A few weeks ago I went to a small music/art festival in my town. It’s an annual event that had been cancelled the last few years due to the pandemic. So my wife and I loaded the kids up on a Friday evening and headed to town. There was a play area with inflatables and face painting so the kids were overly excited. While we were walking around I noticed two middle aged guys on a street corner with some kind of signs. As I got closer I was able to read their signs; they featured Bible verses about Hell and warning people of eternal damnation. The two gentlemen holding the signs were yelling at people buying beer across the street at the beer stand. “Drunkards will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” They were also yelling at a group of people displaying a rainbow flag. I honestly forgot what they yelled at these people….probably something like “Repent and turn from your sexual immorality.”

I immediately rolled my eyes when I saw these guys. They were very quick to tell people that they were going to Hell. They passed out judgement and condemnation with ease. I wanted to talk with these guys but I didn’t want to get caught up in a conversation that went no where. I wanted to ask them if their approach, the whole holding signs and yelling at people about Hell, if that approach had ever worked for them. Had they ever attracted anyone to Christ with their harsh words? I wonder how people would respond if they were on the corner telling people that God loves them and handing out pocket New Testament bibles?

How did Jesus do it? I know Jesus had a way of attracting people to Him. In fact, there were more “sinners” attracted to Jesus during His time on earth than the overly religious. He often had more stern words to the overly religious than he did the non-believers.

I went to a very conservative baptist church when I was a kid. I remember there being an alter call after the sermon every single Sunday. If you don’t know what an alter call is it’s where the preacher asks people to come down front if they want to get saved. It’s often during an emotional speech at the end of a sermon. The preachers I grew up around and those I heard at bible conferences and youth camps were very focused on saving people from Hell. Sometimes a point was even made to tout how many people had given their life to Christ over the past week or at the last sermon. As if it’s just a numbers game.

As I have gotten older I think I understand that the Gospel is different than just savings souls from Hell. It’s about transforming lives. Discipleship. And bringing Heaven to Earth. Yes, sin is still real and Jesus’ sacrifice was meant to save us from our sin. But Christ wants to transform our lives as well. And He wants us to share our lives in community, loving each other and helping each other grow closer to Him. I think many churches are failing Christ because they are more concerned with gaining converts than they are transforming people into disciples of Christ. You see, converting people is easy when you compare it to making disciples. Just like yelling at people on a corner about sin and Hell is easier than sitting down with those people and breaking bread with them and loving them.