For a trip I had to write a report on Living Proof. It's an excellent book on witnessing to a secularized world.
Living
Proof
Living Proof is a 216 page book
by Jim Petersen. It discusses and explains the problems involved in
reaching the secularized who form the bulk of the world population,
and how to overcome those problems. Three of the most intriguing
subjects of the book are reaching the secularized, winning the
secularized, and the meaning of the local church.
Reaching
the Secularized
One of Mr. Petersen's key principles is
that love, not logic, is the key to reaching the secularized. He
writes, “Logic, I'm convinced, is overrated as a persuader. It
finishes a poor second to love every time.” He spends a great deal
of text giving examples that illustrate and confirm his reasoning:
for instance, his son's handling of a friendship fracture led to the
friendship being restored, which led to the friend's mother stating,
“We think you have what we need.”. Jim also notes that the
standard Christian practice of going door-to-door with fliers and
tracts generally fails because the average person is not interested
in what the Christian has to offer. He contends that that changes
when the Christian develops a meaningful relationship with the
unbeliever; that being Christ-like is what will draw the secularized.
Importantly, all these claims are supported by passages such as
Matthew 5:14-16, 1 Thessalonians 1-3, and 1 Peter 3:15, as well as by
the results.
Winning
the Secularized
In 1 Corinthians 2:2, Paul reminded the
church at Corinth that he had “determined not to know any thing
among [them], save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Mr. Petersen
notes that Paul was letting the Gospel do its work. As Hebrews 4:12
says, the Word of God is powerful – much more so than we could ever
be. Jim Petersen places a great deal of emphasis on the fact that we
must present the un-adorned Scriptures rather than our explanation of
them – this alone will reach the lost, not our logic and arguments.
He writes that the most important part that the Christian plays is
reaching the secularized – the Word of God and the Holy Spirit will
convict the unbeliever “of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment,” and that the Christian will only have to keep loving the
unbeliever to bring him through the internal struggles that will
ensue. Jim declares that ultimately, the weight of the decision will
rest on God and the person. What freedom!
The
Meaning of the Local Church
But where is the local church in all of
this? As Mr. Petersen notes, perhaps the problem is not with the
entity of the Church, but with our perception of the Church; he
wonders if the Church did not lose a great deal of its effectiveness
when it stopped meeting in its member's houses and locked itself up
in dedicated buildings. He warns that integrating the recently saved
secular may be difficult or even impossible. Instead, Jim explores
the outreaching capabilities of a network of Christians but stops
short of an unreasonable renouncement of the modern church structure.
He focuses on the work of the layman, in association with other
laymen.
As an aside, it may be worth mentioning
that the static structure of a modern post-Constantine church is not
necessarily in line with the Scriptures, which present the Apostles
as teaching from house to house; church leaders as meeting
qualifications of holiness and maturity, not higher education; and
both as often being self-supporting. Paul also noted in several
places that taking support from the churches being served as being a
right particular to the Apostles, and one which he frequently did not
use.
The
End of the Matter
Living Proof reminds us that God
has not abandoned us in a secular world. We can still reach and win
the world, secularized though it may be; the church will thrive if it
imitates the apostolic church, or become meaningless to the world if
it follows the post-Constantine model. One does not have to fully
agree with Jim Petersen to realize that Living Proof could
make a huge impact for the cause of Christ.
