Would You, Could You?

An interesting theological question has pervaded my mind ever since reading an arbitrary comment in a little book which I have been using to prepare my Sunday morning classes. The comment simply read, "We become Christians by God's grace, through His unmerited favor." The point Jim George (the author) was making is that we are not the cause for our salvation, but it is a gift of God. This comment, when taken by itself, might seem to say that we would not, or could not become Christians without God. I'm not talking about if God had chosen to not send His son. I am talking about the circumstances in life that occur which would lead us to become a Christian. Is it by chance that some of the teens in my youth ministry were born and raised in the church or is it by God's grace? Is it by chance that some of the teens in my youth ministry have been introduced to God through friends or is it by God's grace? I'm not here to say that God has made me or anyone else a Christian through force and no choice of my own, but could God have put me in some direct circumstances which would allow me feel that I need to make that choice? To say that He has not, significantly minimalizes his presence and his ability to act in the world today. To say that He absolutely, to all extremes, has vaporizes my own free will and speaks of predestination. Is there a happy medium that can be reached? If God were in the business of forcing people, coupled with his love, all people would be Christians. This obviously isn't the case. If God were to leave it to us, would we, could we, be Christians? I may not be able to answer this with the definitive answer that I would like, but I can say with the utmost confidence that there is no one I can trust more to make the correct decision on the right amount of intervention than God. Only a loving, perfect Creator would know the perfect way to reach the most amount of people, and still know their devotion is of their own.

Evangelism Strategies from the Tabacco Industry

Here are a few facts. In the U.S., about 440,000 people die a tabacco related death every year. This is more than auto accidents, homicide, AIDS, drugs, and fires combined. There are at any given point, about 50 million smokers in the U.S. That is a lot of death, so my next question was, what are the tobacco companies doing to combat the fact that their clients have a high turn over rate? Advertizing! Every day the tobacco industry spends $42 million on advertizing. Is that money wasted? Apparently not, as every day about 3,900 youth try a cigarette for the first time, and about 1,500 youth a day become daily smokers.

What are the cigarette companies doing that makes them so successful? There is no way to avoid knowing, with all the commercials and health officials visiting schools these days, that cigarette smoking can, and very often leads to (premature) death. So in spite of all the warnings and attempts made to make people aware of the correlation between cigarette smoking and death, seemingly none are deterred. Are people just dumb and get fooled? Are they forgetful and don't realize the consequences? Is the advertizing that influencial? What kind of advertizing are they doing, and can I get my hands on it?

I am also in an industry that is desperately in need of clients. Not because there is a high turn over rate, in fact, there should be no turn over rate because once you join the industry there is no reason to ever leave. Even death does not stop this industry's growth. The benefits of joining it are countless. The promise is eternal life, far from the promise of the tabacco industry, who gives death. Yet, how many are added to the industry that I work for daily? Sadly, not many.

The Christian industry needs to work on its advertizing strategies. If cigarettes can sell and they lead to death, then Christianity can certainly sell by offering eternal life. Maybe we need to be more aggressive in our sharing, and less judgmental and choosy of our cliental. If we could gain 1,500 youth a day in the Christian industry, there's no doubt there would be much rejoicing in heaven.