Taking It to the People

         I was part of a group meeting recently in which the concern was how to take our message to the larger community.  The community in this case could mean the immediate area or city…maybe even the whole country or the whole world.  In some circles “it” has been called evangelism---convincing folks of the gospel message.  Sometimes the goal in evangelism can be cynically seen as an attempt to get people to think exactly like you do.  After all, if you think you have the truth and are right, why should not everyone think just like you did?  If they don’t, that would mean they are wrong!

            The group I was part of was not thinking about “it” in those terms.  However, maybe I am kidding myself and my group was only thinking about evangelism in a more benign fashion.  Perhaps they only lacked the courage to be as bold in proclaiming the message as some of the evangelicals I mentioned.  While the content of “it” is important---whether “it” is the gospel message or whether you are trying to sell cars, computers, or anything else---I began to think about the audience for the message. 

            A key insight emerged in my thinking.  It is obvious, but that does not make it less important.  It is easy to offer something to someone if they actually want it.  If someone wants a new car, then the only real question is what kind of car will they buy?  Typically, they are active in looking and deciding.  Being a car salesperson in this case is relatively easy.  But if you switch to other areas, such as a spiritual message, the situation changes.  For example, I think that a person’s life goes better if the spiritual dimension is given some attention.  I don’t have a particular truth here that I am trying to promote, but having a spiritual dimension to life adds meaning and purpose that cannot be found in any other way.

            That said, I realize in this country and so many other countries around the world, buying into the spiritual dimension is not seen as worthwhile.  In our culture it has become very easy not to be occupied in any way with religion or the spiritual.  I am not even talking about being involved with a church, synagogue or mosque.  I recognize the closest many folks want to get to the spiritual dimension is yoga..  Indeed, we can now talk about mindfulness with no reference to Buddhism or any other meditative tradition.  People will be willing to spend money to learn yoga and they would pay money to avoid anything to do with spirituality.

            So if I have a sense of the spiritual dimension and would like to take it to the people, what am I up against?  Three things occur to me, as I ponder the people with whom I spend most of my days.  I see the majority of folks who are quite busy, who spend significant time in forms of entertainment and are deeply habituated.  Let’s briefly unpack each of these three.  It will help us understand why there often is little openness or receptivity to the “it” we would like to take to the people.

            In the first case, most people are busy.  On my college campus, literally everyone claims to be busy.  I think the same thing is true for the working families in our world.  It is a world of engagement.  Even if folks decide just to hang out, they typically are engaged in it in a busy sort of way.  Oddly, if there are a few minutes where there is nothing going on, they will whip out their cell phones and fervishly scroll through some app.  I watch students gather in a room, yet do the scrolling separately and isolated.  They forego any possibility for community.  And then they will say loneliness is pandemic in our pandemic times. 

            When people have some disposable time, it is normal to go to some form of entertainment.  I already mentioned the cell phone.  We clearly have come a long way since the days that cell phones were only used in an emergency.  Now their main function seems to be to take our minds off ourselves.  Related to this, walk down a street and see how many folks don’t have earbuds to stuff music into their brains.  You can say hello, but you are doing a monologue.  Much of the entertainment we seek is purely vicarious---we are there but someone else is doing the activity.  We go to games, but we don’t play.  We share a movie, but we never act.  We don’t realize how passive our activities can be!

            Finally, I am convinced most folks are quite habituated.  We usually call it “routine.”  Sometimes the routines are healthy and sometimes they are ruts.  But I also know routine can hinder or kill any kind of novelty, creativity or serendipity.  Routines can close us.  This kind of person has little or no interest in what I might want to bring to the people. 

            As I sat in my group meeting, I realized the conversation was too focused on the “it” we wanted to take to the people.  Folks in the group did not even consider their audience: who are the people we want to take “it” to?  A large majority of our world seems busy, entertained and routine to be at all open to the “it” we speculated might be good for them.  Realizing this led me to conclude the group of which I was a part had little or no chance of doing what they imagined they were going to do.

            What is my bottom line?  If I want to do the work of the Spirit and take “it” to the people, I need to be realistic about the world I inhabit.