• EPK
  • Blog: ideas and updates.
  • Music services.
    • Live.
    • Video.
  • Photography services.
  • EPK Spark
JEFFREY NORDSTROM

A guy told me that Jesus loves me.

6/28/2015

0 Comments

 
Last night, while I walked the dog, a guy pulled over near me, rolled down his window, and told me "Jesus Loves You." I didn't feel like engaging in the conversation at all—I was far more interested in continuing walking the dog—but it did cause a few reflections about my years as an evangelical. Here are some of the things I was thinking, as I posted them to Twitter.

Aa guy pulled over to the side of the road and told me "I saw you and I want you to know Jesus loves you." pic.twitter.com/6Lg8kxB1al

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

He kept trying to tell me that Jesus loves me. I just wanted to walk the dog. I just repeated "OK." #evangelism pic.twitter.com/swMq3ypgQP

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

The church creates #evangelism narratives in order to sear followers to rejection. "Good for you. You tried." pic.twitter.com/3Dgqags8pO

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

Any evangelist needs to set themselves up for failure because rejection confirms Christ's purported words. pic.twitter.com/wyiY5qiNo9

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

I wouldn't change how I interacted with that evangelist, but I have some things to think about for next time. pic.twitter.com/1re1Lfmqba

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

I remember being like him: telling the gospel to strangers and friends. Each rejection highlighted God's absence. pic.twitter.com/B6lUxMbOCt

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015
30 second snippets are not the best way to get an idea across, but I don't feel that my reflections are YouTube-worthy at the moment.

Here are a couple other related reflections:
  • I've been on the other end of this. I know what it's like to awkwardly share my faith, only to have the other party flatly show no interest.
  • There are many different motivations for this sort of evangelism: for example, He may have made a commitment to tell the gospel to one person a day. I've heard people make daily quote commitments like that before. Perhaps he felt like he needs to "get his numbers up," just as I was trying to "get my steps up" before midnight and my pedometer rolled over. It was 11:30 at night and perhaps he hadn't told anybody the gospel yesterday. I, leaning against a wall and looking down at my phone, would be an easy candidate. 
  • There's a narrative in evangelism that assumes that the message you have is so valuable that nobody should ever deny it. It should, as my wife suggested, "waft from you like an aroma of fresh cookies" that attracts everybody that hears it. When they hear it, their lives will change. They can't resist it. The problem is, of course, that they can resist the gospel and they do resist the gospel. For thoughtful, critical thinkers like myself, this caused some severe cognitive dissonance.
  • It's sort-of like the "L'il Susy" narrative, best exemplified by Jack Chick. I'd read a good discussion of this a few years ago; I don't remember where. However, in each L'il Susy comic, Susy tells the gospel and children receive it wholeheartedly and completely. This guy, pulling over to the side of the road, probably had an adult version of the narrative in his head. He wanted me to hear the words "Jesus loves you" and for it to click in my head that "This is what I need." Instead, I gave him the confirmation of persecution. 
Screengrab.
Excerpt from "L'il Susy," Chick Publications. She's a regular character in Chick's comics for "Little Children."
The further I get from Christianity, the more ridiculous and offensive the message becomes. I once thought I'd continue to be interested in Christian thought, but it grows more banal by the day. 

And I'm thankful for the distance.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Musician.
    Teacher.
    ​Photographer.

     jeffnords ONLINE:
    Bandcamp
    Facebook
    Instagram
    ​SoundCloud
    YouTube: Music+

    jeffnords PLACEHOLDERS:
    (infrequent haunts)
    Amazon | DailyMotion
    DeviantArt | Duolingo | Flickr | FVRL | Kik
    LinkedIn | MeetUp | MySpace | Pinterest |
    ​
    Playstation | Reddit | ​Snapchat
    Spotify | The Internet Archive
    ​Tinder | Tumblr | Twitter | Vimeo | VK | WattPad
    WeChat 

    Archives

    January 2023
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    June 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    Academics
    Acting
    Activism
    Adulthood
    Agency
    Albums
    Animals
    Animated Films
    Atheism
    Books
    Camping
    Canadiana
    Christian Culture
    Comics
    Community
    Community Theatre
    Concerts
    Covers
    Creativity
    Critical Thinking
    Current Events
    Daily Grind
    Demos
    Depression
    Digital Life
    Dogs
    Driving
    Education
    Effect Pedals
    Effects
    Empathy
    Energy
    Environment
    Events
    Exploring
    Family
    Feminism
    Film Photography
    Fitness
    Food
    Friendship
    Frivolous
    Gadgets
    Games
    Gigs
    Guitar
    Guitar Effects
    Hexanon
    Hockey
    Home
    Ideas
    Ideology
    Influence
    Jam Session
    Langauge
    Leadership
    Lectures
    Lenses
    Links
    Literature
    Live Action Films
    Live Music
    Long Term Planning
    Magnetic Poetry
    Mental Health
    Mobile Phone
    Money
    Music
    Musicians
    Music Videos
    Networking
    Nostalgia
    Objectification
    Once And Over Again
    Parenting
    Performance
    Photography
    Photos
    Podcasts
    Poetry
    Policy
    Politics
    Pop Culture
    Puppets
    Quirks
    Rants
    Recording
    Reflections
    Relationships
    Religion
    Reviews
    Rhodes
    Ruins
    Running
    Science
    Self Help
    Selfies
    Serendipity
    Sexuality
    Shakespeare
    Short Films
    Skeptihumanism
    Social Media
    Songwriting
    Spirituality
    Stage
    Stories
    Studio Recordings
    Subcultures
    Teaching
    Technology
    Theatre
    Travel
    University
    Updates
    Urban Life
    Video
    Visual
    Wildlife
    Workshops
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Contact Jeffrey

Photos used under Creative Commons from Brett Jordan, b r e n t
  • EPK
  • Blog: ideas and updates.
  • Music services.
    • Live.
    • Video.
  • Photography services.
  • EPK Spark