Now before you get too bent out of shape and hook your ball over in the lake, let me say that I know that Jesus loves golfers too. My point is that in the time that Jesus lived he chose to spend his time with regular people. In my world fishermen are the end all be all, but in His day, a different story. Fishermen were grinders. Guys who had to get out their and work for a living. No 21 ft boats, fancy rods, or shiny lures for these guys. No fans wearing their tournament tunics and asking for autographs. Just nets, sun, work, and stink! And yet these are the type of men that Jesus picked to carry his message around the world.
There were some other types of guys, but their prestige doesn't get much better either. Tax collectors, cheats, murderous persecutors, and a couple of guys named "Sons of Thunder"(motorcycle Ministry?).
Basically what I am saying is that if our Churches today were looking to reach the world, these guys would not make the "Big time" Speakers list. Have you noticed that our approach to doing evangelism and enlisting folks to reach the world is vastly different than how Jesus did it? As a matter of fact we do it exactly the opposite!
I heard controversial speaker Dr. Tony Campollo speak once about how our Churches love to glorify the ones that are already glorified! Now despite how you may feel about Dr Campollo, he's right. Our approach to reaching people is to take the greatest golfer, beauty queen, former rock star, big time Actor, biker king, comedian, millionaire hunter, successful businessman, and most of all Former superstar Football players, and bring them in to tell us like it is! I recently had a representative of a Non profit organization share what a deal they got on a former actor to come and speak. "We got him to speak for 45 minutes for only 15,000 dollars!" I quickly volunteered to do devotionals everyday for 6 months for 14 thousand! No takers. Now I want you to know that I am not picking on what anyone makes, that is between them and God.
What I am saying is that we have created a culture of "Christian Stars". I'm afraid that instead of being "Salt and Light" to a world that needs truth so desperately, we look like a cheap mirrored subculture. Can God use Christian stars? Yes, He can do use whatever He wants, but I think we would do well to look to His example. The guys and girls He used, only brought glory to Him, not themselves. Former Christian singer Steve Camp sang " We give God the glory, but we are happy to a take the award".
I would really love to see this on an event flyer: He's not a star, he's not a millionaire, hes not an actor, or even a former football player. He's just an ordinary guy with an extraordinary message! The problem is often times most people won't attend unless the big name is there. Wouldn't it be cool if Jesus was always the big name?
P.S. To all my golfing friends I just want to say that there is nothing like spending a day at the golf course catching big Bass!
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