I have been at the National Outreach Convention in San Diego during the last few days. I enjoyed listening to some excellent Christian speakers, receiving books and having a good excuse to avoid anything domestic. My blog has been silent but I have spoken with all sorts of people. Many well known, “professional Christians” were there and I was captivated by Erwin Mc Manus’ message, encouraging us to reach out to those who are not yet Christians. J John, a British evangelist, who speaks the truth with humor and conviction was another excellent speaker. Some of the seminars were helpful and the worship was powerful, but I was still wondering when Jesus would really show up.

Martyn and I have done business presentations, putting in a lot of effort but receiving little response to our marketing services. We have dressed the part, prepared a first class presentation and provided food, and the audience has left smiling but unmoved and disinclined to buy. Conversely, a couple of weeks ago I walked three miles across the mountain separating us from our church and was certainly not dressed for business. I asked a couple if they would give me a ride home after the service. I did not really know them but was aware that they lived relatively near me and, as the weather was getting hotter, I did not want to return the way that I had come. Surprisingly, the couple had already determined to find either Martyn or me to discuss the possibility of us designing a web site for the wife’s business. It seemed that God had put us together and our prayer for business was being answered. God had shown up and was at least offering us the possibility to earn money.

At the National Outreach Convention, the lighting was stunning and the presentation was excellent. It was more impressive than our class act, presenting web design etc, but similar. There was interest and smiling faces, but from my perspective there was little connection between us: the audience and God. Sadly this is true of many Christian events. The focus can be on suggesting techniques to grow bigger churches, to attract people and to help leaders become terrific professional Christians. But God is bigger than techniques and we know that we can follow a prescribed formula and the result may not be relevant in the big scheme of things(from God’s perspective). I wanted to stop the steady progression of meetings and announce on some super loud microphone that everyone must drop to their knees and pray. This sounds like a Muslim call to prayer, but I think that it would have been a great re-focus. We would have been told to rely on Jesus, rather than talk about Him: to seek His actual presence.

On Friday, the final evening of the convention, the speaker, Francis Chan, stumbled onto the platform in tears, as he was impacted by the worship. Reaching for his handkerchief, he stammered humbly that he had never broken down in this way just before speaking. He confessed that recently he had experienced a level of pride seeing himself featured in Outreach magazine. Isn’t repentance and humility what we all need when we are in any way involved with talking about Jesus? We are weak vessels and we must transparently reveal Christ rather than displaying our own abilities. Our thoughts, words and efforts should not be wasted on declaring our own achievements. Christ through His word can make a much greater life changing impression than we can.

Francis Chan reminded us that without God’s power; strategies and ideas about church growth are meaningless. He compared tasteless salt with salt which is salty and wondered why our churches focused on the people who were like the flavorless type. They never changed and their only role was to add to the numbers, so that pastors could feel smug about the size of their churches. Chan showed us a plate of good salt and then he covered this with the useless type. I felt as though the “salt of the earth” described in Matthew 5:13 was being suffocated. Isn’t that what happens when churches pander to those who have no faith? In a futile attempt to entertain those who are not prepared to give up everything to follow Christ, they are in danger of discouraging believers, by teaching them all inoffensive half truths.

Francis Chan reminded us that the Christian faith is not one of compromise but a way of life that will result in our taking up our own crosses, following Jesus out of deep love for our Savior, despite the difficulties and the persecution. Chan taught Scripture as is. He did not cut and paste and he did not sew neatly cut pieces of Biblical patchwork together, avoiding context and raw truth. Many pastors avoid Biblical reality as it might drive away the half hearted. In contrast, the powerful message grabbed us and ushered in the presence of Jesus who was ready to change hearts and increase commitment. Hundreds of church leaders received prayer or prayed quietly on their own. I hope that they will return to their churches throughout the US and follow Jesus’ lead, teaching the whole truth because nothing else will do. Compromised truth will continue to result in heaps of tasteless ‘salt’ that might look like Christians but who “will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.” (Matthew 5:13)

Instead, let’s embrace the whole word of God, reading and teaching it as it has been written. It challenges people to become the “salt of the earth”. Let’s impact the world with God’s truth and trust that as people hear the challenging message, they too will become ‘salty’ and effective witnesses, pointing to our radical yet all loving and powerful, King Jesus.

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