Is Serving A Fad?

“Do I just look dumb to you or what? You give me your little bottle of water then expect me to show up at your church a few days later.  How lame is that?!”

These are the words of someone I ran into not long ago as we distributed several thousand bottles of water at a busy corner in the Tampa area.  The approach is simple:

‘Light turns red - ask ‘Which would you prefer, this or this?’ (right hand water or left hand water - we don’t ask the closed ended ‘Would you like some water?’ - that is lame - people usually laugh when we offer the left or right handed water!)  After people receive water just once they begin to call us the “Water People!”  There are worse things to be known for.

This is all based on the simple observation that a deposit of credibility is necessary before we have any expectation whatsoever of having credibility with people in our city.  ‘Words of love’ are hollow, perhaps absurd, to the culture of today without preceding actions of love that connect with people.  Those actions vary from place to place.

“Don’t Shoot - I’m Just The Piano Player!”

Unfortunately, more than a few have picked up on the above observation and have attempted to influence others by serving - in inauthentic ways.  You ask, “Who says they are inauthentic?”

These are the observations of numerous national newspaper reports.  As well, these are the rumblings of not-yet believers who feel insulted at what they sense is an attempt to ‘sell them’ on something.  I make it a practice of connecting with not-yet believers pretty much every day - it isn’t that difficult.  Buy the coffee for the person behind you at Starbucks.  If you have five or ten minutes an automatic conversation ensues.  I hear a lot of chatter about “Marketing” by serving these days.  (NOTE: It is interesting to me that of the literally several thousand I have bought coffee for, not one has ever asked me what I was trying to push on them or any notion remotely in that direction… less than five have ultimately turned me down of that huge group - they all lived in Iowa for some reason!)

I have been around the block in the church world enough in recent years to know this observation is right on.  Marketing is death in any form it takes - this is exponentially true for the church scene.  Seth Godin said it well in his book title recently, All Marketers Are Liars!  It is one thing to inform people.  Any attempt to ‘persuade’ people regarding your church without a willingness to establish a relationship for the long haul - is futility.  

(The guy who uttered the words at the beginning? We spoke for about five minutes. I confessed, “There is a big difference between me handing out a bottle of water and Jesus touching people’s needs or pain.” The light went on. He began to tear up. He asked, “So what time do you meet? Do you have a children’s program? My wife and I have been talking about church lately - funny we would cross paths.” This was a 180-degree shift. It helped that I had this conversation a time or two before…)

Engage, Don’t Panic  

This desperation thinking troubles me greatly. This is not what Jesus had in mind when he charged the Apostles to freely give what they had experienced firsthand for three years, 24/7 - to bring the ‘Logos’ to the ends of the Earth.  

The Logos?  “In the beginning was the Word (logos)… and the Word (logos) was God…”  We bring Jesus - in word, in deed, in Spirit.  To be clever is okay.  To see God’s presence branded upon hearts - ah, that lasts a lifetime, no matter how long the initial encounter.