Be careful how you answer the question: to some Christians, you’re practically worthless if you admit that you haven’t led someone to Christ.
I found myself in a disturbing exchange over Twitter a few days back. It began when an evangelist made a statement that 95% of Christians have never led someone to a decision to accept Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior. I’m not sure where this person got such a statistic, but let’s just go with it.
I pointed out that I know I’ve been a part of helping someone make that decision through my work at my church. I’m not a pastor. But I can use talents I do have and help others do the work that actually does lead people to that decision. Even so, the last thing I’d do is walk around with a tally sheet in my pocket. I have never felt a calling to keep track of something like that. If I personally lead five people to Christ, that’s great. If work I do behind the scenes helps someone more eloquent than I am lead 500 to Christ, I’d feel like I was living up to my potential in a more meaningful way.
One of my Twitter followers added that a recent survey suggests 77% of Americans say they’re Christians. This evangelist said it’s easy for someone to say they’re a Christian in a survey. Notice the double standard? It’s easy for someone to claim they’ve made a decision to follow Christ after you’ve talked to him about Christ. Ultimately, that’s between that person and Christ Himself. You can’t know for sure.
But then he then added this little clincher:
“the point is people are going to Hell and no one is doing anything about it.”
With that statement, he lost me. His opinions, at that moment, became so unimportant to me that they were no longer worth debating. Because if you can honestly suggest that no one is doing anything about trying to inspire people about what God is, you’re either blind to the good work of good people that often gets overshadowed by bad behavior of bad, or you’re just out of your mind.
If anyone can claim to be Christian in a survey, anyone can say you led him to that decision. But the decision isn’t the end of the journey: it’s the beginning. If you focus only on the first steps, you’ve missed the journey!
I know plenty of Christians — better people than I’ll ever be — whose level of faith consistently amazes me. They don’t constant talking about how wonderful they are or how many they’ve led to Christ; they do what more Christians ought to do: they live their beliefs rather than just talking about them. They don’t go around pointing fingers at everyone else and accusing them of doing nothing about a problem; they quietly, faithfully do something about the problem on their own.
Somehow, I think that’s how God wants it to be.
