Do We Need to Earn the Right to be Heard? - Part 1
More than once I have heard the quote, "They won't care about what you know until they know that you care." This clever saying sounded good to me. I thought to myself, as servants of Christ we MUST show genuine love and concern for all men. As 1 Corinthians 13 tells us, without love we are nothing, just a bunch of loud noise. Then I heard someone say that we should not only show that we care through acts of love and mercy, but we must also "earn the right to be heard." I heard this from someone whose heart and intention was reaching the lost through building relationships. Relationships that are built on trust, mutual respect, and genuine love and concern. It sounds good, but something wasn't quite sitting right within me.
Earning the right to be heard seems to have become a mantra echoed in many evangelical circles, especially those who are involved in the academic side of cross cultural missions, discipleship, and evangelism. Recently, at a theological forum I attended in the Philippines entitled, "Naming the Unknown God" I heard it again. This time, added to it was the statement, "In order to preach the gospel successfully, it Must be preceded by works of mercy, diakonia, and kindness." Also repeated several times at this conference were words like, "We need to talk less and let our lives be the testimony to those we hope will come to Christ." I agree that believers' lives should be so transformed by Christ that we can't help but display the love and character of Him. However, should this be our primary means of sharing the gospel?
During this theological forum many verses were running through my head. The first of which Romans 1:16 which says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Another verse that I kept thinking about was pointed out to me by my friend Joshua Santiago. It is 2 Tim. 1:8 were Paul tells Timothy, "So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God." I was getting the feeling that the people at this forum were more afraid of being persecuted, martyred, or made fun of for their faith than they were of God.
I don't know who coined the phrase, "You need to earn the right to be heard," but does that idea come from the bible? What does the bible have to say on the subject? Did Jesus, the Apostles, and the disciples of the early church earn the right to be heard before they shared the gospel? That's what I'm going to explore and write about next time.
Earning the right to be heard seems to have become a mantra echoed in many evangelical circles, especially those who are involved in the academic side of cross cultural missions, discipleship, and evangelism. Recently, at a theological forum I attended in the Philippines entitled, "Naming the Unknown God" I heard it again. This time, added to it was the statement, "In order to preach the gospel successfully, it Must be preceded by works of mercy, diakonia, and kindness." Also repeated several times at this conference were words like, "We need to talk less and let our lives be the testimony to those we hope will come to Christ." I agree that believers' lives should be so transformed by Christ that we can't help but display the love and character of Him. However, should this be our primary means of sharing the gospel?
During this theological forum many verses were running through my head. The first of which Romans 1:16 which says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Another verse that I kept thinking about was pointed out to me by my friend Joshua Santiago. It is 2 Tim. 1:8 were Paul tells Timothy, "So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God." I was getting the feeling that the people at this forum were more afraid of being persecuted, martyred, or made fun of for their faith than they were of God.
I don't know who coined the phrase, "You need to earn the right to be heard," but does that idea come from the bible? What does the bible have to say on the subject? Did Jesus, the Apostles, and the disciples of the early church earn the right to be heard before they shared the gospel? That's what I'm going to explore and write about next time.
posted by Sean Ransom at 6:52 PM
5 Comments:
Thanks for getting us to think about this one. This sounds like the typical grabbing hold of a good idea and then making it the whole statement without consideration for implications. I am currently reading the Leadership Baton: An Intentional Strategy for Developing Leaders in Your Church and they would say that in the leadership development process this should be a significant component but maybe in the evangelism step we are putting to much weight on "friendship" approaches. I know that personally I do not get beyond the friendship to saying something. Vance
ya, totally agree...you got me thinking about this. i have personal opinions but bible facts are much more reliable
hahahahah
i think i'm prone to falling into this kind of thinking, but i realize that it's just because i feel inconvenienced otherwise. i see sharing the gospel is effective BOTH ways, but i don't think we should ONLY approach it through friendships. i don't remember Jesus making friends with everyone he shared with. He loved and cared for them, but He didn't always have the time to develop deep relationships with everyone He encountered. nice blog. i like the thought-jolting.
It's a good question. I'm not certain that we need to "earn" the right to be heard- people can either choose to hear or not. However, evangelicals for too many years have put the emphasis on preaching, or evangelising, versus caring for the whole person. (We forget or neglect that the Hebrew word for "soul," "nefesh," indicated the whole person, and not merely the spiritual aspect. Yeshua (Jesus) demonstrated early on a true love and concern for all those with whom He came in contact- and the record shows that the disciples followed His example. If the "Good News" is not that the Creator loves you supremely, then what is it? And if we do not demonstrate His love in tangible ways, then what good are our words? Our message will lack substance. God's concern for the poor is manifest throughout both the Tanakh (Old Testament) and the New Testament writings, and Yeshua (Jesus)gave stern warnings to those who neglect the needy (Matt 25). - Friendship?- perhaps, but more importantly, demonstrating to others that someone genuinely cares about them and their needs.
Hello Sean: One of the implications of this saying is that it makes the hearer or listener the arbiter of what should be heard or not. What is the criteria for achieving the "right?" What if someone is not a Christian do they have the spiritual sensitivity to even discern what is best for them to hear? They already have a predisposition to turn away from Christ and truth. Do we then not ever proclaim the gospel because we fear we have not earned the right to be heard? Paul said in Philippians that "whether from false motives or true Christ was preached." And because of that he rejoiced. The false teachers were preaching Christ and the Holy Spirit was using that but they were not getting the blessing. It is kind of like the Lordship salvation controversy. How much fruit does one need to display to prove their salvation? There must be some. But how much? In the same way earning the right to be heard seems to be somewhat ambiguous.
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