Stuck By An Attendance Pin--Ouch!

My first experience doing door-to-door evangelism took place about 30 years ago.  I was on a youth retreat with a parachurch ministry in the city of Minneapolis.  This was the year I had just become a Christian and I had one most memorable experience.

A Triviality Travesty

My partner and I ended up talking with a man in his late 60s.  We stood on his doorstep and asked through the crack in the door, “Sir, if you were to die tonight how certain are you that you would go to heaven?”  He asked if we were Christians, the Evangelical kind, just making sure we weren’t from a cult, he said.  

He didn’t answer our question according to our script.  Instead he told us that when he was in Sunday School in the 3rd or 4th grade he didn’t get his 100% attendance pin that he earned.  Apparently the teacher made a mistake in the records.  I was surprised that he would remember and even care about such a trivial matter.  

We pressed onward with the Gospel story and explained to him that salvation is not based on works, but on faith in Jesus Christ.  He returned to his attendance story with seriousness in his voice, being visibly upset and stating that he is an atheist.  He had been holding a grudge against God, the teacher and the church for 60 years!

Blaming God Is Cowardly

We kindly assured him that God knew the truth about his claim and that he need not worry about it any longer.  He retorted, “The church is full of hypocrites!”  We politely laughed at him and said, “Sir, how can you blame God for the actions of people?  That is not fair to God.”  We helped him see and agree that his story sounded ludicrous.

He was silent, as it started to dawn on him that he was being foolish in holding a grudge over a minor offense, and then blaming God for it for most of his life.  This moment of softening was our opportunity to describe the imperfection of all people, as sinners.  We were even able, by God’s grace, to persuade him that he wasn’t perfect either, and in fact far from God’s righteous standard. 

We simply shared the plan of salvation with him and asked him if he would like to be free of his burden of sin, and this particular pain that has plagued him his whole life.  And we told him how God desires to have a personal relationship with us that is real.

It Is Always Good To Pray

It was an intense 20-30 minutes on that doorstep.  He was thinking hard and God was working on him.  He was near tears, but not ready to trust fully in the Gospel.  That was fine we told him; and we thanked him for telling us his story.

“Can we pray for you?”  He was so happy we asked him that.  Yes, we prayed.  We prayed for some other challenges he shared with us, and we prayed for his understanding to grow, and for God to grant him faith unto salvation in Jesus Christ.

He smiled and eagerly took our materials.  We were able to pass along his contact information to a local church in his area, and describe our honest conversation with this dear man.

I don’t know how it all turned out.  One thing I am sure of though is that attendance pins may not be such a good idea, along with a host of other awards we give out to children hoping to help make them Christians.  What do such practices really say about the Gospel?  Where do such rewards lead them to put their trust other than in Christ?