I had just sat down on a bench at the crowded Farmer’s Market when he started talking. A half-block away, his voice boomed over the multitude, turning many heads at once. Within a moment, though, most of those turned heads were turned back the other way — deliberately trying to avoid eye contact — or had sunk into sad or chuckling head-shakes. ”Bullhorn Guy” had arrived.
The message was clear as could be: if you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Savior, you risked the eternal fires of hell. In a clever twist, he appealed to those in the crowd that were already Christians to talk with the people they were walking and shopping with about whether or not THEY had been saved and “had come to know the Lord.” Standing there on the corner on an otherwise glorious morning, Bullhorn Guy declared an ominous cloud of warning that was hard to ignore. But ignoring him is exactly what most people did.
As I looked around, I could hear the comments from the various vendors: “Right on time.” ”You’d think he’d learn.” “I hope this guy’s in hell with me for being so annoying.” He was turning off the very audience he was trying to reach. My heart sank as I began to think, “How many of these people will never even consider to follow Christ because of the negative impact of this man?”
Then another comment drifted to my ears. It was a mid-aged gentleman, talking with one of his co-workers as they unloaded the produce for the day. ”I appreciate his boldness,” the man said, “but why should I listen to him if he doesn’t even know me?” This double-theme struck me powerfully.
We often shy away from sharing the Good News because we fear that people will see it as too pushy or condescending. Yet this man admired Bullhorn Guy for being bold, for being willing to profess his faith in public. What he DIDN’T like was the manner in which it was being shared. There was no element of relationship to it, no personal connection, no compassion or nuance pertaining to life circumstance. It was merely a one-sided dictation that left no room for understanding “the other.” Add to that message of suffering, threat and fear — rather than the love, peace, healing and community that Jesus proclaimed — and you have a recipe for a lot of turned-off shoppers.
People are looking for us to be bold with our faith. But being bold does not mean a rigid, accusatory stance in which ‘we’ are right and ‘they’ are wrong. It means being willing to go out on a limb, building upon the trust in our relationships to share the Hope we have found for our own lives. Most people will respect us for the vulnerability of opening our discipleship to them, but it needs to spring from the fertile soil of established relationship.
May we be bold as Bullhorn Guy, but choose the personal touch of friends who actually know those we are sharing with.
