Gospelize

It was to be a youth group talent show.
My son was anxious to participate.
He had taught himself guitar after mastering the drums.
He wanted to share his music.

He was nearing the end of middle school at the time.
Notoriously, the awkward years in a young person’s life.
The time where encouragement and support are vital.
The time when everyone is learning how to maneuver those middle years.

The night of the show was upon us.
It took place at a church that we attended many years ago.
It was a large church with many people coming through its doors.
It was a large youth group, almost too large to really get to know those who attended.

I, along with other mothers and some fathers, sat in folding chairs in the gym.
The show began.
Games were interspersed between student acts.
Most of us mothers sat with our mouths wide open.

The games overshadowed the talent of the students.
The games were raunchy and distasteful.
One young girl cried from embarrassment and left the gym.
Quite a few mothers got up and left.

If I wanted this kind of entertainment, I would have gone to Vegas, one mother said.
I stayed to the end.
I had to see it through and support my son.
I needed to see how all of this would wrap up.

At the end of the night, an elder came to the front and shared the Gospel.
It seemed to be incongruous with what we just experienced.
I realize the Gospel is needed, especially after a night like I witnessed.
However, I had the feeling that the Gospel was used to validate the evening in some way.

I felt as if all the distasteful things I saw were somehow gospelized.
I struggled.
I was angry.
I needed to go home and process all the things I was feeling.

I sent an email to the elder and voiced my concern.
I called the youth pastor, who I greatly respected.
He was on vacation so I left a message.
Someone else had overseen the talent show.

When the youth pastor returned, he called me and apologized.
I was not physically present, but this happened on my watch.
I will take care of it and have a screening process so this never happens again.
I was grateful for the fact that he took responsibility.

He was a new father at the time.
I asked him to put himself in the place of the parents.
I asked him to put his child in the place of the children that were so embarrassed.
He began to understand; fatherhood gave him a different perspective.

There is a favorite candy that my children like me to make.
It is made with saltine crackers and chocolate, brown sugar, and butter.
Melting the brown sugar in the butter caramelizes it.
That is what makes the sticky, gooey goodness they love.

Caramelize: to cook (something, such as a fruit or vegetable) slowly until it becomes brown and sweet, to change (sugar) into caramel by cooking it.

To cook slowly until it changes.
To sugarcoat something until it tastes like something else.

I contend for this, that to gospelize a man is the greatest miracle in the world. All the other miracles are wrapped up in this one. To gospelize a man, or, in other words, to convert him, is a greater work than to open the eyes of the blind; for is it not opening the eyes of the blind soul that he may see spiritual matters, and understand the things of heavenly wisdom, and is not a surgical operation easier than operation on the soul?  (Charles Spurgeon)

To gospelize a man is the greatest miracle in the world, Spurgeon said.
I agree.
To share the Gospel is what Jesus commanded us to do.
To rescue someone from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

That night, it seemed as if the gospel was shared as if it was an item to check off a list.
It was as if someone could now say, well at least we shared the gospel.
Sharing the gospel should never be a formality.
Sharing the gospel should never be something you just do so you can say you did it.

I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will become desolate so that no one will cross them. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolate waste because of all the detestable things they have done. As for you, son of man, your countrymen are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, “Come and hear the message that has come from the Lord.” My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. When all this comes true – and surely it will – then they will know that a prophet has been among them.
(Ezekiel 33:28-33)

God can break through walls and save people under the worst of circumstances.
When we share the Gospel, we are on Holy Ground.
To gospelize as Spurgeon suggested is to open the eyes of a blind soul.
How wrong of us to gospelize just to legitimize an activity as if to give it approval.

That is what God told Ezekiel.
The people were listening to Ezekiel to be entertained.
The people were listening to Ezekiel as if they were listening to music.
God’s Word is to change people’s lives, not to entertain a crowd.

We are no different.
We believe that we have to sugarcoat the message of the Gospel in order to make it relevant.
We believe that we have to dress it up and change it to fit the needs of the culture.
We couldn’t be more wrong.

What if the night of the talent show the Gospel was presented first?
Would the raunchy games still have been played?
Would embarrassing a young person for the sake of applause ever be justified?
What if the Gospel was preached first; would the show even have happened?

We need to share the Gospel in season and out of season.
We do not need to entertain in order to share the Gospel.
It is the same message that Jesus preached, without glitz, without entertainment.
Repent for the kingdom of God is near.

We do not need to sweeten the message.
It is already sweet and mighty to save.
Do we trust God enough to believe that His Gospel message, shared His way, will save souls?
Do we trust God enough?

Or do we need to rely on entertainment?
Do we need to rely on man-made revisions to make the Gospel message less offensive?
The Gospel offends.
Perhaps we need to preach the Gospel to ourselves first before we share it with others.

The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith we are proclaiming: that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scriptures say, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.” (Romans 10:8-11)

That message must stand alone.
No sugarcoating.
No entertainment.
Just a simple declaration of Truth to bring others from the darkness into the light.