Title: The Failure of Jesus Salesmen
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
When buying a product, you must test its performance before buying something that will be used for a long time. No one lives without switching on and operating a durable appliance like a television or refrigerator or test-driving a car to see how well it performs. Then, in the position of having to sell such things, no matter how precise and neatly the product manual is made, and even if the salesman is eloquent like a clearing up, first of all, you have to demonstrate the performance of the product until consumers believe it. .
A believer is, in other words, a Christian salesman. Religion is not simply something that will last a long time. Once a person decides to have a belief, they almost always depend on a religion for the rest of their life. Furthermore, not only the children but also the descendants of their descendants are passed on to the same religion. If performance and durability are not good enough, do not choose it carelessly.
Therefore, from the standpoint of selling religion, one or two performance tests or demonstrations are not enough. It must be clearly different from other religions, and if its performance is abnormal a few times, it is difficult to restore trust in some way. That is to say, the unbelievers around us will not outwardly tell us that once we know we are Christians, in fact, we are very carefully comparing performance and durability.
But what about the consumer's evaluation of Christianity that has been formed in the market so far? To what extent does it rank in customer satisfaction? According to a recent announcement by the Korean National Statistical Office, the number of Protestants decreased by 144,000 over the past 10 years, but the number of Buddhists increased by 405,000 and Catholics increased by a whopping 2.195,000. Buddhism ranked first in customer satisfaction after Catholicism, but Protestantism showed dissatisfaction in the opposite direction.
Did the believers go wrong with the sales or the product is bad? Of course the former is correct. Protestants clearly have catalogs such as tracts, salesmen are reputed to be the most eloquent, and even though they have the most glamorous and grandiose promotional events, customers are ignoring them. If so, that means that the only reason is that you are not demonstrating the product properly. In the meantime, I was deceived by the promotional activities, but when I saw it with my own eyes for 10 years now, it was different from the demonstration.
But what is really strange is that until about 10-20 years ago, Protestantism ranked first in terms of growth rate among religions. 1 in customer satisfaction. Does that mean that believers were good then and are now worse than they were then? It's not like that. The moral and spiritual level of believers, then and now, is there. At that time, I did not look at the good deeds of the believers at all, but only listened to the catalog and the salesman and chose Christianity.
This does not mean that consumers have gone from being naive to now. At that time, consumers had different criteria for choosing their religion. When life is difficult, “Is the company bankrupt? Has your child failed the college entrance exam? All who labor and are heavy laden, come to Jesus. The Lord will solve all your pain and problems, and you may win and enjoy happiness!” However, after a day or twenty years passed, it was found that it was not the case.
However, since they are still preaching the Christian propaganda of Jesus in their own way, is there any way the sales will be successful? Jesus told us to show good deeds. It was also told to be seen in life, not in words, but in the light of the world. He said that no matter how hard I tried, I had to stand in a light that would not be covered. However, in a completely outrageous way from good deeds, they advertised business success and children's college admissions as sales phrases. The Protestants themselves advertised the church as a chaosesul academy and an entrance exam academy.
The meaning of 'Christian' when the church in Antioch was first called a Christian (Acts 11:26) means 'one who resembles Jesus' and 'Little Christ'. Jesus also had a propaganda message that he gave verbally to consumers. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And the Sermon on the Mount was the manual for that product. Believers must sell the products Jesus sold the way Jesus sold them. Didn't God come as a human being to demonstrate the truth of heaven and to teach the salespeople to follow it?
A German Christian architect read the Bible at lunchtime despite the ridicule of his colleagues. He prayed for a chance to show the love of Christ to his scoffing colleagues. When I found out that the workers left their muddy work boots on their way home, I always stayed up to the end and washed them clean. My colleagues thought it was strange at first, but after I realized that I was the only one who left work, I slowly started to open up. And after an early lunch, we gathered around him and asked him to read the Bible first. He succeeded in selling Jesus without saying a word.
Let's ask ourselves honest questions among Protestants. Has the Protestant Church gradually lost its strength and the number of believers decreased because of neglect of evangelism and missions? Could it have been because the believers, who were Jesus salesmen, did the demonstration wrong? Which cause is greater? In evangelism and missions, Protestantism is still the most prominent among all religions. In other words, Buddhists and Catholics seemed to be more kind.
It also means that business success and children's college entrance exams are no longer the criteria for choosing a religion. Even though consumers' tastes have changed, sales are stagnant, so there is no way for sales to increase. It's really frustrating how long they want to keep doing sales that Jesus doesn't even tell them to do. Selling the best products in the best mess. Even after so many evangelism trainings. Isn't evangelism training wrong?
5/26/2006