Don't Waste Your Life Video Podcast

from the desiringgod blog:

Starting this week and over the next 12 months we will be releasing short video podcasts designed to be a weekly encouragement and challenge to not waste our lives. As the Lord provides, our plan is to produce at least 100 hundred episodes. Every episode will take a theme from the book, Don't Waste Your Life, and challenge us to think about what we are doing with the lives the Lord has given us. We are encouraging everyone with a website, blog, etc. to use any of these episodes to spread the message around the world. We are praying that many who would never read the book may be impacted in a significant way by watching one of these podcasts.

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Don't Waste Your Life

The graphic version:

The explained version:

A Bus Kid, A Dollar, and a Proud Preacher Boy -Ministry "Promotions"

By reglerjoe

Bob Hayton asked several questions worth pondering. I'll distill his questions down to two for us:

1. Is there a line we can cross where good promotions become bad, and exactly where is that line?
2. When we use promotions, are we circumventing the Holy Spirit's work, or are we just helping?

I'm going to tackle question #2 first, and in the next post, I'll talk about question #1. First, let me share yet another story from the life of reglerjoe, and then I'll give you two principles I've developed over the years by God's grace in the school of hard knocks (and no thanks to my alma mater).

Long ago, in the heydays of my Bible college life, my church's bus ministry was having a "Spring Program". For those of you unfamiliar with the terminology, a "program" is a period of several weeks wherein there is expended a great deal of money and effort in order to increase the church's numbers (attendance, salvations, baptisms, etc.)

During this particular program, my bus division ( a division is several bus routes organized geographically) was emphasizing an increase in baptisms. Every Sunday night after church, all of my division's bus captains would meet with a man who was both a very successful bus captain in the division and also a college staff member. The purpose of the meeting was so he could ask us how many baptisms our route had that day, and if any bus captain reported a big fat ZERO, the staff member would systematically rip off the captain's face in a verbal tirade. In short, the pressure was on to produce baptism numbers.

Fast forward to the following Sunday morning...One of my bus kids is in line to be baptized. A wave of relief runs through me. I have evaded the face ripping! I produced a number! But to my dismay, I find later that he escaped! He wiggled out of line! I intercepted the prospective baptizee making a mad dash for the snack vendors.

"What are you doing?" I asked. "You're supposed to be getting baptized!"

"I don't want to," he replied.

"Well..." (I was searching for a good reason to convince him to get in the water.) "You can't just get in line, give them your name, and then leave. They're going to be looking for you. You have to go back in line and get baptized."

"I'll do it for a dollar," he said. He knew what he was doing. Smart kid. He knew I wanted him to get baptized more than he wanted to get baptized. And most of all, he wanted a Coke and a candy bar for the long ride home.

"Fine. I'll give you a dollar after you get out of the baptistery. I'll be over by the buses." The deal was done. I paid a kid one dollar for getting baptized.

Trust me, I have regretted that moment for years. I did indeed escape the face ripping that Sunday night, but I sold out a child's spiritual wellbeing for one dollar...and worse - for the sake of my pride. Of course, his mom caught wind of what had happened. He told her that I offered him a dollar if he would get baptized. And although he was the originator of the transaction, I did give him a dollar for getting baptized. She never let him ride the bus again. Can't say as I blame her.

So, here's some things I've learned the hard way: First, no promotions or prizes should ever be given for salvations and baptisms. I'm sure many would make the list for "no promos" much longer, but I think we could all definitely start here. We shouldn never, I repeat, never promise the unsaved any material gift if they'll get saved. Nor should we entice new converts with prizes if they'll get baptized. And in case you're wondering, it does happen, as I've just illustrated.
But I'll take it a step further: we should never award ministry workers with prizes for leading people to the Lord or getting converts in the baptistery. This happens quite frequently, and even regularly, in some very large IFBx circles. In my opinion, this practice promotes sloppy soul winning and reckless baptizing (again...as I've just illustrated). I can't help but say to those workers: "Verily, you have your reward." You can kiss heavenly rewards goodbye if your motivation for being a soul winner is to win a trip to Six Flags, or to save face in a contest. Suddenly, salvation and spiritual growth have become a work of ministry workers and not the work of the Holy Spirit. Any ministry that engages in such a practice while affirming the need of the Holy Spirit in regards to salvation and sanctification is speaking out of both sides of its mouth.

