Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?
Dear Friend,
So I was at one of the local churches in Arizona the other day. I was there because I wanted to check out its bookstore. I like going to church bookstores because I enjoy seeing what they have to read. I think that you can tell a lot about a church by being in its bookstore. This particular church is really big, and so that means the bookstore is really big.
While walking around, I noticed something…something that I hadn’t seen in a really long time. It was right next to the rack with all the birthday cards (they also had encouragement cards, “thinking of you” cards, and those spiritual cards with bible verses in them). But I remember all that my eyes saw were the words “Four Spiritual Laws.”
I hadn’t seen a Four Spiritual Law track in what seemed like forever.
I pretended like I was looking at the greeting cards because these Four Spiritual Law tracks were right by the register, and so I honestly felt embarrassed at the thought of being caught looking at them. It worked out really well though because shortly after I had gotten there, the woman behind the counter left and went to the back of the store. So it was just this bright yellow booklet and me.
As I was looking through it, I was brought back to a specific time when I was working at a church…one of my jobs was to refill the track-rack in the main sanctuary! It was really funny because I remember wondering why in the world someone would come and take one of these tracks.
In this particular church, there were everyday tracks…but there were also more seasonal tracks for Christmas, Easter, and so forth.
Anyway, I want to show you a few of the things that the Four Spiritual Laws track says. In fact, I thought that I would just let the track speak for itself.
Adult?? Always BE Ready??
Free Booklets...Free Durable Vinyl Wallet...Free Easy User's Guide??
Tried and proven...Clear and biblical...Easy-to-use??
That’s just the front of it.
Inside the pamphlet is a user’s guide:
To open the conversation simply read the question on the cover of the
edition you selected. For example, ‘Have you heard of the Four Spiritual
Laws?’ Or, if you believe the person is a Christian, say, ‘I have been a
Christian for years, but I have found a way to express my faith that really
makes sense. I would like to share it with you. Have you heard of the
Four Spiritual Laws?’
The pamphlet goes on to read, ‘After presenting the Four Spiritual Laws, encourage the one with whom you have shared the ‘good news’ to receive
Christ. Do not hesitate to provide a specific opportunity to do so. Often
one who has previously appeared to be indifferent will want to pray when
he is confronted with the definite opportunity to ask Jesus Christ to be Savior
and Lord of his life. After presenting law Four, be sure to:
1. Ask, ‘Do you want a God-directed life, or a self-directed life?’
2. Read the prayer aloud at the end of the booklet and ask, ‘Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?’ then say, ‘if it does, you may wish to pray this prayer right now, and Christ will come into your life, as He promised.’ (Pause at this time for prayer. Make sure the person with whom you are sharing can see the prayer to read it.)
3. Pray: if the person hesitates to pray aloud, ask, ‘Would you like to repeat the prayer after me?’ If the person wishes to pray silently, suggest he end his prayer with an audible ‘Amen.’ If the person is not ready to pray, say, ‘One day I believe you will choose to receive Christ and will want to know how to do so. Do you understand how to receive Christ?’
It makes sense to me why some people don’t like Christians after reading this pamphlet. And maybe it isn’t fair to assume the idea of people not liking Christians just because of this track, so maybe it’s more of an emotion of frustration. I sometimes get this barbaric feeling that too many Christians have been tamed and can no longer survive in the real world. Especially when it comes to evangelism (the art of sharing who Jesus is). That is why people use stuff like the Four Spiritual Laws, which is sad. You would hope that telling someone about Jesus would be a little more free flowing and that you didn’t need a user’s guide (literally).
I love going to the Zoo. It is always a good time. Christmas is coming soon, and even though I’m not a big Christmas music fan (I think Christmas music is kind of like K-Love on steroids), I love going to the Phoenix Zoo during the month of December because they have this thing called ZOO Lights. But I always get sad for the animals when I’m there -- I always wonder if the animals ever think about what it was like before the Zoo (B.Z.). Back when some human didn’t feed them three times a day…but instead they had to go and prey over and hunt for food…and if they didn’t kill anything they didn’t get to eat.
If you ask me, the Animals at the Zoo always look unhappy. If I were an animal at the Zoo (I would hope I was a Lion), I wouldn’t like it.
In a sense, Christians are a lot like these animals. I’m not trying to say that Christians should go and prey on and kill people who aren’t Christians for the sake of evangelism…I just think that there is beauty in being raw and untamed. Especially when you are talking about someone like Jesus.
