I've been meaning to finish off this series of posts that I started last year for a long time, apologies for the delay.
There are many things that can get in the way when we seek to share the Good News faithfully. We have already looked at FEAR, FINANCE, FRIENDS, FAMILY and FELLOWSHIPS. This final post will examine ways to overcome the obstacles of FASHION and FAME.
Some of you might be thinking that you aren't that interested in the latest trends or in being fashionable so you don't have to worry about this hurdle. But do you care about other people's opinions of you? Do you want to make sure that you fit in and don't stand out? What about taking a stand on a controversial topic?
Similarly, when we think of fame we tend to think of famous people and celebrity culture but fame can be used to describe many contexts including those more relevant to us as the little people. Are we trying to make a name for ourselves at work or chasing a promotion at all costs? What about in our church, are we known for the right reasons or are we seeking platforms for ourselves?
What do we do if we do become well known perhaps unintentionally. I'm sure many of the church leaders and missionaries of times past didn't intend to create followings, it was just a by-product of their ministry. How did they remain humble and committed to sharing their faith?
So how can we overcome these obstacles?
1. PRAY: This is always going to be number 1 because prayer is vital in every area of Christian life. If we don't pray we can't expect God to do anything and if we don't pray as we read the Bible, we can't expect God to guide us in our decisions. When seeking advice, it can be annoying to be asked, "Have you prayed about it?" but that irritation is usually because we haven't and we want a more practical solution.
However, if we believe that God cares about the details of our lives and that he wants us to share our faith, we should have confidence that He can help us in removing obstacles in answer to our prayers.
2. FOCUS ON PLEASING GOD: When confronted with a situation that challenges our commitment to sharing our faith, we should always examine what the Bible says about it. Some things are clear, if we are told to stop doing something that God tells us to do, we should do it anyway. If we are told to do something that God tells us not to do, we shouldn't do it as it then becomes sin.
We may have to stand against the crowd, we may become unpopular and we may miss out on a career or a promotion in the process. Being a Christian is unlikely to make us popular and is likely to force us into sacrificing things we may have wanted, for our faith: the Bible describes it as taking up our cross and following Jesus. At least in the West we aren't generally being imprisoned or worse...at the moment.
3. MAKE NEW FRIENDS: Peer pressure can be hard to resist and if we are constantly surrounded by people who want to stop us sharing our faith either through negativity, mockery or more subtle persuasions, then we should ask ourselves whether it's worth keeping "in" with these people. Instead, we should find some like minded Christians, who are committed to sharing their faith, to spend at least some of our time with.
4. DON'T EXPECT TO BE CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE: There may be rare occasions when culture aligns with our biblical values and encourages us to share our faith but that's not the norm. We are likely instead to be faced with constant pressure not to talk about our faith. We will be told the message or the method of our outreach is "not for today".
One well known leader said that on judgement day when our neighbour asks desperately "Why didn't you tell me??" our shameful answer is likely to be "because it wasn't culturally appropriate".
We should prepare ourselves for these challenges by reminding ourselves of what Jesus and His followers did and how they wouldn't be silenced by the trends of the society in which they lived. One street preacher said that he gave up any and all street cred the minute he took up his post.
5. LIVE IN THE LIGHT OF ETERNITY: Fashion and fame shouldn't unduly concern us as believers and shouldn't be things we are striving for as they belong to the world. You can read in James about the dangers of loving the world and the things in it. Life is short and then we will be in eternity, we have limited time to reach people with the Gospel.
A favourite quote from Carl Henry is, "The Gospel is only Good News if it gets there in time." It may help to think about these things and to seek to order our lives accordingly.
6. DEVELOP A LOVE FOR THE LOST: This can be a real motivator to get out and evangelise no matter the cost. If people are heading for an eternity in Heaven or Hell and God has told us that they need to hear the Message in order to be saved, then surely it's worth sacrificing our reputations and friendships to bring them the Good News.
It may not be fashionable, even in Christian circles, to talk about Hell but it is necessary to warn people of the terrible consequences of rejecting Jesus. The Message of the Gospel is often watered down to try and minimise the unpalatable with an unbalanced focus on the love of God. But God is a God of justice and holiness and we must communicate the whole of the Gospel. You can read Hell's Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort for more on this.
7. REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU: We tend to live as if we will go on forever and are pursuing things that are temporary. Recently, on a mission team we were asked whether we were ready if Jesus returned that day. There was a guilty silence in the room. It's difficult if not impossible to live every moment as if it could be our last as we are distracted by the world around us.
However, we can make sure we aren't chasing worldly things or accumulating possessions that we can't take with us. Judgement Day is the great leveller where rich and poor, great and small, will all stand before the Creator God of the universe with nothing at all. What will our legacy be?
Read the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12 who tore down his barns to create bigger barns to store his great wealth but instead found himself facing God who took his life that very night. A quote from CT Studd, "Only one life twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last."
8. LISTEN TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN THERE: Those who do chase fashion and fame and make it to the top either through hard work or through handouts usually find that they aren't fulfilled. People who are purpose driven feel empty because there is nothing more to do and no new goals to pursue. People who receive wealth or position without earning it find that it is not what they had hoped for or dreamed about: many lottery winners end up broke, divorced or suicidal within a few years.
Jim Carrey said, "I wish everyone could be rich and famous, so they would know it is not the answer." Erica Jong warns, "Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are" Vicki Baum's experience, "Fame always brings loneliness. Success is as ice cold and lonely as the North Pole" Elvis Presley discovered, "Fame and fortune, how empty they can be," and John Lennon cautions, "Fame is a monster that everyone wants to pet until it bites." Learning from these people who seemingly had everything they could wish for can stop us chasing after these things in the first place.
9. KNOW THAT IT CAN ALL BE LOST: People who seek to fit in with the latest fashions and/or who are famous have to spend huge amounts of time maintaining their image to keep their influence. This might be via social media channels or appearing in person for interviews or performances. Yet, they all know that they can go from hero to zero in an instant; one wrong word or poor performance and its all over.
Robin Williams said, "You're only given a little spark of madness and if you lose that you're nothin." Oprah Winfrey noted that, "Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has its compensations and it has its drawbacks, and I've experienced them both."
This makes it even more difficult for a Christian seeking to be faithful in evangelism. It's unlikely that a Christian will be able to keep this public image and speak the truth without eventually compromising in some area or other. Christians that do manage it often find it very stressful and feel like they are walking a tightrope or on eggshells as they can be de-platformed in an instant. God can and does use people in these positions but it's not something we should seek as the reality is very different to what is presented by the media.
10. CHOOSE SOUL WINNING: Evangelists of previous generations didn't have the pressures of social media or the expectations of the masses created by things going viral on the internet. But, they knew the temptation to conform, the temptation towards a fashionable sermon without the cross and the temptation to please people rather than God. They knew that they were unlikely to be popular or have great material comfort but they chose to focus on winning souls anyway.
We have the same choice today. We can choose to conform, to be fashionable, to seek to get to the top of our career ladder, or even to become famous or we can choose to share our faith with individuals and seek to win them to Christ.
If we do end up with a platform, we should hold it loosely knowing it can just as easily be removed, then we can use it to share the Gospel without compromise.
God doesn't care about fashion or fame but He is concerned about how faithful we are as believers. Let's overcome these obstacles and seek to win the lost by sharing the Good News of Jesus wherever we are placed.