Let me add that the churches that engage in this practice illustrate what happens when methodology is allowed to determine theology - to such, the Holy Spirit's work in salvation is not so much the drawing of the unbeliever to Christ, but more the empowering of the soul winner to be a better salesman...er...to be a more effective soul winner. So many soul winners bulldoze their way through a Gospel presentation, feverishly working to get more numbers to win the contest, and giving zero heed to whether their listeners (or victims?) are truly convicted of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the attitude is "I've prayed for the power of the Holy Spirit for 10 hours this week...so these people have got to be saved because I'm just so Spirit-filled!" In a way, these soul winners are more fatalistic than any 5 point Calvinist ever thought of being! Like a blind man running head-long off of a precipice, they plunge themselves and their listeners into an evangelistic freefall, hoping the Holy Spirit will work it all out at the bottom. Instead of letting the Holy Spirit do the work, they want the Holy Spirit to "pick up the pieces."

So, in answer to question #2, I believe promotions can, and often do, circumvent the Holy Spirit.

Somewhere Between Bubble Gum and $1,000-Ministry "Promotion"

By reglerjoe

Where Do We Draw the Line With Promotions?

In the past several posts, the topic has been raised concerning promotions, gimmicks, and prizes used in Sunday schools and Vacation Bible Schools. Bob Hayton, of Fundamentally Reformed, asked these questions in a previous post:

"But just what should be the line as far as gimmicks goes? Do we say that any Vacation Bible School is going too far to reach kids? Is the offer of games and prizes and the cheerful acceptance/attention from peers and adult workers the true motive of many "decisions" made at VBS or other "special days"? I understand the desire that motivates VBS, SS Busses, special "carnival days" and the like, but do these strategies really reveal that at the heart of it, we think salvation is something man is responsible to draw out from his fellow men? Does the Holy Spirit need our help in these matters?"

Before I answer these questions, allow me to make two observations and share a story:

1. First, all ministries use "promotions" of some type (by promotion I mean something that draws people to a church). New buildings, fabulous facilities, family life centers, gymnasiums, and even some ministries like food pantries, "Mom's Day Out", or youth activities draw people, whether purposefully or not. Even celebrity-status pastors who write bestsellers and host popular conferences can be a draw. So I think we can all agree that not everything that draws people to a church is necessarily wrong.

2. Also, whenever this topic arises regarding the use of promotions (especially in the bus ministry), there are always the defenders who make bleeding heart pleas that they are just trying to show compassion to the poor children of whatever city they minister in. The most common defense is, "What's wrong with giving a poor bus kid a piece of bubble gum or a hot dog for riding the bus?" The picture is painted of poor and starving bus children who are fed once a week by their loving bus workers. Anybody who endeavors to critique the use of promotions is treated as a tight-fisted scrooge who doesn't care for the poor.

Listen, I used to live inside a major US city, and for years I worked on an inner-city bus route. If there's one thing I've noticed, it's that many poor aren't as poor as they seem. That is not to deny the fact that there are truly destitute people in our cities, and that it is the duty of Christians to disciple them and to care for them. But let's be honest, most inner-city children wouldn't give a flip whether you gave them a piece of bubble gum or not for coming to church.

Which leads me to share this story: As I said, I spent 5 years working on an inner-city bus route. I noticed in that time span that the kids would get more and more jaded towards promotions. They would come once for a goldfish, but then they needed the chance to win a bicycle, after several years the promotions had to get bigger and better. I remember one time, we were offering kids a chance to win $1,000! That's right...we were raffling off $1,000! TO KIDS! We honestly thought that the inner-city children would come out of the woodwork for that.

Wrong. By this time, the kids had been so hopped-up on wild and extravagant promotions that even the offer of $1,000 didn't phase them. I'll never forget the response of one young man:

I said, "Hey, buddy, if you ride the bus to Sunday school tomorrow, you could win $1,000!"

The boy looked at me and said, "So?"

I said, "What do you mean 'so'? ...IT'S $1,000!"

He said, "Do I really win it, or I MIGHT win it?"

I said, "Well...you get a chance to win. It's a raffle."

"Nah," he said flatly, and went back inside his inner-city apartment to play Nintendo on his big screen T.V.

Our society is getting more materialist every year. And the materialism is even penetrating into the inner-cities and into the minds of children. I don't think promotions in Sunday schools and bus ministries have caused this, but sometimes they feed off of this attitude.

One rider in the Big Orange Truck said, concerning promotions, that "you keep 'em the same way you got 'em." This is so very true. Any bus worker will tell you that the first thing many bus riders ask before giving their consent to come to church is, "What are you having tomorrow?" In other words, if your promotion is impressive enough, I'll come. If not, I'm gonna stay home and play Xbox. I also think most bus workers would agree that promotions will bring a kid once, but after awhile, you just can't feed that appetite for stuff anymore. There is a huge turnover rate in the bus ministry, and I think this is one of the major reasons.