My fear is that the church is turning into the Zoo.
They capture people from the world, and then they tame them by taking away their natural ability to relate to people…
I just want to go to the Zoo to see Christmas lights…not Christians.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
So I was at one of the local churches in Arizona the other day. I was there because I wanted to check out its bookstore. I like going to church bookstores because I enjoy seeing what they have to read. I think that you can tell a lot about a church by being in its bookstore. This particular church is really big, and so that means the bookstore is really big.
While walking around, I noticed something…something that I hadn’t seen in a really long time. It was right next to the rack with all the birthday cards (they also had encouragement cards, “thinking of you” cards, and those spiritual cards with bible verses in them). But I remember all that my eyes saw were the words “Four Spiritual Laws.”
I hadn’t seen a Four Spiritual Law track in what seemed like forever.
I pretended like I was looking at the greeting cards because these Four Spiritual Law tracks were right by the register, and so I honestly felt embarrassed at the thought of being caught looking at them. It worked out really well though because shortly after I had gotten there, the woman behind the counter left and went to the back of the store. So it was just this bright yellow booklet and me.
As I was looking through it, I was brought back to a specific time when I was working at a church…one of my jobs was to refill the track-rack in the main sanctuary! It was really funny because I remember wondering why in the world someone would come and take one of these tracks.
In this particular church, there were everyday tracks…but there were also more seasonal tracks for Christmas, Easter, and so forth.
Anyway, I want to show you a few of the things that the Four Spiritual Laws track says. In fact, I thought that I would just let the track speak for itself.
Adult?? Always BE Ready??
Free Booklets...Free Durable Vinyl Wallet...Free Easy User's Guide??
Tried and proven...Clear and biblical...Easy-to-use??
That’s just the front of it.
Inside the pamphlet is a user’s guide:
To open the conversation simply read the question on the cover of the
edition you selected. For example, ‘Have you heard of the Four Spiritual
Laws?’ Or, if you believe the person is a Christian, say, ‘I have been a
Christian for years, but I have found a way to express my faith that really
makes sense. I would like to share it with you. Have you heard of the
Four Spiritual Laws?’
The pamphlet goes on to read, ‘After presenting the Four Spiritual Laws, encourage the one with whom you have shared the ‘good news’ to receive
Christ. Do not hesitate to provide a specific opportunity to do so. Often
one who has previously appeared to be indifferent will want to pray when
he is confronted with the definite opportunity to ask Jesus Christ to be Savior
and Lord of his life. After presenting law Four, be sure to:
1. Ask, ‘Do you want a God-directed life, or a self-directed life?’
2. Read the prayer aloud at the end of the booklet and ask, ‘Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?’ then say, ‘if it does, you may wish to pray this prayer right now, and Christ will come into your life, as He promised.’ (Pause at this time for prayer. Make sure the person with whom you are sharing can see the prayer to read it.)
3. Pray: if the person hesitates to pray aloud, ask, ‘Would you like to repeat the prayer after me?’ If the person wishes to pray silently, suggest he end his prayer with an audible ‘Amen.’ If the person is not ready to pray, say, ‘One day I believe you will choose to receive Christ and will want to know how to do so. Do you understand how to receive Christ?’
It makes sense to me why some people don’t like Christians after reading this pamphlet. And maybe it isn’t fair to assume the idea of people not liking Christians just because of this track, so maybe it’s more of an emotion of frustration. I sometimes get this barbaric feeling that too many Christians have been tamed and can no longer survive in the real world. Especially when it comes to evangelism (the art of sharing who Jesus is). That is why people use stuff like the Four Spiritual Laws, which is sad. You would hope that telling someone about Jesus would be a little more free flowing and that you didn’t need a user’s guide (literally).
I love going to the Zoo. It is always a good time. Christmas is coming soon, and even though I’m not a big Christmas music fan (I think Christmas music is kind of like K-Love on steroids), I love going to the Phoenix Zoo during the month of December because they have this thing called ZOO Lights. But I always get sad for the animals when I’m there -- I always wonder if the animals ever think about what it was like before the Zoo (B.Z.). Back when some human didn’t feed them three times a day…but instead they had to go and prey over and hunt for food…and if they didn’t kill anything they didn’t get to eat.
If you ask me, the Animals at the Zoo always look unhappy. If I were an animal at the Zoo (I would hope I was a Lion), I wouldn’t like it.
