One point, though. You say,
The Kingdom of God will eventual overturn all the fallen, pretentious kingdoms of men. “Heaven” is the reign of God seen from the Godward side, and we pray that it will come on earth as God answers the prayer that his will is done “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Inviting people to reserve a place in heaven is shortchanging the Gospel, and creates the problem of justifying the demands of the Kingdom of God in the interim.

Are you equating the Kingdom of God (on earth) with eternity/heaven? Not to open a can of worms unduly, but isn’t that a preterist/amillenial view of things? I don’t disagree that the Kingdom of God is, and should be, a ‘here and now’ thing and that we are called over and over to live Christlike lives to bring it about. that’s different, I think, from a heaven-on-earth concept.

Excellent reminder. It’s always good to examine our motives and methods, but God is big, and he is able in spite of all of our shortcomings to break into the most wayward of hearts.

I appreciate the free exchange of ideas on this site, but let’s never forget that none of us do it “right” all of the time. All of us are who we are by God’s grace.

“ABC:
A = Always,
B = Be,
C = Closing,
Always be Closing,
Always be Closing.”
– snarky comment from the blog Slacktivist: Left Behind regarding “high-pressure salesmen for Jesus” witnessing tactics.

Paul rejoices when the gospel is shared in mocking and that the Spirit cannot be restrained by the machinations of well meaning men. I have known believers who were saved by watching Jesus Christ Superstar and are now missionaries. Many thousands have come to faith via an overly pragmatic presentation such as that employed by Bill Bright.

So it is desirable to avoid “marketing” Jesus, but do not underestimate God’s grace to work in the hearts of sinners with a clumsy evangelistic method. And it just might be that if Jesus tarries for another one hundred years, the multi-generational offspring of present day blogs may look back on all of our methods as unwieldy and unsophistcated and even unspiritual.

The most subtle of all deceptions is to believe that our journey has taken us into a deceptive free zone.

I’m sure you’ve heard variations on the following sermon, which left an impression on me years ago. Speaking of the Kingdom, the presenter said, “What started as a relationship in Palestine, became a philosophy in Greece, an Institution in Rome, an Enterprise in Europe and in America . . . a Franchise.

My best personal example of the Franchising of Jesus was when (as a college student in cir 79) I helped with Campus Crusade’s “I Found It’ campaign. If I remember right, Bill Bright’s goal was that every American household would “hear the gospel,” and he got a Madison Ave. guy to lead the project.

About thirty of us spent several nights a week in cubicles in a telemarketing “sweat shop” in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. We were each assigned a large sections of the Louisville phone book, which were reproduced on a large font printout(this was before the days of PCs). Beside the name, we had boxes to check. “Gospel presented” and “Decision made.”

In front of us was a flip chart with a very precise dialog. In our training, we told that we could not deviate from the script, even by one word. On each page of the cardboard flip chart was a page from the 4 spiritual laws.

I saw a “decision made” box checked by the name of a young man (on another caller’s page) who happened to live in my section of the city.

As an experiment, I decided to step out of the sterile, formal telemarketer world and into his. I called him and went by to see him (thinking that he was a new believer, who needed help.)

I hung out with Rick for about eight weeks. Yes, he had said the prayer with the caller . . . but he had no concept of the Kingdom and didn’t know Jesus. Actually he was Buddhist, and ran a martial artist school. The “believer’s prayer” to him was just another tool of meditation and transcendence. He was not open to meeting the real Jesus despite our many hours together. Yet, he went down as a statistic on the I Found Report, caulking up one more for “Hearing the gospel” and “Decision Made.”

This whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth and I felt like I had done something evil in my participation, but I was too naive to understand what the problem was then.

Even now, it is more than ironic that there is a swath of TV channels on our cable service that are made up of either sleazy infomercials (fat-burner wraps, anti-aging supplements or get rich in real estate scemes) sandwiched around goofy-looking (and also sleazing looking) people selling Jesus.