Exposing the Shallowness of SBC Evangelism (Part 2): “Spiritually Bamboozled by a FAITH®Team”
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Some may think that I am trying to attack people ( such as Dr. Bobby Welch) in my series; I beg to differ! I must echo the words of my highly-esteemed friend, Dr. Bill Curtis, “My issue is not with the man, it is with the ‘mind-set.’”
Dr. Paige Patterson gave me some sound advice about “critiquing the works of others [those who I see error in];” he stated:
“Be sure to take issue with their methodology . . . and do not extrapolate about what they might do or assign motives to them. We cannot see their hearts or know their ultimate intentions. That way your judgments rest only on observable fact. God be good to you as you stand for His truth.”
MY BLOG HAS NO PERSONAL VENDETTAS AGAINST ANY MAN! I am not beyond reproach; If you see a problem with my evaluations, I encourage you to show me, via the Holy Scriptures, where I have erred!
Therefore, with that said, I will proceed to expose the shallowness of SBC evangelism . . .
“Spiritually-Bamboozled” by a FAITH®Team
I was actually “spiritually-bamboozled” and scarred for life from a FAITH®Team . . . I wonder if there are any FAITH®-ABUSE support groups that I can join to bring healing to my FAITH®-stricken soul.
Here is my story:
I remember, six years ago, while I was attending Bible college, my wife, new-born daughter, and I visited a “big” SBC church in the town we were living in. This particular church was “heavily” campaigning the FAITH Sunday School Evangelism Strategy®. I filled out the FAITH® visitor’s information card and stated that I was an “ordained” minister and attending a highly-reputable Southern Baptist Bible college. A few evenings later, the FAITH®TEAM, a group of three (two men and one woman), knocked on my door (can you guess what they had on? . . . their FAITH® Master Guru Polo Shirts). 
Editor’s Note: Chadwick is a certified Evangelism Explosion® Master Guru (FAITH® is the same methodological model as Evangelism Explosion® . . . same game, different name). Evangelism Explosion® is a required course for Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute. Therefore, Chadwick knew exactly what the FAITH® Team was up to as soon as he saw them get out of their FAITH®MOBILE. Also, Chadwick had bamboozled many with the EE® presentation . . . he has since, later, repented of his “canned evangelism bamboozlement” tactics.
This FAITH® team introduced themselves and went through the typical “canned” introductory spill they learned verbatim from the FAITH® SCHOOL OF ENLIGHTENMENT. They knew that I was a Christian (from the “information card”) . . .they knew that I was an “ordained” minister. . . they knew I was enrolled in a highly-reputable Southern Baptist Bible college. Nonetheless, they still sought to “diagnose” me with the FAITH® “key (diagnostic) question” (In your personal opinion . . . What do you understand it takes for a person to go to heaven?).
The FAITH® Team was like Three “Wind-Up” Toy Robots:
“Wind Me Up and I’ll Talk”
The FAITH® team was like three “wind-up” toy robots . . . they did not care if the Apostle Paul lived at my address . . . they were going to “unwind” their “psycho-babble” presentation upon me until they were “wound-out!”
The purpose of every FAITH®Team visit is to ask the “canned” “diagnostic questions” that lead to the “key question.” (They don’t care what you checked on the “information card!” They just want to “unwind” their presentation to you so that they may receive another “notch in their belt”).
Did the FAITH® team doubt my competence, integrity, or sincerity in checking the boxes on the “information card” that confirmed I was a born-again Christian? For this reason, I felt ”spiritually-bamboozled” and almost “blew a gasket” when the FAITH® Team started unloading the “canned FAITH® presentation” on me, an “ordained” SBC minister (if that counts for anything), minutes after they passed over the threshold of my door. Yet, I, as a “spiritually-bamboozled” FAITH®presentee (victim?), answered their questions with all of the “right answers.”
Chadwick’s Note:
I did not think that I was “too holy” for their presentation . . . its all about MOTIVES (yes, I know that I am disobeying Dr. Patterson’s advice). 
The FAITH®Team’s motive was about “unwinding” another “canned” presentation. Let’s get real! . . . if I were going to visit a person who visited my church and filled out the “information form” indicating that they was a born-again Christian, I would, at least, give them the benefit of the doubt that they were telling the truth. . . I would not “insult” the person by asking them any “canned diagnostic questions” as SOON as I walked in the door. I would rather try to have a meaningful and sincere conversation with the person and ask them to give me their personal “testimony.”
The FAITH® team asked me the “key question” to see if I passed their “diagnostic test.” Hello! I had already checked the “I’m a born-again Christian” box on the visitor’s card at their church.” If I would have come to the door with a non- R#5 compatible beverage and “cussing” under my breath, I could see the validity of the FAITH®Team going through their “presentation spill” with me. (The point I’m trying to make is the FAITH® Team that visited me was a group of stoic ”Pre-Wound” ROBOTS only doing what they were “wound-up” to do. To them, I was “just a number” so that they could go back to their “celebration party” and tell everyone they witnessed to an “ordained” SBC minister.).
