Evangelism Lessons from the Goji Berries
For some reason, I am a big target for MLM marketers. I don't know what it is about me, but people will come up to me in grocery stores, malls, airports and anywhere else they can find me. Maybe, just maybe it's that MLM marketers talk to everyone they can about joining, or it's that there's something wrong with me. I quite literally get mobbed!
In case you don't know what an MLM is, it typically has 3 things in common:
1. People ask you if you want more "free money" in your life and tell you they want to help you make lots of dough without doing hardly any work.
2. They are very vague about how that can happen and usually want to talk with you in person.
3. They ask you to invest into a "failproof" plan ... usually at least $500-$1500 which will soon return to you with interest creating compounding, free money for you to retire on ... next year!
My most recent pitch was a friend who called me up and wanted to meet. What he was selling (I mean offering) ... Goji Berries.
Not sure if you've ever heard of them, but they supposedly heal cancer, diabetes and all other sorts of diseases. My only question was why the news anchors, and the President hadn't promoted them first.
Bottom line was that I wasn't buying it. As he shared, I hung my head in disgust. Yep, this was just what I thought … a pyramid scheme. Another lie to get my hopes up, take my money and leave me high and dry.
I did my best to make the meeting short and sweet, leaving my friend still feeling dignified, but making it clear I never wanted to hear about this again.
How often is this scenario true in our evangelism efforts. Out of the love and truth exploding in our hearts, we go to share Christ with a friend or co-worker only to be utterly disappointed in their disbelief and contempt. I believe sometimes we may be making the mistake of the Goji Berries.
We blow up Christ to be the answer to everything, and with very little commitment they can have it all! We make salvation and Christianity very unbelievable by stretching it to seem amazing (and it is)!
Jesus is already amazing, we don't need to make him seem inconceivable. Faith is already life changing, we don't need to make it sound easy. Christianity is powerful but will always require carrying a personal cross, and if we neglect to present this with our Gospel, we may just find ourselves lonely … with the Goji Berries.
