The Way of the Master, commended by the like of John MacArthur, Ravi Zacharias and Josh McDowell, has become a become a bit of a sensation around the world, including here in Tassie.
It is an evangelistic method, training course, website and video series by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron (yes that Kirk Cameron).
Many keen young Christians love it, I think, for similar reasons that many love Driscoll:
- Bold and upfront - appeals to zealous young men, calling on them to be brave;
- Cuts through the gentle, and sometimes evasive, tendencies of postmodernism and political correctness;
- Gives very practical ways for keen young Christians to get on and do stuff, without waiting for permission form someone else;
- Advanced and prolific use of the internet.
The focus of the WOTM is building a lifestyle of cold contact/acquaintance evangelism. Drop tracts, talk to strangers, chat to people in shops.
The outlook is filled with the urgency that comes from dwelling on Hell, and the great need to tell everyone about the way of salvation.
The outline of the WOTM gospel presentation is as follows:
- Would you consider yourself to be a good person?
- Do you think you have kept the ten commandments? Proceed to use the deepening of the law as found in the Sermon on the Mount to drive it home. After a person has admitted to breaking a commandment, for example 'Do not give false testimony', ask them what that makes them , ie 'A liar'. In the end they admit to being a lying, murdering, adulterer.
- If God judges you by these, will you be innoncent or guilty?
- What would your destiny be - heaven or hell?
4 comments:
There are some things about WOTM that I LOVE. LOVE. But it doesn't strike me as something terribly PoMo effective, however. I think it assumes a shared worldview (belief in God, recognition of broad moral categories like right and wrong) that we can no longer assume.
Good points Laura -
But warning to future commenters - I'll ask you to hold off on critiques yet... they're coming in the next WOTM posts!
Looking forward to it.
Just yesterday some really obnoxious, young American evangelists hit the campus at Monash Uni. They have nothing to do with the Uni apart from attending a church within driving distance.
They were extremely confrontational and raised the ire of people passing to the extent that several people gave them an ear-full back.
As someone who is a part of a Christian group on campus seeking to established a permanent gospel witness on campus, my initial reaction was indignant anger: "who are these arrogant prats waltzing onto campus for a one-off blitz that we are going to have to 'clean up'?"
Now, I still think my initial reaction has some merit. But upon reflection I'm glad they came for several reasons:
1. It reminds me that even though I am part of a long term and established Christian work on campus, I/we don't have a monopoly on campus evangelism.
2. Related, even though it would've be polite for these evangelists to scope out the Christian scene a little more before they launched their campaign, they don't have to. No one has to ask anyone's permission to evangelize. Once that becomes a prerequisite, we're in trouble.
3. There is something refreshingly prophetic about such an insensitive approach to evangelism (I'm not being patronizing, this is sincere): here are a couple of gorillas bellowing out, shouting out in the white noise of sophisticated political correctness the eternal and blunt truths of the gospel. This is what it has come to. Shame on the Monash Uni!
4. Sometimes it works!
For these reasons I reckon WOTM is thumbs up. And what's more, it can be approached a lot more sensitively than the scenario I described.
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