Having a form of godliness (a good FAITH® PRESENTATION), but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Tim 3:5)
Chadwick
Tags: Exposing the Shallowness of SBC Evangelism, FAITH Sunday School Evangelism Strategy®
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April 17, 2007 at 2:59 am
A MORE ACCURATE NAME FOR THE SO CALLED “FAITH” TEAM THAT CAME TO YOUR DOOR WOULD BE THE “FARCE”TEAM.FARCE DEFINITION,(A RIDICULOUS AFFAIR,ACTION,SHOW OR THE LIKE).THANKS FOR YOUR BOLDNESS IN EXPOSING THIS EXERCISE IN RIDICULOUS ABSURDITY…..SHALLOW EVANGELISM.NOW IT IS THREE IN THE MORNING BUT I WANT TO KNOW BEFORE I RETIRE FOR THE NIGHT,CHADWICK IF YOU WERE TO DIE(EXPIRE) TONIGHT AND STAND BEFORE THE LORD AND HE ASKED YOU,WHY SHOULD I LET YOU INTO MY HEAVEN…WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD SAY?IF YOU ARE NOT SURE PUT YOUR RIGHT HAND IN YOUR LEFT HAND AND PRAY THE SINNERS PRAYER AND IF YOU REALLY MEAN IT SQUEEZE YOUR RIGHT HAND WITH YOUR LEFT HAND.IF YOU FORGET AND SQUEEZE YOUR LEFT HAND WITH YOUR RIGHT HAND IT WON’T WORK.REPEAT THIS ACTION UNTIL YOU GE IT RIGHT.PUT THE DATE IN YOUR BIBLE.THIS WILL BE YOUR NEW BIRTH(BIRTH CERTIFICATE).SHOW THAT TO OLD (SMUTTY FACE)WHEN TRYS TO MAKE YOU DOUBT.
April 17, 2007 at 4:01 am
Nice blog!
April 17, 2007 at 6:01 am
Hottub,
(With a trembling voice) . . . thank you for the blessed assurance of showing me how to “nail-down the rug” concerning my salvation . . . the “hand squeezing” really made my calling and election a “sure thing” . . . this time.
April 17, 2007 at 6:55 am
Another sobering assessment with great humor!
April 17, 2007 at 11:32 pm
[...] this makes me think that my friend, Chadwick Ivester, is on to something with his series about Shallow Evangelism. Bobby Welch is correct in that we are looking for a “magic bullet” for evangelism. [...]
April 18, 2007 at 12:05 am
Cool! I got that link thing to work! There is a BP News article tonight pointing out that baptisms went down last year.
March 16, 2008 at 4:59 pm
It is sad that one can find fault for any believer approaching any door with the good news of Jesus Christ, whether learned from a can or shooting from to hip.
I applaud for your style and I think it would be honest to say that not all FAITH teams are like the ones you describe just as not every Christian will try and have a meaningful and sincere conversation with other persons concerning the gospel.
I think it would be safe to say that even a canned approach is more than most Christians are doing, probably even ordained ministers. I’ll take the can over the silence.
March 16, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I like FAITH.. I guess the issue is that all learning means taking information (in this case either EE or FAITH or 4 spiritual flaws or 2 ways to live) learning it by rote, internalising it, understanding it, synthesising it and then reproducing it in a gracious and authentically loving way.
It takes time for the content to be internalised. It sounds like you had a very “fresh” team approach your door step, folks who had just got to the rote learning stage. You had a great opportunity to have a little fun and enhance their internalisation of the gospel so that they could authentically reproduce it as their own.
Sometimes I have had fun leading people up the garden path for awhile.
With JW’s or Mormons the LAST thing I want to do is tell them I am a pastor.. I just crack open my Greek New Testament and tell them I enjoy reading it.. and could they explain these verses.. and why does their version say x when the Bible actually says Y? If they ask if I attend a church I’ll say, well at the moment I attend such and such a church, but last week (or whenever ) I attended a church of x denomination … I leave it vague without telling fibs.. its fun to watch how their approach can lead them right up the garden path, and even into a confrontation with the Lord Jesus Christ.
My goal is to avoid a confrontation between me and them, over what knowledge I might or might not have. My goal is to lead them to a confrontation with Christ, and I am just the agent provocateur. One of the most important ways to get past this whole thing of competing theologies is to allow the person to have opportunity to spend time with you and see that you actually are a loving person who cares for them (Francis Schaeffer’s “Final Apologetic”). Sometimes it is in “the heat of battle” as our competing theologies are expressed, that we as Christians learn to present the gospel in a loving and personal way in spite of the opposition and bitterness expressed by our opponents. As they see our love and express ourselves respectfully, so they will respond to our graciously presented arguments.
Likewise, FAITH is a useful gospel presentation. The trainees need to be trained to memorise a gospel presentation of some sort so they can internalise it, and synthesise it. The best way to internalise and synthesise is in the “heat of battle” as their ideas are debated around them. Its great to see people develop in the “heat of the battle” of ideologies to understanding and respecting the other people that they are engaging. As they see their very poor uncaring and unloving presentations, so they learn to sympathise and empathise with the people they are talking to.
The danger for the FAITH approach is exactly the same problem for EVERY other approach. In fact it is the same problem expressed throughout society and education at large.
It is that the”knowledge is power” philosophy that is prevalent in our Western society has the outcome of depersonalising the “victim” (the “not-knower”) and making us disrespectful of their lives, their experiences and who they really are, in our approach.
The problem isn’t with the FAITH approach. The problem is deeper. it is with the depersonalising approach of Western Education that negates respect for the person who “does not know as we know”.
FAITH or some other approach can only be personalised as people learn to practice sharing their faith as are authentically loving the person they are talking to.
Perhaps the FAITH approach needs to be practiced with family members and friends first, so that we learn to humanise and personalise how we share the gospel, before we share with others who are a little more distant? But then the risks of foulling up the relationships we consider vital while we are learning the “how to” of sharing the gospel, is increased.
Would that we could learn to share the gospel and debate ideas in a closed environment where we cannot do too much harm… ahhh they call that the Adult Sunday School class or small group don’t they? This is so vital to the process.. maybe training there should be extended for a greater period of time .. with practice debates… but would that be authentic?
Steve
March 16, 2008 at 7:31 pm
[...] finds the approach too inauthentic. the people who represent FAITH are just like some old wind up robots… he says.. expressing [...]