An atheist, Joe the Peacock, giving advice to Christians on their methods of evangelism. Note his use of a great GK Chesterton line.
Witnessing is interruption marketing.
It’s unfortunate but true – just about every method of “witnessing” to non-believers equates to human spam. To start, I’ll list just a few of the methods we all know about:
- Knocking on doors and talking to strangers about your new church / Christ / a church-related event designed to get new members
- Cold-calling people from the phone book / phone lists to invite them to your church / discuss Christ and his teachings
- Direct mail campaigns
- Holding up signs on street corners
- Walking up to strangers at Starbucks / the mall / anywhere besides your church
- Handing out literature (i.e. “Chick Tracts“)
It’s really easy to point these out as interruption marketing because… Well, they are. Honestly, they’re low-hanging fruit. Easy targets, right? Probably unfair of me to just pick those and use them to illustrate the tactics all Christians use to witness. So let’s talk about some techniques you may have employed that, to you, probably didn’t come across as brazen as the above mentioned tactics:
- Have you ever asked a co-worker to attend church with you?
- Have you ever asked a stranger to attend church with you?
- Have you ever asked either of the above about their faith in God or Jesus Christ?
- Have you ever shifted a conversation that had nothing to do with church, Christ, or God into a conversation about any of the above?
When you did any of those things, did you notice an eye roll? Did the person groan? Did they shift in their seat and, at the very least, say they would go (or research what you just said, or give the matter some thought) and then never got back to you?
These techniques probably feel natural to you. They feel like you’re sharing the good news of your faith and the joy it brings to your life, and it probably feels great to share that joy with others.
There’s another organization / concept that those involved are equally as glad to share, because it’s changed their life and they can’t wait to spread that good news. This organization thrives on new members. Each individual collection of people works diligently to get more folks into the stable, because the larger they grow, the more they thrive and the farther they can spread the word of this great, life-changing group.
Surely, you know who I’m talking about. It’s called Amway.
Now, before you get up in arms, I did NOT just compare your belief in God and Jesus to selling cleaners and credit cards and pre-paid cellphones. But I did, however, compare your technique of spreading the word about your belief to the technique of spreading the word about Amway.
Again, try to put yourself outside of your own perspective and into the shoes of your intended audience. You’re interrupting their time and space to bring them a message you feel is important. And sure, you have the right to choose your faith and the right to free speech, but as GK Chesteron said, to have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. And ultimately, “You need to hear this because I need to say it” is the ultimate in self-serving causes… And if you’re serving yourself, you certainly aren’t serving God.
So. You’re dealing with an audience that doesn’t believe that what you want to share with them even exists. They don’t need it. They don’t want to hear about it. Your attempts to share it with them are seen largely as annoying or, at the very least, an interruption in their day. And the result of these tactics is a massive swelling of the ranks of the “New Atheist Movement” (Neo-Atheism) in America and abroad; a movement that has been covered in great detail and has caused great concern within all denominations of the Christian church.
What to do, what to do…
Well, considering the facts, you’ve really only got two choices. The first is to just keep doing what you’re doing. After all, it worked in the past. Your church regularly asks you to do it. It feels good to witness, and at the very end of the day, you can justify a few “lost sheep” if you gave it your best effort, right?
Well… If you’re fine with that – if screaming your message through a megaphone and praying (literally) that someone hears you – is okay with you, well… Look forward to staying as frustrated as you are now (if not moreso). Stay persistent, right?
Well, to quote Seth Godin, quite possibly the most brilliant modern marketing guru alive today:
Persistence isn’t using the same tactics over and over. That’s just annoying.
Persistence is having the same goal over and over.
And the goal is to get people to follow the teachings of Christ and live a Christ-like life, right? Well, telling them to do so over and over again in ways that disrespect their time and personal space is nothing more than simple badgering. It might FEEL like you’re doing the right thing, but as we all know, feeling like you’re doing work, and actually getting work done are two different things. But there’s something you can do that will bring you far closer to your goal than just talking and hoping:
Become the prototype.
Live the example, and let your actions spread the message. Get people to see the merit in the life you live and adopt your practices.
Let’s follow two scenarios – one for each path you can take.
Using the traditional, human-spam model of witnessing, you use interruption-marketing techniques to spread the word about your faith. Because you are Christian, and because you are employing techniques that are unwelcome and unwanted, you communicate the following through your actions:
- Christians would rather be correct than listen to differing opinion.
- Christians do not respect the personal space (mentally and physically) of non-believers.
- Christians feel they are superior to non-believers because they have salvation.
- Christians would rather rely on faith as evidence than rely on fact.
All of these are going to lose your audience. Period.
And as I said before, if you’re fine with that – if you’re okay with the notion that saying the words and annoying or inconveniencing people with your methods of spreading what is supposed to be a message of brotherhood, unity, respect and love… Well, let’s just say that you might need to evaluate the motives behind your actions, for they couldn’t possibly be borne of love, respect or brotherhood.
via The Journal of Joe The Peacock. Yay.: How To Actually Talk To Atheists (If You’re Christian).