This is part 7 of a series of posts that interact with Guy Kawasaki's 10 principles of "evangelism." Refer to my February 22, 2006 post for the set up.

Principle 7:

"Provide a safe first step. The path to adopting a cause should have a slippery slope. There shouldn't be large barriers like revamping the entire IT infrastructure. For example, the safe first step to recruit an evangelist for the environment is not requiring that she chain herself to a tree; it’s to ask her to start recycling and taking shorter showers."

Here’s where things might get a little bit controversial with me. For a long time now many evangelicals have embraced this concept of providing “a safe first step” by redesigning the Sunday worship service experience. The thinking is that The Church should make their buildings and worship times as comfortable and inviting as possible. It’s even been heralded by some church growth experts as “the showroom floor” principle applying a consumerist metaphor to spreading the Gospel.

We’ve invested loads of money in buildings, lighting, comfy seats, multimedia, cup holders, etc. We’ve redesigned the weekly service to be experientially satisfying for modern consumers, including current and individualistic pop worship music, dynamic video production, drama and comedy, and a life-practical sermon (often in a culturally relevant serial format) all presented within a carefully timed, one-hour package. Undoubtedly deciding to visit one of these services is about as safe as it gets. As a visitor (read: prospective customer), it’s all about serving you.

Aside from my obvious bias in how I wrote the above lines, I’m not going to dissect this approach right off the bat. Instead, let’s put it aside for a moment, and think about Kawasaki’s Principle 7 differently. How did Jesus provide a safe first step in his ministry on earth?

To be sure, Jesus wasn’t always a “safe” person. He often challenged the status quo in society, and his closest allies, the 12 disciples, must have certainly felt nervous about their own safety from time to time. It reminds me of the passage in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe where Lucy asks Mr. Beaver, “is Aslan safe?” To which he replies, “No, child, Aslan is a lion. He is not safe, but he is good.”

So instead of defining a relationship with Jesus in terms of risk, think in terms of what a safe first step towards His Kingdom would be. Here the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Here the economy of love is generous and free:

Matthew 5:45-47 TNIV “…He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”

Brain McLaren writes in The Secret Message of Jesus, “[Jesus] loved to compare the kingdom of God to a party. He would demonstrate the open border of the kingdom of God by hosting or participating in parties where even the most notorious outcasts and sinners were welcome.”

Jesus’ first act of ministry (and sign of the kingdom) was making sure a wedding host didn’t make a major social mistake by running out of wine at his own wedding party. Jesus did this even though his “hour had not yet come.” (John 2:4 TNIV) A quiet act of kindness and grace: Jesus’ generous and kind spirit was the embodiment of His Kingdom message.

This was the standard mode of His ministry. Rather than set up a central venue or regular event (even though people gathered to listen to him teach in droves) in Jerusalem, he was perpetually on tour. He quite often traveled the fringes, met people on their turf, got involved in their homes and lives. And this also was his charge when sending out his disciples on their mission.

Mark 6:8-10 TNIV “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.”

In other words, be mobile. Step out. Go to them. You’ll be walking a lot, so wear sandals. But don’t be self sufficient. Be vulnerable. Be dependent on others (and God) to get on in life. Learn to accept generosity as well as extend it to others. Stay in a host home that welcomes you. I honestly believe these instructions were intended to help the Disciples learn how to conduct themselves in relating to people as much as they were to facilitate the logistics of their mission work.

The generous spirit of Jesus ministry was exemplified in his open invitation, table fellowship evangelism. His presence, conversation, friendship was the safe first step toward transformation. He took a step toward us to make it safe for us to take a step toward him.

McLaren continues, “By accepting and welcoming people into his presence, just as they were, with all their problems and imperfections, Jesus was exposing them to His example and to His secret message. In this way He could challenge them to think—and think again—and consider becoming part of the kingdom of God so they could experience and participate in the transformation that flows from being in interactive relationship with God and others.”

So what is the safe first step that The Church can provide for people in today’s world. I would argue that enough time, energy and resources have been dedicated toward creating bigger and better weekly, 1 hour experiences. It is possible to over invest in something—and I think we may have over invested our Kingdom resources in this single form for the past two decades (and likely longer). I’m not saying abandon the effort, but rather moderate the event emphasis and reallocate the resources. Instead, we need to take a step toward those on the borders of the kingdom (to steal another metaphor from McLaren).

What if all the money (read: tithes) spent on venues, sound systems, talent and media was funneled back through the congregation and spent on throwing extravagant and generous parties for our neighbors. Would that be heresy? What if 80 percent of the church budget was directly spent on connecting individuals with the safest first step of all: transformative friendships? What would that look like? I don’t exactly have the answer, but I’m willing to think differently about it. Can I exchange my cozy slippers for some tough leather sandals?

I served briefly on a mega-aspiring church’s marketing committee just a couple years ago. The ad hoc group was tasked with developing marketing messages and tactics to promote the weekly services or sermon series. While this can be a fun exercise for a PR and marketing professional, I began confusing people when I suggested that we take the church outreach (read: marketing) budget and look for ways to rain love and generosity on people in the community. Instead of a 4-color postcard mailer for the DaVinci Code sermon series, let’s develop local teams within our congregations that can create and give gift baskets to their immediate neighbors (with yummy home-baked goodies, free transit passes, or a new tree or plant, etc.). Then use the gift-giving as a means to invite their neighbors to dinner at home, or a small group gathering, or a back-yard barbeque. No church promotional brochure or flashy church service promo DVD inside. No marketing trinkets and trash. No buzz marketing campaigns or brand building tactics. Just something highly personal, generous and home-spun. Something leading to a lasting friendship. A safe first step.

They have since sent out two DVDs in mass mailings featuring their new worship center and worship team music at a cost I can only imagine.

My questions are these: Are we more interested in growing weekly church services or expanding the borders of the kingdom? Have we capitulated Christ’s calling to pursue transformative relationships (safer for the seeker) in favor of leveraging our event-based marketing strategies (safer for us)? Does this need to be an either/or strategy as it seems to be in many cases?

Jesus is calling us out of the safety of our buildings and on to the borders of the Kingdom to extend welcome to the world-weary immigrants who seek safe passage. If we want to provide a safe first step, we need to step out and get our sandals good and worn out.