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Published on Monday, 23 January 2012 08:35

Sometimes I wonder if our efforts at sharing the good news of Jesus with others is mere preaching to the choir.  Do others understand our efforts?  Do they have any positive outcomes?  Or are we just talking to ourselves, reassuring each other that we're still alive and relevant?

 Often you can see the reference of "John 3:16". It's painted on bed sheets and raised in the stands of stadiums.  It even appears on the bottom of some shopping bags.  I often wonder if it makes any difference.  Do people outside of Christianity even know what the reference means?  Recently, the Barna Group was commissioned by the American Bible Study to ask that question.  Specifically, they asked people if they knew what the "3" in "John 3:16" stood for.  The results surprised me.

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I'm not sure knowing what "John 3:16" refers to is the same as knowing what it means or why it's important.  I still wonder how many people are moved to Christianity because of the reference or even look it up to see what it says.  Yet it is reassuring that people still know.

Several years back the question was raised at the church I was serving if we should continue advertising in the local newspaper.  We had done so for year.  No one could quite remember how long.  But had the ad, had any positive effect?  We spent a year asking every visitor if they came because they saw our newspaper ad.  Not one said yes.  We ask those who had joined in the last few years and they said no.  Some asked friends and neighbors and all of them said they hadn't noticed the ad.  In fact the only people who said they had seen it, were long time members of the congregation.  It seems we were preaching to the choir.  That reference to the church was only being seen and understood by those who were already there.  In fact one old time member said, not entirely jokingly, "I open the paper every Saturday and the first thing I do is check to see if we're still around."  

That experience has let me wondering what other places we are preaching to the choir instead of really proclaiming the Gospel.  What do you think?