By All Possible Means

By All Possible Means

It is a truth most Christians know with their heads but have trouble embracing with their hearts. Stated simply, not everyone is nurtured by the same spiritual environment. At least that was the conclusion of a Barna study examining group expressions of the Christian faith.

With our heads we affirm that truth remembering the declaration of the apostle Paul when he declared, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). But with our hearts many wish everyone could experience the same spiritual stimulus that spurred them toward a deeper relationship with God. 

If one was saved in a revival service for example one often concludes that revivals are the answer to a church’s lagging evangelism. If a lay renewal weekend turned around one’s relationship with God then everyone should participate in a lay renewal weekend. 

Personal experience and individual preferences make it difficult for many people to appreciate that some respond better to a personal conversation about their relationship to God than they do to a sermon in a large setting or that some people move slowly toward God and are put off by calls for immediate decisions. 

Spiritual environment

That does not mean revivals, lay renewal weekends or any other special activity are wrong or inappropriate. It only illustrates that not everyone is nurtured by the same spiritual environment. 

The apostle Paul was a Roman citizen under bondage to no one. Yet he often adopted the mindset of a servant in order to gain a hearing for the gospel (v. 19). At other times Paul complied with the demands of Jewish ceremonial law in order to share the good news of Jesus with a Jewish audience. He did this even though Paul clearly taught that in Christ the burden of ceremonial law had been removed. 

With Gentiles, the apostle behaved as one not under the Jewish ceremonial law. With philosophers, he debated philosophy and shared the message of Christ on their own terms. Paul would violate no law of God to please man but he accommodated himself in every lawful way to gain a hearing from some. 

The apostle Paul used a variety of approaches in order to gain the widest hearing for the gospel because he understood people are not all nurtured by the same spiritual environment. 

Knowing this truth does not stop Baptists and other Christians today from disagreeing about how to share the gospel or what style of worship is best. For some a high-energy service focused on choruses and Scripture songs is the only way to worship. Others prefer singing the great hymns of the faith in a more traditional service. 

Some Christians want to focus on Bible study during worship while others focus on beginning a relationship with God. Some Christians are stirred by the lofty sounds of organ and piano. Others are moved by the guitar and drum. 

Increasingly, a number of Christians are rejecting all of these approaches in favor of small groups or house churches where sharing is emphasized and personal relationships are nurtured.

Each approach to worship and proclamation has its strengths but no one style appeals to everyone because, as Barna found, not everyone is nurtured by the same spiritual environment. 

On visits to England my wife and I like to participate in evensong services, especially in some of the great London cathedrals. Each weeknight as evening falls, worshippers gather for music and Scripture. Occasionally there is a sermon. The liturgy has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. To us there is something powerful about standing where Christian believers have stood for centuries and declaring faith in God through Jesus Christ with the same words and readings used by all who had stood on those stones before. 

One of our granddaughters attended evensong services with Pat and I on one trip. Afterward she observed that evensong might be “our thing” but it was not hers. She had just completed a week at Mfuge, a summer youth gathering, before accompanying us to London and what she enjoyed was the high-energy music and rhythmic beat.

Desiring to walk with God

The apostle Paul’s emphasis was not condemning the Gentile or the Jew but ministering to them with the gospel. It is doubtful that in today’s culture he would be interested in poking fun at contemporary worship or condemning the formality of traditional services. More likely he would be concerned about what opened people to the message of the gospel and created a desire for a continuing walk with God.

The Barna study found differences in responses based on geographical regions, on gender, on age, on life situation and on religious background. Obviously reaching people for the Lord and spurring their Christian growth is much more complicated than the type of music one sings. 

Like the apostle Paul those today with a warm-hearted zeal for the gospel will “be all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” That may mean using a variety of approaches to minister to those already in the church’s sphere of influence as well as to those we hope to reach. 

Certainly Paul’s example and the findings of the Barna study remind us again that pleading for one method of outreach or one style of worship is inappropriate because not everyone is nurtured by the same spiritual environment.