violated God’s Law. They personally have rebelled against the creator because of their own personal sins. They personally stand before God without the blood of Jesus Christ at enmity, as His enemy deserving of Hell.

If this is something that Matt Chandler believes is “The Way of the Master” he is wrong. This is Biblical. This is a vital and irreplaceable part of the Gospel. Paul says in Galatians that “The law is the schoolmaster that brings us to Christ” and without it’s proper use, the one being witnessed to is not receiving the full council of God.

You see the Way of the Master “Have you ever told a lie” script is a great way to get people started sharing the Gospel. It is a biblical method as seen with the rich young ruler but “the script” is not the Gospel. It is merely a way to summarize the Gospel. There are many ways to expose someone to their wickedness before the creator and the grace shown through Jesus Christ without using a cue card.

In 1 Corinthians where Paul discusses the “divisions” and which Matt Chandler uses to address The Way of the Master idolatry; Apollos was not ‘only’ giving Grace and Paul was not ‘only’ giving Law. If this were the case they were both wrong, because none were sharing the entire Gospel which addresses both law and grace together.

So I would ask Matt Chandler to clarify his statement. What is a Gospel presentation? You surely wouldn’t say that a Gospel presentation is good if it fails to mention the death of Christ or his resurrection? So what must it contain? We can talk about contextualization of the Gospel all day long, but if we don’t know what the Gospel is then were completely wasting our time and the time of those we come in contact with.

PS
On a side note, stop endorsing movies that blaspheme the name of God from the pulpit. I think the Biblical overtones in my Bible are enough for me, I don’t need to see them in a movie. Especially one that only gets 44% on the Rotten Tomato meter.

Sola Scriptura

Exactly two weeks ago a dear friend rebuked me about my tweeting. He said that it seemed as if Twitter and Facebook has been the primary source for my evangelism as opposed to a desire to see souls saved and God glorified.

He was dead on and it scared me.

So for the past two weeks I have abstained from any sort of unnecessary social media communication. It’s been really freeing and has caused me to question my desire to tweet.

In fact for the first few days I noticed that I wanted to tweet about everything.

Every event, every funny thought, every spiritual thought, Where am I going? What am I doing? What am I eating?. It made me ask myself why? Why do I want to tweet this? Will it bring Glory to me? Do I desire to see what people will say, how they respond or even if they think I am witty or bright? Will it Bring Glory to God?

I quickly realized within the first few days the the vast majority of my tweets were about me and for me.

and quite simply…thats sin.

The one thing I did not abstain from during these two weeks is reading other peoples tweets and facebook statuses. I got to observe. For some tweets I wish I could have responded. For others I wondered why they posted it at all.

I learned that Twitter is a very valid form of communication. I think as time goes by we will see its importance rise. Being able to keep up with the news without sifting through hours of commentator diatribes on cable networks. Staying up to date on my favorite blogs and glancing at the current trends allow me to be culturally relevant and aware without being a part of the world or wasting to much time.

Needless to say like all forms of social communication Twitter can be dangerous.

Just as communication on a cell phone can lead to others sharing Gossip, the cell phone, like Twitter, is not sinful. Just as the cell phone can be used for the Glory of God…So can Twitter.

So please examine your motives. Why do you Tweet? Is it really for the Glory of God or is it really for the Glory of You?

With that I end my Twitter fast. I will be tweeting less about things I am doing and instead use my twitter account to discuss topics, engage in discussion, promote blog posts and be an encouragement to other believers.

I pray that you use my recent failure to examine yourself before the throne of God so the King of Glory might increase.

Soli Deo Gloria.

I know we have been scrimping on the blogs. Don;t worry your feed reader is not broken.

The truth is we have been very busy preparing for The Five Hundred. This is an event we host every year at the Living Waters Deeper Conference. The plan is to gather 500 evangelist to go out and share the Gospel all over one city, for one night. Last year was a huge success and we had tons of people well over 500 come out with us and share the Gospel.  Gospel tracts were everywhere. They lined everywhere we went in the city. They were on every subway car and on ever block. It was truly grand to see so many people proclaiming the Gospel in such a widespread massive way.

So this year were doing it again. This Saturday night in Atlanta, GA. Please be praying for us.

Is you want more information please visit The Five Hundred at http://www.thefivehundred.org

In this video I shared the Gospel with Steve, a manager of an Oxygen Bar in Virginia Beach, VA. He claimed to be a Christian and a good person at the same time.