The Ohio Independent Baptist, November 1972

by Richard A. Seymour, Hollywood, Florida (Rep, int from " PULPIT JOURNAL") 1"'hcrc is a gro,, 1ng tendency an1ong n1~1n, t.1f (,od·, , cr,'ant to tr} to make the lord Je u Chri t and His go pel ,o conten1porar 1 that it becomes al- 111<),t ~ickcning !any of the e breth– ren are. pcrhap . ver)' 1ncere in what the)' are tr}' ing to do. I do not ques– tion their n1oti, e at all. What I do que t1on i the \\ i dom of some of their n1ethod and ome of their reasoning. OUR APPEARANCE Take, for instance, the way we dre . Some Chri ti ans feel in order to reach hippies we must dress the way the) do. Some who labor for the Lord among tho e of the drug culture feel that it' very important to wear bleached, streaked dungarees, or bell bottom . or t-shirts with peace sym– bols on them. Then, there are Chris– tian men who feel that in order to reach the hippie we must let our hair gro\.\ long, grow a beard or a mus– tache-or both. and walk around bare– foot . But this ame reasoning would not hold true in any other field of evangelism, so why apply it to reach– ing hippies? For instance, if a Christian woman is trying to win prostitutes to Christ, she shouldn't attempt to look like a prostitute. That defeats her entire pur– pose. The prostitute doesn't need to have a Christian offer her something she already has. She needs something he doesn't have-the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the same way, if I'm going to try to reach men in the miJitary for Christ, I don't go out and buy a military uniform in order to look like them. It doesn't matter whether I look like them or not. The thing that matters is what I have to offer and the way in which I offer it. If I go to a circus 10 order to witness to tho e in the circus, I don't have to dress up like a clown . in order to win them to Christ. In fact. they would be surprised-and maybe even offended -if I did . i·ve witnessed to a numbe1 of hip– pies and I find that there 1s one thing that alwa 1 's works, and that is giving 8 NOVEMBER, 1972 the gospel, clearly, simply and in sin– cerity. People listen more to what you say and how you say it than how you look. And I don't have to look like a hippie to win one to C hris t. As a mat– ter of fact, when the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth He dressed as the ma– jority of the common people dressed– not as a few extreme groups may have dressed. If He came today, He would also dress today as the majority of the people dress, not as a few revolution– aries do. I should take my cue from Him-not from some current re]igiou fad of trying to look like a hippie in order to reach the hippie. OUR LANGUAGE Another flaw contained within the concept that I must over-identify with a group in order to win members of th at group to Christ, is that my lan– guage should be the same as theirs . Now, I don't believe there's a man alive who believes more strongly than I do in talking to people in their own language on their own level-shar– ing the gospel so they will understand it- really communicating. However, having said that, I want to point out that I am just as much against using slang especially the type of slang that brings Jesu s Chris t down to a human level or lower. Here's what I mean: Some young man who is trying to reach the drug culture for Christ may begin talking in the following way: "Man, Jesus Christ is the Iiving end . You've got to turn on to Him. He'll take you on a trip so high , man, you'll never come down. He's really groovy. There just aren't any bad trips with Him. " People who u se this type of approach do not realize one very basic and simple fact-and that is that the drug users and hippies themselves look upon the Christian who tries to use their vocabulary as a fake. In fact, they have their own descriptions of such people. They call them "plastic people," "papier-mache people, ' or "mic.key mouse." In other words, they laugh up their sleeves at a so-called uweekend hippie" who tries to give a rel igiotts saJes pitc h t1s i ng drug cu l tu slang. I ca nnot say thi s cnot1gh tin1e l1t1t l1y tl1c grace of ,ocl , J'II kceJ) c saying it t1r1til someone beg ins to Ji ten: "Veryone- inc lt1ding the hipp re ponc.Jc ; when we "speak the truth i Jove" ( ph. 4: 15) I call this l)cin Hlovingly bold ." I don't have to ma5qu~rade Ja ngt1age. I don't have to change it. don't have to bring it down to the levc of some particular group. AIJ I nee to do is be myself, controlled by God' Spirit, and give out the gospel as sim ply and as clearly as possible. An people respect that - they will re spond. THE WORLD CHANGE~ Then , ~:1ere are groups who are tr) ing to evangelize and win souls tha seem to be intent on convertinE changing, or redirecting the world. is true that the early Apostles had thi reputation-"These have turned th world upside down are come hithe also" (Acts 17: 6). The early Apostle really shook their world with the gos pel. But having admitted that we nee, to recognize that they did not conver or change the world-in fact, tha wasn ' t even their purpose or in thei mind. There are several groups with whicl I am closely aligned that have quit, thorough and Biblical plans for reach ing every person in their particula. city with the Gospel. I am a hundrec per cent for that. I think every perso1 alive on the face of the earth ought t< hear the gospel in every generation Every generation of Christians ha· the grave responsibility of reachini their own generation of lost peopl with the gospel. When it's not done the Christians have failed miserably But reaching every creature with the gospel is not the same thing as con. verting or changing the world. Christ said that when He comes back to the earth, the world would be even more ungodly than when He left. That doesn't sound like it will be converted or changed. If when a person talks about chang– ing the world he means reaching it with the gospel message, then, of course, I would be for that. But again, the question comes back to some of the methods used in order to reach the world with the gospel. Some groups "use" people in building up their image or organization. For in– stance, there are a number of Christian groups ( names are not necessary-if you're familiar with any of these groups , you'll recognize them by my description.) which do their very best to get the sharpest looking people to work for them- beauty queens, foot- (Continued on page 14) THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST