Witnessing to a Lost Generation

Romans 1.16 declares, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. But I fear some of us friends are ashamed of it because we've tried to replace it with other things. Listen friends, the day the church decided to reach the world by letting the world into the church was a sad, tragic day indeed.

I was listening to an evangelist talk about how he reaches young kids with the gospel. He said these young kids are headbangers who love hard rock, loud music, and a lot of them are strung out on drugs. He said the best way to reach them is to hire a hall and a hard rock band and invite these kids to a free concert and then let them pound their heads against the wall while the band is playing this driving, loud rock music.

Then afterwards, you get up on stage and tell them about Jesus. He said you'd be amazed at how many kids raise their hands to accept Jesus. Well, I have several problems with this methodology.

Do you reach the world with the world? Do you first feed them the devil's husks and then try to give them truth? Is the Jesus you are offering them your version of Jesus or the Bible's? Is it the one you like best and the one who gets you your best results? Or are you offering the crucified Christ of the Bible who has rights and claims on the life of a follower of his? Most evangelism today, friends, focuses its efforts on trying to get outside the box and come up with something new. But what they really need to do is to get up on the box like D.L. Moody used to do. Let me share this story with you.

At a city auditorium, a pastor's conference was in session to determine the best ways to perform evangelism in their city. Outside the auditorium stood a man on a box, an egg crate. The man was D.L. Moody.

And he was addressing workmen on the way home from the factory with their lunch pails in their hands. Moody proclaimed a crucified Savior who died for sinful man. And when these factory workers heard how much blood a dying Savior bled for them because of his great love for them, these hardened men stood spellbound under the hold of the pure gospel message.

Finally, the crowd on the street corner grew so large, Moody had to find a new location. So Moody marched the man towards the auditorium in the hopes to find a room where he could finish his gospel message. Moody headed the crowd like a pied piper leading them in a ham.

The men followed along, merrily singing, with their lunch pails swinging besides them. The circus was a big attraction in Moody's day. Did Moody hire a circus to proceed him to the platform? Did he entertain his crowd with clowns and monkeys to gather a crowd? No, he simply presented the gospel and told his hearers about the one who came down here so we can go up there.

While the ministers in the auditorium were talking about ways to conduct evangelism, Moody was outside on the street corner doing it. When will the church stop using her sideshow attractions and let the clowns and monkeys go? No, I don't mean the pastor and the deacons. Instead, just preach the pure gospel.

We don't need to add our bells and whistles or anything else to the gospel, friends. We just need to go out in obedience and share it with this lost generation. Let us pray.