I had a phone call this morning
from a telemarketer. He wanted me to hire his company to create, maintain, and
advertise a webpage for our “business” (our church, but he kept saying
business). He started out on a bad foot with me, asserting things about our
website that were not true. I had to ask him twice if he’s ever seen our
website before he finally said, “no.”
Well, a long story short, his main
attempt to get me to hire him was by arguing with me and almost yelling his
points at me to “make” me go with their company. I wonder how many really get
treated this way and think, “oh, well this person was so belligerent; I guess I
should go for their company”? I doubt any.
This got me thinking about our
witnessing. Do we tend to try to argue someone into salvation? Should we argue
the gospel with them? Did Jesus argue His points with the lost and dying (apart
from the “religious leaders”)?
No. Jesus encountered the woman at
the well, who had a few different views/beliefs than Him. He simply shared with
her the way of eternal life.
As we go, let us not be
argumentative to win the lost. Let’s live like Christians should. As we do,
folks will notice and ask why we are different. When that happens, let’s share
the reason for our hope. Let’s share what Christ did in our lives. Let’s share
the Gospel.
As Phillip Yancey put it:
ReplyDeleteI haven’t met anyone who says, “I became a Christian because I lost an argument one night.” I’ve met many who say, “I became a Christian because someone loved me.”
the other interesting aspect is that this salesperson finally admitted that he had not even checked out your website before making his assessment of your needs - I see Christians doing this all the time - they assume that just because someone isn't an active member of a local church that they need to have the Gospel presented to them, then they'll believe. My experience has been that many that would be defined as "unchurched" actually grew up in a church and probably know much more about scripture than regular church attenders.
So, you see the same kind of conversation take place.
Another observation - isn't it better to be the person with teh solid reputation that everyone knows, then when a person realizes their need for a new website, they ask around and end up coming to you? Just a thought.
I don't have time for telemarketers period. When you say I am not interested, they do not understand. After repeating it, I just hang up. Guess that is not very nice, but that is my answer to them. Guess I should just start quoting scriptures and let them hang up on me. LOL
ReplyDeleteVery true, Ken.
ReplyDeleteI first truly thought about the whole part of arguing someone to believe when a friend of mine went from Christian to Atheist (or perhaps agnostic). He then started to try to argue some of us Christians into Atheism. I thought, "wow, that's what we do to atheists." A lesson learned.