Proselytising bad? Church success through community involvement?

Now I haven't been a Christian for very long and really only devoting myself seriously over the last year but I found myself bewildered.

Went to a mid-week communion and there were very few of us there so after the service I had my first real chat with the priest. The conversation started around the topic of building congregation numbers, which is a big concern of mind as I feel that I have found something good that wont be around very long if nothing changes, all I hear is community involvement. Community involvement is great but if it doesn't bring people into the faith all it is doing is moving resources from the church to the secular world.

Then the conversation turned to spreading the faith to other communities like Jews and Muslims. Here the priest alluded that proselytising was bad? That all that matters is that the person is faithful, and gave the example of a child on a mountain in Afghanistan with no access to Christianity, is it reasonable to think that they are damned? My response was "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." From then on I just bit on my tongue.

Again I say that I am new but am I misunderstanding something. I write it here because I don't wont to start an argument with the priest it just seems Christianity is no longer seen as unique, that the church has lost its' way and is now simply going through the motions. I normally leave communion uplifted but left today depressed.

I vent.

 

the problem is that proselytising has become assosiated with people with sign bords and loud voices on the street so people are embaressed of the word and dont want to come any where near it

 

That's not it in this situation. All religions are equally valid so proselytising would be rude. It is wrong to change someone from a Jew, Muslim, etc to a Christian. Is it wrong? I thought it would be saving them.

 

im not saying its bad far from it im saying current methods arnt working

 

Thanks for putting a name to it. I wonder how common it is within the Anglican church.

 

Yes you are misunderstanding something rather important concerning how salvation works and what those of us who know we are 'saved' are contracted by Jesus Christ to do about letting people know what HE has done for them.

It is not reasonable to think that the 'child on a mountain in Afghanistan with no access to Christianity, is damned'. Jesus Christ has made provision for him/her by offering himself a living sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. However, the child on a mountain in Afghanistan with no access to Christianity DOES NOT KNOW THAT. It is our job as faithful servants of Christ to inform that child of the salvation from wrath that Jesus Christ has won for them. How that child responds to that 'GOOD NEWS' will decide whether "he/she comes to the Father, or rejects the free forgiveness and salvation they already had but didn't know about until they heard the Gospel from you. How can anyone know for certain God loves them unless someone God loves, tells them. How can a free gift of salvation be rejected by someone who is completely unaware that they have recieved a gift of free salvation.

No one has ever been saved by being turned into a 'Christian'. Everyone is saved by the death of Jesus Christ, until they reject what he has done for them when they find out what he did.

THIS is why the Gospel is a two edged sword. This is why Jesus is a stone too heavy to lift, that will fall on some and crush them. This is why we are ambassadors for Christ.

WE are ALL saved by God's amazing grace, not by doing lots of things Christian do or stopping doing lots of things other religions do. All that doing stuff is what we can expect to see people doing or not doing, who now KNOW they are saved through Jesus Christ.
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What happens to the child that never has the chance to hear the gospel? No missionary ever visited (because the church decided that would be a form of western imperialism or as a priest at another church I went to referred to our church as "the colonial church") so all of his life the child then man then father then eaten by a tiger lived in complete ignorance of Christ and the gospel.

 

It might - depending on their reaction to the good news, - cause them to condemn themselves and endanger the salvation they already have been gifted of by God, in Christ, by default. Ingratitude is a great sin which is contempuous of God's grace.
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When they face God face to face and know him as God knows them they will discover, that their sins were not held against them because God was in Christ reconciling himself with the world on that cross and so God no longer holds their sins against them. They are forgiven and having never rejected that free gift of forgivness by rejecting Jesus Christ as their saviour, they will presumably be overjoyed in God's Heavenly Kingdom.

THIS is the GOSPEL. Why do you think it is called GOOD NEWS?

Well it's good news to anyone who takes God up on His free offer of reconciliation and starts behaving like the brother or sister of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords instead of as a son of Satan.
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The person that has never heard the gospel seems to have the much easier time of it. If only the apostles had of stayed home everyone would have been better off. My opinion for what it is worth is that it falls into the mystery box that I keep the trinity in. I don't know and I don't need to know. The only important thing is that I try my best to stay on the path that Christ has laid out for me.

 

As to the mature unreached (those who have understanding), Paul says this in Rom. 1:18-20:

As to "proselytising", we are commanded to it by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Great Commission. Matt. 28:18-20:

Why does the Lord Jesus command us to go out and make disciples? Because there is salvation in no one else. Acts 4:11-12:

Only through the Lord Jesus Christ can the fallen and sinful be saved and gain a place in God's eternal kingdom. There is no other way.

John 14:5-7:

 

Everybody has a responsibility to KNOW Jesus Christ IS their Lord and Saviour, so that they can avail themselves of HIS Spirit and know that their deeds are henceforth wrought in Christ.

The downside of that is that the judgment happens the moment the Gospel is rejected by those who hear it and reject it, for many are called but few are chosen.
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WE ALL have an easier time of it ever since God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and not counting their sins against them. The person who HAS heard the Gospel and rejects that much easier time by rejecting God's reconciliation, has nobody to blame but themselves for the loss of their salvation. It has not been 'lost' or 'taken from them', it has been neglectfully and negligently, thrown away by them.
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Rom 1:19-20 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

When I read this, I think that God will judge those who never heard the Gospel by the following standard (more or less): Did the person acknowledge the Creator of all things, a benevolent Being who gave life to all things? Was the person grateful for what he'd been given and desirous of living in a matter that might be pleasing to that Creator?

I do think that such a person would gladly trust in Jesus Christ if he were to hear the Good News. I also think that hearing God's true teachings as contained in the Bible would be of considerable aid and comfort. So I do not think that the unreached have it easier.

 

After a particularly spirit filled sermon from a Christian missionary to a remote province of China, it was reported, one person in the crowd was heard saying to his friend afterwards. "See, I told you God must be like the one he has just been telling us about."
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