I pulled this from here: baptistdeception What do you think? And why dont they then come up with another plan? I remember having “Bible Drills” where the teacher would hold a contest to see who could repeat the Romans Road to salvation the fastest and most efficient. We had to memorize it and pretend to be presenting it in witness style to a non-believer. I also recall being escorted with my classmates to retirement communities to spend time with the elderly folks there to “practice” presenting the Romans Road. The elderly didn’t mind since they loved the company of children and occasionally someone would make a profession of faith as a result. The praise and admiration of the child that “scored” the most souls for Christ was beyond flattery. As Jamey and I talked, it became apparent that our concerns weren’t really with the witnessing or the professions made as a result. Some concern was discussed about the sincerity of the conversion experience and whether or not the conversion experience was true or not given the rushed and shallow approach of the Romans Road method of witnessing. We wonder if it’s truly possible to receive Christ without understanding the full impact of our sin and the process of repentance – neither of which is spelled out very clearly in the Romans Road method. We had some disagreements on that front, but what really concerned us the most is that once again, through this Roman’s Road method to salvation, we see the IFB for what it really is – shallow and performance based. Although the Romans Road is the gospel message in a nutshell, the flavor of the presentation is one that makes us very uncomfortable and nervous. Its over simplistic and cookie cutter style is dangerous to say the least and manipulative at most. It can be severely misleading to many people who are presented with a quick, short gospel message and then left in the dust to figure out the details. It’s often used to measure witnessing efforts, compete with other people/churches on the number of souls won for Christ and as a cheap shallow way for people to get involved in bringing people to Christ and/or adding numbers to the local IFB church. We are concerned about the way the IFB pushes the use of the Romans Road on its congregations making people believe that they are “witnessing” when they may not be. We are also extremely concerned that pulling 6 or 7 verses out of context without explaining details and giving people time to ask questions presents a very shallow and misguided gospel message. This can lead to more confusion and frustration and hurt more people than it helps. Even if it didn’t do these things, should the ends justify the means? Our goal for witnessing shouldn’t be in getting someone to pray the salvation prayer. Neither should it be about just presenting the gospel in rapid fire format hoping that some of the “buck shot” will land on fertile soil. Witnessing is about building relationships and showing who Christ is and deliberately planting seeds. We aren’t responsible for salvation, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job. Jamey and I both agreed that the Roman’s Road can certainly be a method that God uses to bring some souls to Him and for that we are thankful, but we need to be very careful lest we fall prey to this idea that one size fits all. The salvation experience is unique and we need to be sensitive to the fact that people who need Christ may be turned off by such a non-personal and cookie cutter style of witnessing
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 19:57:00 +0000
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