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50 Ways to Not Grow the Church

I know the danger of listening to music simply because it has a good beat. Would it help if, in this case, the song was humorous as well? I'm speaking of Train's 50 Ways to Say You Died. Here's a sample:
That's cool, but if my friends ask where you are I'm gonna say

She went down in an airplane
Fried getting suntanned
Fell in a cement mixer full of quicksand
Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes!
She met a shark under water
Fell and no one caught her
I returned everything I ever bought her
Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies
And ways to say you died

I'm not condoning lying. I like creativity, but dishonesty drives me crazy. The lead singer, Pat Monahan, has some fun ways of avoiding the truth. But in the end, he knows the truth. I think people who say they love Jesus know the truth as well. 

Christians give a lot of reasons why they don't share Jesus Christ with others.

They may ask something I can't answer. I hope so. If every question they ask is answerable by you, then either their imagination isn't very big or your God isn't.

I'm not very good at speaking. Go read Exodus 3 and then tell me how well that excuse worked out for Moses. Sharing Jesus does not require a 3-point sermon. It involves you sharing why your life is full of peace and joy. 

My life is not full of peace and joy. Then maybe someone needs to share Jesus with you. 

I don't want to be _______.  Go ahead and fill in the blank. Pushy? Know-it-all? A hypocrite? Yeah, Jesus doesn't want you to be those things either. 

The fact is we are missing the point when we consider many evangelism techniques. The strength is not in how natural our acrostic is or how relevant our witnessing tools are. The key is found in the truth of a God who loves the world. It's revealed by people who are changed by that truth. 

So, perhaps if we did more practicing and less preaching, we would be sharing Jesus a lot more.

Pat Monahan wasn't fooling anyone. Neither are we. It's time to live what we say we believe. 

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