Just got finished watching The Big Kahuna starring Kevin Spacey(Larry),Danny Devito(Phil), and Peter Facinelli (Bob)in which they are salesmen at an industrial lubricant convention. I wanted to watch the show after watching the end and reading some quotes from the movie. If you haven't seen it, watch it. It is not for the weak. There is plenty of language in it, so be prepared.
There is a section of dialogue between Phil and Bob,who is a born again Christian, which sums up for me what I have really been feeling for a long time. The two characters are talking about honesty. Phil says that he can trust Larry because he is honest, blunt, but most importantly he is honest. The section of dialogue that I really likes is as follows:
Phil (asking Bob a question about honesty):"Has it touched the whole of my life?"
Bob:What does that mean?
Phil: That means that you preaching Jesus is no different than Larry or anybody else preaching lubricants. It doesn't matter whether you're selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or how to make money in real estate with no money down. That doesn't make you a human being. It makes you a marketing rep. If you want to talk to someone honestly,as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are, just to find out. For no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation,to steer it,it's not a conversation anymore.It's a pitch, and you're not a human being. You're a marketing rep (emphasis mine).
Isn't that powerful! I mean if you were to ask me to tell you how evangelism is to be done two or three years ago and you stipulated that I couldn't steer a conversation with a "lost" person, I would not have been able to. What is evangelism to the Southern Baptist mind but an opportunity to sell wares? I speak of my own mind and am not classifying all Southern Baptist thought.
Recently, while talking to my friend at Words Less Spoken, I confided in him that I do not wish to hold conversations with anybody with an agenda of steering the conversation to Jesus, religion, etc. If the topics come up by the other party, fine, and even then I will not be pressing. I only desire to be honest with people and having relationships with people on the sole idea that you are seeking a convert to a religion is in my opinion very dishonest.
Your thoughts?
Sunday, October 01, 2006
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