In a sense, Christians are a lot like these animals. I’m not trying to say that Christians should go and prey on and kill people who aren’t Christians for the sake of evangelism…I just think that there is beauty in being raw and untamed. Especially when you are talking about someone like Jesus.
My fear is that the church is turning into the Zoo.
They capture people from the world, and then they tame them by taking away their natural ability to relate to people…
I just want to go to the Zoo to see Christmas lights…not Christians.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
posted by Kyle DiRoberts at 8:34 PM
6 Comments:
hmm...this has to be a discussion over breakfast tomarrow.
I didn't even know that these things existed.
"adult"
ha.
i know its hard for you young jedis to believe but...a lot of people came to Christ through these evangelistic relics back in the day. bill bright was a stud and campus crusade has spread the gospel to i dont know how many people...but more than i'll probably ever reach. of course that "day" has come and gone. thats the really cool thing about being Gen X. like a sandwich i've lived and done ministry in both eras. i believe that the 4SL worked because of several things. 1. back in the day, you could press people, evangelistically, to make decisions on info, they already had about God. that is most had been to VBS or Awana. Today, the 4SL would be like starting a book in the middle. they dont know the cast, plot, etc. For ex. i remember using it at ASU back in about 92 or so and a girl sincerely asked me, "God who?" i.e., "which one loves me and has a plan for my life?" 2. i know i'm taking it out of context but, like you, its hard for me to not "lean not on your own understanding" regarding these things. to me, on paper, hillsong shouldnt work but it does. God chooses to bless...even annoint things (and people)that dont compute to me. So, ive learned over the years (man, that sounds old) not to be surprised at some of the things God chooses to utilize to spread the Good News. Finally, and most importantly, i really and truly believe that Bill Bright would be honored to know that people like you are now creatively taking the good news and translating it into our culture and era. he'd probably be bummed to think that we're still using a 70s model to do outreach .. in fact he'd probably be ticked. we'd be disappointed too if, in 2036 people are still trying to use our model. good blog and a great relic of the past.
Now a side note, i remember giving a report at sbc one sunday in the late 90s that over easter we'd given out, and i quote myself, "1,300 Jesus videos for children and we gave out over 3,ooo adult videos." I still remember Ed Wilmington's look. I meant adult Jesus videos
I got remember getting a "you're going to hell" look once when I didn't have the 4 SL's memorized. I think I was 13! I may have nightmares about having to see those pictures of the track again. Someone wants to take them to Africa with us... I kept my mouth shut and I will still keep my mouth shut when they wonder where in the world they went! =) I can't be party to Americanizing the Africans who in so many ways understand God so much better than we do. I like what Bobby said. I had that same conversation yesterday with a guy (about his age) who encouraged me to not limit the power of God to use something I think is stupid. It could actually be contradicting all the effort spent trying to get people to see all the places, concepts, words, spaces, etc that God is and will always be. Regardless, I'm not memorizing it... Nicene's Creed maybe, but 4SL's... Not going to happen.
I really appreciated this interaction. i have had the same negative reaction towards the 4SL. I get caught up on 'God has a wonderful plan for your life...' an unbeliever thinks if they repeat this prayer...then all their problems will be solved. not a chance. the seeming 'problems' increase. but, b/c the perspective on what matters changes it is ultimately seen as good. so..i never understood why the 4SL were such a hit... but, your humble words , bobby, helped me understand this a bit better.
how is the gospel shared now? i don't know if it's as much handing out tracks...as it is just living authentically and pulling people into it. but..is that really something new from the past? sometimes i feel out of touch w/ american culture. thanks penning your thoughts to paper.
i did a podcast a while back referencing the four spiritual laws. i talked about how they're not necessarily true. like; 2. Man is sinful and seperated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life.
while part A of the statement may be accurate; i definately don't believe a person has to be a christian to do what they were created to do...like woody allen for example.
Great post, Kyle. Stirs up nostalgic memories of my Dad's Campus Crusade days.
On a side note, while relational, progressive approaches seem the better incarnational model... I've had occassions - even in the last few months - where a unique situation (e.g. a baptism class) seemed to call for more of an informational walk into the relational reality. I had a woman give herself to Christ as her Lord & Savior at the end of the little green booklet Campus Crusade adapted from the 4 Laws one.
Granted, it all took place in an institutional setting that I'm eager to escape... Nevertheless, it still took place. That woman & some members of her family are now engaging in the search for an intimate daily experience of Christ in their lives.
I think some aspects of evangelism methodology is surprisingly versatile.
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