Televangelism doesn't work. Personally, I've never liked it. I don't think we should "sell" God the same way we sell a fitness program or a pair of shoes. The reason why televangelism does not work is the same reason the First and Second Great Awakenings never lasted for more than a generation. Why? The answer is simple: relying totally on emotion makes for fickle disciples.
Emotions are by definition impermanent. Moods come and go with startling speed. We've all experienced this. One moment you are happy and on top of the world. The next, the tiniest of annoyances is enough to knock you down and ruin your entire day. That is why evangelization cannot simply rely on emotion. Televangelists can get someone to sing Hallelujah in the midst of a praise and worship session with blaring hymns, but can they get them to do the same on the streets? in the classroom? when they are all alone?
We should be careful not too rely too much on emotion when making disciples out of the nations. While some kind of emotional religious experience is often the first step in the process of conversion, it should not be considered the only step. Retreats and concerts are all good things. A single retreat, however, is not enough to change a heart completely.
In our mission of evangelization, we need only one example: Jesus Christ. It is important to remember that, if He had wanted to, Jesus could have been Incarnated in this day and age of technological communications. He could have made Himself an account on Twitter and, in messages of 250 characters or less, brought His Word to the entire world. He could have given Himself a talk show where He could perform miracles before live audiences. To our mortal minds, that would seem to make sense. Just think of the number of people He could have had for disciples! Certainly more than twelve.
But that is not what Jesus did. He was born in the most humble of circumstances. He lived among a people, the majority of whom could not even read, let alone wrap their minds around dogmatic theology. Nevertheless, Jesus, the Son of God, became Jesus of Nazareth.
Yes, Jesus did perform miracles before crowds of people. The multiplication of the fish and loaves is a perfect example. But in His ministry, Jesus kept the Twelve close to Himself. They were His friends (Judas was a bad one). It is likely that He had known them from His childhood. Peter, John, and James were Jesus' close companions in His earthly life.
As Jesus continued His preaching, those crowds began to disappear. The turning point was the hardest teaching of Jesus. People were ready to accept Him as a moral teacher, a guru. They liked His teachings about the meek inheriting the earth and treating everyone as you would want to be treated. The same was not so for the "source and summit of our faith" (St. JPII). Jesus said to the crowd, the SAME crowd, in fact, for whom He had multiplied the fish and loaves, "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you." John 6:53.
This was hard for the people to understand. They had been caught up with the sensationalism of this miracle worker, but now He was asking them to accept something that seemed to be completely illogical. He asked them to have faith. "Then many of his disciples who were listening said, 'This saying is hard; who can accept it?'" John 6:60.
Then, and note the number of the verse here, in John 6:66, "As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him."
This is the greatest example of fickle disciples produced by emotion alone.
But something even more important happens next.
"Jesus then said to the Twelve, 'Do you also want to leave?' Simon Peter answered him, 'Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe that you are the Holy One of God.'" John 6:67-69
The friends of Jesus, those that He had kept close to His heart, the people with whom He had a personal relationship, stayed on. Even if they could not understand His teaching, they accepted it on faith.
We need the same approach when it comes to evangelization. Emotional experiences and miracles will attract people. You need the glue of a personal relationship to retain those new disciples, else you lose them to the first breath of wind.
This is how YOU should evangelize. You do not need to stand on the corner of the street, Bible in hand, shouting "Repent! Repent!" That has a way of driving people away.
What you need to do is not even necessarily evangelizing with words. It is evangelization by action. Know who your friends are, your true friends, and not the ones who would sell you out for thirty pieces of silver. Be the love of Christ to them. Be the hands and feet of God on this earth. Show them the joy and peace that you find in God, and they will be attracted to you. Plant the seeds of Truth in their hearts and let God do the rest. You can cancel your appearances on the View and skip your audition to be the next Billy Graham. All you have to do is be a Christ-like friend, brother, sister, son, or daughter.
Deus Volt!
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