Sturgis Motorcycle Giveaway

Stories like this just annoy me to death.

For the fourth year in a row, the Sturgis Motorcycle Giveaway sponsored by the Dakota Baptist Convention and North American Mission Board used volunteers from across the nation to give personal testimonies Aug. 3-8 about how they met Christ and to invite rally-goers to invite Him into their lives. By the end of the week, 835 people made professions of faith in Jesus Christ.

How do they get these professions?

"You have to start with relevance," Golden said. "You have to start with something that's going to get their attention, something that's going to make them stop and say, 'Yeah, I'll listen to you for three minutes.'"

Now don't get me wrong. I am all for Christians engaging different people in different situations. Jesus went to the harlots and tax collectors. So that idea isn't new. But Jesus also didn't need to be "relevant" to what man thinks he needs. Remember the woman at the well in John 4. She tried to deflect Jesus to the religious debate of the day. Jesus bypassed all of her nonsense and addressed the real issues.

Starting with a "motorcycle giveaway" would have had me professing terrorists are really nice guys. We need to stop trying to get professions and simply be faithful to the proclamation of the Good News.

The Good News seems to be equated with personal testimonies of Christians. Again don't get me wrong. All Christians experience Christ on some level. But that is not the Gospel. Notice the context of the Gospel's presentation.

"Sometimes people are hurting, and they don't realize it," Pratt said. "They're trying to find satisfaction in everything but Christ -- whether it's motorcycles, alcohol, drugs or relationships -- but the only satisfying relationship is with Christ."

The crowd was able to hear a "three-minute testimony of how Christ could radically change their lives."

As important as all of this is, the Gospel should be proclaimed as true, not helpful. Nevertheless, I am thankful God uses weak vessels and despite our bad theology, He chooses to save people.