Evangelist Luis Palaus is approaching his ministry in Portland a little bit differently than most evangelists. Instead of holding crusades and preaching he is mobilizing the Christian community to help solve problems in Portland and in doing so he is changing the prevalent attitude among non-Christians that Christianity is against things instead of for something. [1]
Why are Christians so focused on preaching, testifying, and witnessing? Why do we have altar calls at the end of almost every church service? It is because our belief system, the doctrine of salvation, says one must believe in Jesus and his death for our sins to be saved. If this is the case, then a Christian’s first priority would be to persuade others to believe—that is the only way one can go to heaven.
However, as we have shown in this blog, salvation is the change of our soul so it becomes like God. If the Christian community held this to be the doctrine of salvation, I do believe our priorities would change. Our main priority would no longer to persuade people to believe but it is to help them become more like God.
This is not to say belief in Jesus is not important. Jesus is our best source of information of what God is like. Belief in Jesus is a means to an end (becoming more like God, becoming a better person), it is not the end.
An article about Palaus is titled “Pioneering Palaus”. His actions should not be pioneering but should be standard operating practice for all Christians.
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[1] Marvin Olasky, “Pioneering Palaus”, World, June 14, 2014, pp. 37-38.
