Reaching People
There seems to me to be a growing trend in Christian circles to take non-Christian events, change them into something ‘Christian’, and then put them on hoping that the people who went to the original non-Christian event will come to their ‘Christian’ event. Let me give you an example. I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while, but it was recently highlighted to me by an article on a definitely non-Christian rave culture website. To save you having to read the article, the gist of it is this: “Christian rave” is an oxymoron.
“Christians have morals. Raves have no morals. Yeah, let’s put the two together, that’s a swell combination. Take the outrageous and dangerous, and make it mundane and safe.”
And
“Non-Christians are never going to go to a Christian rave (and especially not one heavily advertised as such). So what would be the point of spreading God’s word to an audience of already-believers? So you can pat yourselves on the back about how much you agree with each other? Splendid, guys. Good luck with that, then.”
Admittedly, the person who wrote the article is very sceptical about Christianity in general (for example, calling it “the anal-retentive, scolding aunt of world religions”) but I believe he does have a very good point. People are, in general, not interested in Christianity. If they see anything with the word ‘Christian’ in it, they just switch off.
I believe the people who put on those Christian raves had good motives – they wanted people to have a safe environment in which to have a good time. But I very much doubt you would find any non-Christians there who hadn’t been brought by friends.
You see, the problem is with advertising anything as ‘Christian’ is that people think, “Ok, so no drugs or alcohol at this place … so they’re saying I’m wrong in what I do. They are condemning me for doing what I love to do. I don’t want to have anything to do with it.” And of course, advertising something as ‘Christian’ always makes people a bit worried about Bible-waving, fast-talking evangelists trying to convert them and assimilate them into the collective of believers…
In essence, my problem with so-called “Christian Raves” is this:
You aren’t reaching the people you are trying to;
People are being treated as projects to convert rather than individuals.
Just as an aside – Christian raves are just an example of what I’m talking about. A lot of events happen which fulfil those two criteria. Christian music is a prime example of this – why don’t non-Christians buy it? Possibly because (a) you can’t listen to a CD without getting a gospel message rammed down your throat, or possibly (b) because the artists don’t actually love the music they’re making. It strikes me that a lot of groups think to themselves “what’s the best way of putting across the gospel in today’s culture” – which is an admirable motive, but to reach real music lovers you need to be a real music lover yourself. Linking in with raves, this applies to Christian ‘dance’ music: there aren’t really any Christian groups who produce it seriously. You aren’t going to reach serious dance music fans by giving them half-hearted pop with a three point gospel sermon in it. This quite nicely brings me to my point:
You can’t reach people unless you seriously care for them and make friends with them, and this can be done by providing what they want (to an extent). Now, if a Church wanted to put on a “proper” rave, I’m sure there would be an uproar. Lots of questions would be asked: a Church putting on an event where things such as drug-taking are going to be going on? How awful!
What the people who say that kind of thing miss out is one of the fundamental parts of Christianity: we are all sinners. Not one of us can stand up and say, “I do not sin.” This summer I am going to a Christian conference called “Soul Survivor.” In one of the main meetings, supposing I do something wrong. Doesn’t matter what it is… the key question is this: is it any more right or wrong than taking drugs or drinking too much alcohol at a rave? Isn’t putting ourselves above people and judging just as ‘wrong’ as what they are doing?
What these Christians need to be doing is making friends with people and showing love. Not thrusting Christianity upon them by forbidding them to do something they enjoy. Taking drugs may be wrong but the best way of showing someone that is not to straight out forbid them to do it (don’t forget that non-Christians have no obligation to live by any kind of moral code at all) but to gently point them towards Christ and show them by your example the right path, for example that drugs are not necessary to have a great time.
Too often Christians draw boundaries between themselves and non-Christians because of what non-Christians may do. How are you going to going to reach people if you have a boundary between you? Look at Jesus’ example. He never turned down an opportunity to reach anyone. He didn’t compromise his morals but he was compassionate. He didn’t condone sin but he didn’t judge anyone.
One last point about drawing people in, not to convert them, but to try and create a community: by doing this you are telling people that you accept them for who they are (and would still continue to be friends with them even if they didn’t want to become Christians.) You may think that this will reach less people than getting everybody into a building and then making them listen to a gospel message… but once someone becomes a Christian, he or she will tell their friends. And those friends will be able to see the difference that it has made in their lives. This is not to say that those friends will automatically become Christians – not at all. But they may be more open to hear what has changed their friend so much… in this way, a community can grow and grow. It just takes people who are willing to dedicate their lives to God, and let him change them. I believe this is being in the world but not of the world.
To conclude: This is not just rave culture. This is not just church culture. This is Christian culture: “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Cor 9:22, NIV).
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