A misguided zeal?

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Romans 10:1-2

My wife and I were walking through the city centre the other day when we came across a street preacher. No great surprise, that – such preachers are probably a feature of most busy shopping areas. But in this case the person in question was someone we knew as a fellow-Christian.

Now, street-preaching isn’t something we normally do – we are, after all, true-born Brits and find it slightly embarrassing! So we were surprised and, for a moment, didn’t know quite how to react. We carried on through the crowds of shoppers with a perhaps slightly patronizing response of “Well, it wouldn’t be quite our thing – but all credit to him for his zeal! Not for us to criticize or judge”.

Done well, real open-air evangelism surely has its place even in staid Britain – as long as it doesn’t just irritate or inconvenience people, and perhaps makes skilful use of music, graphics, street-theatre and so-on. But simply haranguing a crowd who are showing no interest and who probably dismiss you as a religious nutter – well, you have to wonder about its value.

But further reflection brought a story to my mind…

Some years ago I was on the top deck of a London bus when a young woman stood up and started to preach. Her words – and I don’t think I’m being unfair here – were incoherent, wild, repetitive. The reaction was split. From one or two there were cries of encouragement – “Keep it coming, sister!” From several others an exasperated “Sit down!” Most of us, I think, kept our eyes firmly fixed on the floor and hoped she would stop. To me it just seemed a bad witness for Christianity, more likely to put people off than to interest or attract them.

I told this story a few days later at a fellowship group, whereupon an African lady responded excitedly “That’s how I became a Christian!” Apparently in her country people preaching on buses is, if not what you might call “normal”, certainly a recognized form of evangelism. So that put me well and truly in my place and knocked the superior stuffing out of me. (There’s nothing like a lesson in humility, is there?)

The broader lesson, of course, is that what’s acceptable in one setting or culture may clash violently in another. Although he is speaking in a different context, this is the point Paul is making when, in Romans 10, he commends his fellow-Jews for their zeal but expresses doubts about their wisdom. Zeal is good, of course – but it can be misguided.

Peter says much the same thing when he speaks about how Christians should go about evangelism: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do it with gentleness and respect…” (1 Peter 3: 15). In other words, be sensitive to the mind-set of your hearers.

A further thought struck me about our friend in the shopping centre: knowing him as I do I haven’t the slightest doubt that, before he went out that day, he will have bathed his efforts in prayer. He will have given time and real effort to his preparation. He had one or two friends in the crowd handing out tracts and, again, I haven’t the slightest doubt that they will have joined in prayer before setting out.

Which leads me to wonder: who knows how God might honour their efforts and zeal – even if we are right to feel it was a little misguided?

I can almost hear in my mind’s ear somebody standing up in a church somewhere in ten years’ time to testify to how they came to follow Jesus: “I was in a shopping precinct one day when I was in a really bad way, my life was a horrible mess, and there was this man preaching. I thought at first that he was just some kind of religious nutter. But though I didn’t really take in much of what he was saying there was something about him which caught my attention and impressed me. And here I am today…”

Let’s make no mistake, God has been known to use some pretty unlikely instruments in carrying out his purposes! I think of a friend who was converted through the testimony of a fellow-worker who was dismissed and derided by everybody else as a crank.

Why, perhaps God has used even you; even me…

Another thought strikes me. Somebody may indeed be acting in a somewhat misguided way. But if they are acting in good faith and from pure motives, does that give me – who, let’s be honest, would never have the guts to do what they are doing - any right to criticize?

And so the question arises: All right, I may feel uncomfortable about the way a fellow-Christian goes about their ministry. But am I doing it any better?

Indeed, am I doing it at all?

Thank you, Father, for those who love you enough to go out on a limb and witness for you in unconventional ways. Bless their efforts with fruitfulness, and help me to learn from their example true humility and new courage. What do you want me to do, Lord? Amen.