Even before I read the article about the pilot who called non-Christian passengers crazy while he was addressing them before take-off, I was shaking my head. Part of his reason for doing so was that he had been on a recent missions trip. I've been on my share of missions trips, dang it, I sometime feel that my whole life is one big missions trip. One of the first things I've been taught, or instruct those on the trips I lead, is that you need to use tact when approaching people with the Gospel. You don't just run up to everyone you see. Even though I feel people do need to hear the message of Christ, not everyone wants to. So often you need to meet some of their other needs, and at least build some level of trust or connection with them.
It actually reminds me of a time when some students were doing some street evangelism on the streets of Basel, Switzerland. There was this guy who was playing his guitar and selling CDs near where they were at. Within a few minutes I watched as two guys walked up, starting talking, and seconds later were walking away. They walked over to me, and said that he had told them to bug off. They were shocked. A while later, I noticed the guy was on a break, so I walked over to him, and started discussing what he was playing. I picked up one of his CDs and asked about a couple of the interesting song titles, and what the songs meant. He told me one was a love song he had written to his mother. I bought the CD, we talked for a while. I was able to share a little about why I was living in Europe, that I worked at an International Christian school. But soon he needed to get back to playing. While I didn't fully explain the gospel, hopefully he saw and heard a Christian that day that was more concerned about who he was, and not a potential number in someone's personal salvation record. And as a huge fan of street performers, and a music fan, I was interested. Later I talked with the guys who had spoken to him earlier, and told them a little more about him. I explained that often you need to seek a common interest, build some trust, and don't ever try to force something on someone - especially like in this guys case when he is out there trying to earn a buck, not be pestered by anyone trying to sell him anything.
But back to the pilot... I'm betting there are some Christians out there who would say, "Great for him, he was just doing his job as a Christian." To them I would say, but he wasn't doing his job as a pilot, so what good does that do. The pilot when addressing the passengers needs to build confidence in him, not call many of them crazy. But, some will ask, "What would Jesus do?," as they look at their wristbands that were probably manufactured in some sweatshop in a third world. My theory is that if Jesus was the pilot, he would have done the usual announcements, then proceeded to change the inflight movie from "Under the Tuscan Sun" to "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," as that had the most Gospel like story, yet was a great action flick as well. As soon as the plane had leveled off, he would have walked down the isles talking with people, and miraculously silencing every screaming baby. He would have changed all the inflight meals to the best cut of steak, or the freshest fruit and vegetable spread for the vegetarians on board. He would have then gotten them all to their destination in record time, with their luggage waiting for them as they walked off the plane. Then all the passengers would have known there was something different about this passenger, would have probably tried to kill him or turn him over to the leaders of the day. But then again, he would have remembered a time when he healed the sick, gave wine to the thirsty party goers, and was revered as a great teacher, but soon they hung him out to die.
One other odd thing about this news article. It says that no one raised their hands when he asked Christians to raise them up in the air, wave them around like they just don't care. Interesting.....
An interesting movie that relates to all of this is The Big Kahuna, I recommend renting it tonight.
Currently listening to: Paste Magazine Sampler #8
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