Funny how church signs have gone from being a place to advertise a place's affiliation and times of services to a place where they can advertise their theology in a ten words or less cleverly crafted phrase. I will go ahead and admit that church signs annoy me. Often their cute motto's or "prayer is the solution to everything" advice makes me roll my eyes but usually doesn't really upset me.
Yesterday I saw a church sign and it just made me angry. Probably more angry than it should, but it really hit a nerve for me.
The sign read: "Soul-Winning Conference, date, time, etc..."
The thing that made me mad: "soul- WINNING".
I'm sorry, but how exactly does somebody win a soul? And whose souls are we trying to win? Is the point to try to win our souls? Or to try and win other peoples? And if a soul can be won, does that mean we can lose souls as well? And who keeps the score? And what is the deciding factor in whether a soul has been won? And who the heck ever decided that once a soul was won then that soul was magically transformed into a Christian soul?
And how is this a conference? Do you herd a bunch of "lost" souls into a room and have some kind of "Price is Right" game show? Or is this a place you come where they teach you how to win souls? Kind of like football camp for Christians? Or maybe more like the NFL draft?
I'm being a little mean and judgemental, and I'm apologize. I don't really mean to be. But the premise behind the idea that we can "win" souls is just appalling to me. Souls are not game pieces. Souls are not something to be acquired or won like some monopoly real estate. And if they can, we are in no means capable of winning something as priceless as a soul. And to be truthful, I really don't believe that souls can be lost. How do you loose a soul? How do you misplace the thing that makes you who you are?
I believe that souls are what makes humans human. Our soul is the essence within us that allows us to feel, breathe, believe, and be who we are. Our soul is the part of us that believes in something more and where we love from. Souls are the part of us that experience love. I believe that people's hearts and souls are very closely related. I don't think souls were meant to be won. I think souls were meant to be loved. To be cared for. To be nurtured. To be accepted. To be appreciated. I believe souls were meant loved into truth, not convinced into religion.
I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. But I don't think He ever told me to go win souls. I don't think He even ever mentioned to go win people. I don't ever think He intended this to become some kind of game. I just remember Him telling me to love people. And that's how they would know Him. Through His love in us.
And this makes me believe that loving another person's soul until the point they recognize that it is in fact God's love and not mine, is not a quick process like the idea of "winning" suggests. In fact, I think that helping people believe and discover the Love that is already in their soul is a slow and gradual process. Granted there are events that can act as a catalyst and speed the process up. But mostly, loving souls takes time.
I hope I never get to the point where my focus is seeing how many souls I can win or convince or recruit. I hope I always remember that the point is to see how many souls I can love. And hopefully from that, souls will know that they are loved by Love itself.
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