Huge...Tracts of Evangelism
Monday, May 14, 2007 at 10:55 pm
I went to Value City today to do a little belt shopping. Apparently it's harder than I thought. I turned to leave the men's clothing area, and this nicely dressed guy walks up to me.
Apparently, he sees my T-shirt (wearing LaMoine Christian Camp shirt) and he says something like "I know you may not need this, but give it to someone who does," and holds out a piece of paper on which I see the word Heaven. Oh no, a tract evangelist! I said "no" and started walking away. He said something else, and I turned to him and asked "Are you soliciting in the store?" to which he replied "no." I started walking away really fast now, and went straight to a manager.
Told the manager that there was a guy handing out tracts and harassing people. He asked "where?" and I looked behind me - apparently I was being followed. I said "The guy in the brown shirt," and pointed at the fast-approaching man behind me, and added "I'm out of here."
As I drove off, I see the guy walking out toward his out-of-state vehicle. I made eye contact with him and drove off.
Did I do the right thing? Well, not exactly. I rushed out too quickly and didn't say anything to the person handing out the tracts. He deserved to hear what I had to say.
What he was doing was not evangelism. It was not even Christlike. Can you imagine Jesus as a pushy salesman? We don't hear of even the apostles handing out papyrus tracts. Sure, they drew crowds when they told what they knew. They didn't come from another country, stop in town for a day and abandon them the next day. I made sure he left at least that one store. I hoped at least one less person wouldn't get such a poor picture of God.