Good news and 4-inch nails

Cory Harrison wonders about the real freaks

I just completed an annual ritual with my 12 year old son-we attended our state fair. Once a year in Florida, for 16 days, the state fair arrives amid much excitement and fanfare. Even in a time of economic downturn, the Florida State Fair attracts about $150 million of new income for the Tampa Bay area.

If you have never been to a state fair you may not know that they were originally conceived as agricultural events - and this continues to be the heart of the event. The fair is made up of every kind of livestock, vendors selling a multitude of wares, a smorgasbord of food and over 90 thrill-packed fairground rides. It really is an incredible event!

After completing our yearly visit, as my son and I were on our way home, I found myself reflecting on a couple of thought-provoking incidents.

There was the “Freak Show.” This is where for a small fee you can look at what are billed as the “freaks of our society.” Included this year were people such as the bearded lady, the sword swallowing man, and the world’s smallest woman (who was lying in what amounted to a small pony-sized stable on a pile of hay and watching a small TV ).

Then there was the over 200 carnival style games, each fronted by a slick sales person with a microphone promising everyone a win every time and if that promise failed, ready with an even slicker patter convincing you to keep playing even when you really don’t want to.

Lastly, I thought about the “Bible-believing Christians” who also descended on the fair each year, equipped with a microphone and polished marketing techniques (or evangelism as it has come to be called) astonishingly offering my son and I free gifts if we consented to come and hear the “Wordless Book (aka the greatest story ever told… aka the Bible).

I pondered at how the Gospel of Jesus, originally introduced to the world as an incredibly relational conversation, has become represented by slick marketers, packaged like a consumer product and sold to passersby like any other cheap rip-off game at the carnival.

I remember that as I listened to the evangelists make their pitch, I found myself wondering which was weirder, this unbelievably strange presentation of the “Good News” or the man called Hammer Head who I saw drive a 4-inch nail through the center of his skull. I couldn’t make up my mind.

Writer: Sergeant Cory Harrison is a life long Salvationist stirred by the mission of The Salvation Army. Cory spends his days enjoying coffee and community with the poor, oppressed and addicted as the administrator of the downtown St. Petersburg, FL, USA Corps and Café 614.

7 Comments to Good news and 4-inch nails

1. I’d pick the guy with the 4 inch nail in his head any day.

   In fact, I’d even consider taking that nail to the head over having to put up with the evangelical sales pitch.

   Nice piece Cory.
   Dion
Dion Oxford on February 28th, 2009

2. Let me get this straight: It’s ok to “buy” the obviously false and misleading (not to mention perhaps demeaning) sales pitch of those who are making money off of “freaks”, but it’s a “strange presentation” when a “Bible-believing Christian” (presumably well-dressed and, heaven forbid, rehearsed) has the audacity to amplify the truth of the gospel over a loudspeaker. Gimme a break!

   Sure, let’s be relevant and incarnational in our presentation of the gospel, but let’s not look down on the simplicity and, dare I say, courageousness of these “fools” for Christ.

   Stranger presentations have resulted in eternal relationships. Even if you’re not a fan of the delivery, “what does it matter but that the gospel of Christ is preached?”

   Grace,
   Phil
Phil on February 28th, 2009

3. I would be interested to know the percentage of people for whom the message of the polished evangelist has a positive effect versus the percentage for whom it has a negative impact.

   The same question popped into mind recently when discussing the traveling preachers/”bullhorn guys” that frequent college campuses around the country. Even if their message is free of the coarse judgment that so often defines these presentations, I wonder, is this an effective way to spread the Gospel? While I know that historically this form of street-corner evangelism has seen countless converts, is it still a proven method today?
Ben on February 28th, 2009

4. I find myself agreeing with Phil. There are many ways to get the message out. Incidentally, if we guide our ‘evangelistic’ effors by how well the method will be received, we’d never do evengelism.

   For example, I recently heard criticism aimed towards the Army saying that we target the week because they are easy targets for evangelism. So sure, people might be non-plussed by street evangelists, but some are equally repelled by Christians doing anything.

   As to methods, we are all very quick to assume that ’street-corner’ evangelism doesn’t work. No matter what Rob Bell and his Nooma’s tell us, ‘bull-horn guy’ has his place and who are we to tell bull-horn guy, or anyone else for that matter, that his chosen way of sharing his faith is better or worse than ours?

   He who is not against us, is for us.

   Incidentally, one of my previous corps appointments engaged in open air meetings of good quality. We fulfilled a three-fold purpose in these meetings. Let me share:

   - increased visibilty/presence
   - good contacts/conversations with those in the area we were visiting
   - effective spiritual warfare…taking the praise of God to areas it may never otherwise go.

   Lets be a bit broader in our ‘judgement’ of others and their methods for sharing their faith in our Lord Jesus.
Andrew Clark on March 4th, 2009

5. God makes it up to all the people who hear our shoddy attempts at proclaiming and implementing the Good News. Whatever the delivery, none of us has it down perfectly and constantly need to be thanking God for the immense gift it is be Kingdom-Bearers as well as constantly praying for guidance and ‘hammering out’ our salvation so that we’re dripping with a love that naturally gushes out to all that we come into contact with. I’m personally not a Bullhorn enthusiast, but I believe that if its done in a way that is loving and with genuine compassion then God honours that and will somehow use it towards his project of New Creation. Likewise, those of us who preach at youth churches, family churches, literally bind up the broken, offer a cold cup of water, work all day for justice, peace, better medical treatment, better schooling and health opportunities. Is that not too part of ‘evangelism’, the Euangelion/Gospel? As I said God honours all our attempts at this, no matter how flawed we are technically. ‘Our labour in God will never go to waste’ (1 Cor 15.58 - my life text!)
   I long for the day when we no long see the need to split up the marriage between proclamation and deeds, and see that it is all part of ‘evangelism’. The personal call of Jesus to his broken and scarred world, and particularly the people within that world includes all of this within it and I daresay a lot more that you, I and others have even dare to imagine.

   But did we really think it would be any less than that?
Craig Gaudion on March 5th, 2009

6. Craig….who mentioned the seperation of proclaimation, demonstration and service in building the Kingdom? We were talking about proclaimation, but not setting it up as superior or apart from the rest.

   Thing is, today proclamation, an integral part of the spreading of the gospel, is being pushed aside mainly because it doesn’t seem as trendy or as acceptable as the rest. We need a balanced approach in our Kingdom advancing.

   A
Andrew Clark on March 14th, 2009

7. The issue isn’t people having the boldness to ‘amplify the truth of the gospel over a loud speaker’.

   the issue is that if you rob the gospel of its offense, if you turn the great untamed Lion called Jesus into a nice domesticated cat, or as Tony Campolo puts it, if you “neuter” the gospel to make it easier to preach and eaiser for people to hear, then it ceases to be the gospel.

   the gospel of Jesus is the path of descent. Its about our death. Its our willingness to join the world in its suffering. Its our participation in the new humanity, its our weakness calling out to others in their weakness.

   To turn that into a product blasphemes the sacrifice of Jesus.

   And I would contend is quite anti-gospel.
Booth Jewett on March 22nd, 2009

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