Kirk Cameron is fearless. The actor, best known for his role as "Mike Seaver" on the sitcom Growing Pains, walked up to four tattooed street toughs and asked them if they had ever heard of the Ten Commandments! This isn't a scene from Cameron's recent Left Behind movies, it is part of a new evangelism program called "The Way of the Master." Cameron lends some star power to this program developed by well-known evangelist Ray Comfort (also author of Hell's Best Kept Secret and God Doesn't Believe in Atheists). The eight thirty-minute programs and accompanying course books spell out the missing ingredient to modern day evangelism: the use of the law in convicting sinners of their own unrighteousness. Comfort and Cameron use the acronym "WDJD" to help students in their course remember the key stepsin properly sharing the gospel:
W: Would you consider yourself to be a good person?
D: Do you think you have kept the Ten Commandments?
J: If God judges you by the Ten Commandments on the Day of Judgment, will you be innocent or guilty?
D: Will you go to heaven or hell? (Destiny)
There is much in this course to commend. Ray Comfort has long been a lonely voice in the evangelical wilderness calling for greater attention to be paid to the Law of God in preaching and evangelizing. Some of the most "cringe-inspiring" moments of the DVDs were when Comfort or another interviewer would talk to Christians about the message they used when they shared Christ with an unbeliever. Almost universally the answer would be therapeutic-oriented: do you want happiness? peace? true love? Jesus is being presented as a life-enhancer, rather than the life giver. So, when the sinner responds to the modern gospel of life enhancement and finds that life hasn't changed or gotten any better, it's no wonder that he casts off his experimental conversion to find something else that works.
The on-the-street interviews with non-Christians were also very interesting. Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, and the other interviewers gave great examples of grace under fire (when talking to a drunk or an atheist) and persistence (when questions or statements were made to sidetrack the conversation). I was surprised by how willing some of the individuals were to engage with the probing, personal questions Comfort posed.
I think that Christians would be well-served to watch these interactions (both with Christians and non-Christians). It would help to disabuse them of the false gospel they may have been sharing and it will give them good examples to follow when engaged in a conversation about God with an unbeliever. But despite these good features and Ray Comfort's needed corrective to the evangelical gospel, I don't think that this course is ultimately useful in Reformation churches. There are several primary reasons:
Evangelism, despite the overwhelming emphasis in the course books and DVDs, is not the most important activity in which a Christian (or the church) can be engaged. Activities of public and private worship are presented in the course as distractions to the "real work" of the church, which is sharing the gospel. To be sure, we cannot excuse our inability or unwillingness to share the gospel on our busy lives of worship (such hypocrisy would be more damning than not sharing the gospel!) but we should not, in the name of evangelism, forget that we were created for worship, that our chief purpose is to glorify God, and that the church's most important activities are the ministries of Word and Sacrament. These activities compel us to share our faith, they should not ever be treated as secondary activities, or even worse, as activities that detract us from sharing the faith. Evangelism is one activity among many to which a disciple of Christ should set himself, but to elevate it to the most important work warps the motive and the method one uses in sharing the gospel.
The motive presented in this course for sharing the gospel is terribly legalistic. An opening anecdote about a firefighter who neglects his duty while a family perishes in the midst of a burning home is applied to Christians as a method for discerning whether they have a passion for the lost. This passion, we are told, should be so overwhelming that evangelism becomes the most important activity in which a Christian can be engaged. This, of course, means that the gospel must be shared at every opportunity with anyone whom we come into contact with. Any emphasis on developing a relationship with an individual and actually knowing the person to whom you are sharing the gospel is turned around as a guilt-inducing example of a passionless approach to sharing the gospel.
The method that is presented, though admirable for its emphasis on the law driving men and women to Christ, is akin to what I would call "drive-by evangelism." Over and over Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron press the demands of the law to the unbeliever, present the cross as the solution to the problem of sin, and then ask the subject if they are concerned about their precarious situation. Usually the answer is yes and the response it to go home and pray and read the Bible. Good directives, but not nearly sufficient for one who is suffering the terror of the law. Who will follow up with these people? Kirk Cameron? Where is the church in this process? Where is the process of dicipleship? The Great Commission is much more than just sharing the gospel, it is the ingrafting of those formerly alienated to the life of the church through dicipleship, baptism, and teaching. That takes time and an emphasis on personal relationship that the course does not endorse.
Ray Comfort's materials are filled with references to writers and theologians those in our circles respect: R. C. Sproul, A. W. Pink, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Charles Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle and so forth. One wishes that Comfort's discovery of the Reformation principles that underlie much of this course would fully permeate the motive and the method for presenting the gospel to unbelievers. Until then, the course, while useful, cannot be commended in its present form. Use it carefully, even sparingly, adapting its insights in ways that will benefit your congregation or evangelism class.
More information on "The Way of the Master" can be found at www.wayofthemaster.com
