By Mark A. Taylor
How much would you spend to convert a curious atheist?
Before you scoff, this is not a joke. It’s about a true story reported on the front page of The Wall Street Journal last month.
The paper described an unusual proposal by Hemant Mehta, a 23 year old DePaul University graduate student. He went to the Internet auction site eBay to sell “the chance to save his soul.” His terms were simple: he would go to church services one hour in exchange for each $10 spent by the highest bidder.
Jim Henderson, a former minister with the Association of Vineyard Churches, won with his bid of $504. But he and Mehta agreed to something different than 50 hours of worship.
Mehta would attend church only 10 or 15 hours and then provide a running commentary on Henderson’s Web site, off the map.org. Henderson, who believes many evangelicals only offend non Christians by trying to convert them, started the site with the mission of “helping Christians be normal.”
Like a secret shopper visiting retail stores and then grading goods and services, Mehta critiqued churches he attended. He rated sermons, evaluated church bulletins, and even commented on such things as congregation wide prayer requests. Only halfway through the project when the Journal article was written, he was “no closer to believing in God.” But he did “admire churches for the communities they create,” he said.
The article didn’t mention whether Mehta would be attending Easter worship. We could hope so. But if he comes to church this week only to judge what he sees there, even Easter worship won’t change him.
A person cannot discover the truth of Christianity by criticizing how people express it. Ultimately men and women are drawn to Christianity not by imperfect believers, but by Jesus himself. One wonders what Mehta would conclude if he devoted 15 hours to reading the Gospels and reporting what he found there.
Of course, we know that Christians filled with grace and led by the Spirit can demonstrate truth for a skeptical world. But we call unbelievers to follow Jesus, not us not our forms, not our expressions, not our traditions. It is Jesus we lift up, not ourselves.
At Easter we see Jesus: returning from death, affirming his deity, establishing his authority over all this world. At Easter we realize the grace and hope Jesus promised can actually be ours, because he is who he said he was. Set free by him, we are compelled to share him with others who need what only he can provide.
There’s little doubt that contemporary churches need to consider how their language and practices alienate or bore non Christians. But Christianity is not first or most about Christians or even the church; it’s about Christ. It’s about Easter. And this, tragically, is what Hemant Mehta has so far missed.
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