A Telemarketer For God

When I was 16 years old, my very first job was at a call center for a time share agency. I was one of those guys who called to tell you that you had just won a free 3 day, 2 night Florida getaway. All you had to do was show up and claim your prize (and sit through a brief 90 minute presentation about how to vacation in style).

As jobs go, it was pretty sweet. I made $6 an hour (minimum wage was $4.85 back then), and my hourly rate went up based on the number of people I got to show up for their "prize." Our performance was evaluated on how many calls we made, how many of those calls turned into appointments, and how many appointments actually showed up.

I got fired my 3rd week.

Apparently, pretending to give a sales pitch every time your supervisor walks by your desk (when you are really talking to your best friend) is not a good example of "results oriented behavior."

Who would have guessed they were listening in on my calls!?!?

I started thinking about this job today because I had to fill out a form for the church and I was amazed at the similarities I saw between telemarketing and how we view evangelism in the church. The questions were, Are you active in personal witnessing? (i.e. "Are you making phone calls?") and, Have you led anyone to the Lord in the past three months? (i.e. "Are you getting people to show up for the time share pitch.")

Now, on the surface these questions would seem to have tremendous merit. After all, Jesus did tell his original disciples to make disciples of all nations. And what better way to gauge how we are doing in this effort than to find out how many deals we have closed in the last three months? But something about my perspective has radically changed in the past few months to where I no longer see this as a helpful question, but rather a question that completely misses the point about discipleship and evangelism.

The Kingdom of God is not a call center and our job is not simply to get as many people in the door as we can. (Now, hear me out on this please.) We are called to make disciples, not simply "win the lost." And disciple making requires a much greater investment on our part than simply leading someone in a sinner's prayer. In fact, we may go our whole lives and never lead someone in a sinner's prayer, yet still have a tremendous impact on people and on our world for Christ. Conversely, someone else may lead hundreds of people a year in a sinner's prayer and never take the time needed to invest themselves in making disciples. As a result, I believe there are a whole lot of "Christians" who never become followers of Christ because the "soul winners" are not interested in being disciple makers. Yet the standard for effective evangelism is, "Have you led anyone to the Lord in the past three months?"

Well, I hope I have led hundreds or even thousands to the Lord in the past three months. But I am pretty sure that my idea of leading people to Jesus is not the same as what the person asking the question intended. I cannot recall leading anyone in a sinner's prayer recently.

But then, I hope my life's purpose is about far more than that. I hope my job is not to simply to be a telemarketer for God, but instead to be salt and light to a hurting and broken world.