a truth enema [an ode to lisl baker]

A Truth Enema.
[an ode to Lisl Baker]

-noun Medicine/Medical

the injection of fluid to cause a bowel movement
the fluid injected.

Not something you would necessarily attribute to the Christian faith is it? But upon having conversations of a ‘deep and spiritual’ matter over the past few months, and reading some sort of, quote, ‘post-modern’ literature of late, I have come to the conclusion that some of us need a so-called truth enema.

Maybe I should explain a little clearer. I have been reassessing the word ‘evangelism’, and what it means to me, since reading a particular book on such subject. A ‘traditional’ view of evangelism, to an imagined modern person, would be someone of Christian faith, who strikes up a conversation, either planned or random, in order to share their faith. Now some conversations will be more siding towards the description of ‘forced’ and others maybe not so bold. We also have the ‘tele-evangelists’, again, some siding towards the ‘forced’ region and others less so.

In my experience I have been involved in such ‘evangelism’-at times purely through conversation where I have made my faith choice obvious to the listener, and other times, I have forced myself upon an un-expectant Christmas shopper, armed with a tract that would look like it had better social standing in the late 1980’s, and planned responses in case people had questions, or a retort to my somewhat biased opinion.

As Christians we often have ‘labels’ for the, well, ‘lost’. What do we call someone who doesn’t have faith? Matter of fact, do we even have to call ‘them’ anything?

And thus brings me to my point. Evangelism has been treated as a compartmentalised activity that we so often take time out of our busy weekly schedule to be a part of. Should we not consider that people who do not know or have not heard about the ‘Gospel we profess’ deserve more than bombardment? Of course this matter is one of such importance, but if we consider that evangelism, so to speak, should surely be an integrated part of our lives, it would change the way we look at outreach in a radical way.

The paradigm shift from modernism to, quote, ‘post-modernism’ should not be viewed as a new birth born from an old failure. The term referring to this growth and maturity from one to the other has been recently likened to puberty, in which someone changes, not because their former was bad or in anyway wrong, from a young person, to a teenager. They alter from one section of their life to another, only to have more of these ‘alterations’ ahead of them. In their maturing, they see that some particular old ways are no longer necessary, and that other ‘old ways’ take on a new light because of their new feelings/education/ideas/morals etc. Puberty is not an instamatic camera that can be processed overnight. And neither is it a final destination.

A Christian writer put in a book recently the question that considers Christians to be ‘lost’ rather than those around us who do not share the same faith. He questioned our methods for reaching those around us, and the terminology that we fling around, that is so often not meant to be judgemental, but in reality, most probably is. Recent post-modern light shed on the subject of Evangelism and its place in our lives has turned out some interesting prospects for Christians today. Are we, as people of faith, lost in a world, chasing around and shouting too loud, when we should be reaching out in a way that the ‘lost’ need? Do we need to reconsider our relationships, our priorities in how we share our faith and fulfil the great commission, and great commitment that we made when we ourselves became people of faith?

Do some of us need to face a truth that our job of fulfilling this commission just is not cutting it any longer?