Dear Megachurch Pastor,
I’m really sorry to bother you. I know you’ve been so busy all day, what with it being Sunday and all. I’m sure you’re exhausted, I mean, who wouldn’t be?
I mean, I couldn’t help but see the barrage of Tweets and Facebook updates from you and your celebrity pastor friends, trumpeting the growing tally of souls you have saved this weekend. The numbers were huge and attention-getting and impressive, (which I guess of course, was why you felt the need to broadcast them in the first place).
And initially, I’ll admit, I was skeptical.
You see, I’ve read a good deal of the Bible. I’ve read the Old Testament stories all about God choosing a powerless, insignificant people called the Israelites; how He promised to carry and sustain them, and to help them become the “people of God”, to show the world what it meant to be His, and to live “set-apart” lives of obedience and purity.
I also read the New Testament, about the life and ministry of Jesus, reading how those who chose a life reliant upon Him through faith, would become the new “people of God”; those walking that narrow Kingdom road, He preached about.
I recall a bit later in Romans 10:13, where the Apostle Paul says boldly that, “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
But you must have read a part of the Bible that I’ve missed; the part about spotlights and numbers and altar calls.
You see, as I read your posts this weekend, throwing out conversion totals like some massive salvation telethon, I began to feel like these weren’t real people to you, but numbers; notches in some ministry belt that you could add to your bio and your resume and your church mythology. It didn’t feel like they were human beings, made in the image of God, but cold statistics waiting to be captured and published and claimed.
And again, I could be missing some theological truth that you’ve recently discovered, but I don’t remember anything about souls being saved because they stood for a minute when the band was bringin’ it and the lights were perfect and the moment was irresistible.
I may be looking in the wrong place, but I can’t find any altar calls in Scripture.
Oh sure, I’ve read the Book of Acts and all about thousands of people coming to believe the Gospel and be baptized in days, but I guess I always saw that as the work of the Holy Spirit in ordinary settings, choosing to move in that place and time as part of the expansion of God’s people. I saw it as the overwhelming, undeniable, breathtaking sign of the presence of God, running amok through a community.
Maybe that’s what happened in your church this weekend…
Maybe it was about the truth of the Word of God penetrating people’s once hardened hearts, (and not that the special song soloist just nailed it).
Maybe it was the beautiful intersection of flawed, ordinary lives and the perfect love of Jesus, (and not that awesome video your design team put together).
Maybe it is the beginning of a hundreds of lives surrendered to the will of God, (and not some momentary emotional responses to the perfect environment).
I truly hope it is all of those former things. Because those are things to celebrate, and I will gladly bring the party hats and spinach dip.
But I also hope, Pastor, that you care about the lives behind those numbers. I hope that you are finding a way over the coming days, to enter into real relationship with those people, to ensure that the walk to the altar was the first step and not the last one; that they were being moved to move by more than your clever words and creative presentation and your persuasiveness.
I hope you’re helping them find Jesus, outside of the spotlight.
Most of all, I hope that you stop long enough and dig deep enough to make sure you that people coming to your church are not just answering an altar call, but that they’re answering the call that alters.
You can’t exactly count them as easily… but they’re the ones that count.
Sincerely,
John
