Nov. 30, 2009 | By Paul F. South
NEW ORLEANS -- Are people without a relationship with Christ "lost," separated from a holy God?
How a congregation answers that life and death question will determine whether a church blossoms and thrives or withers and dies, according to Gary McIntosh. McIntosh challenged his listeners to take 15 minutes and prayerfully consider if they have a passion to reach the lost.
"If there's any theological issue that is at the root of whether a church grows or a church declines, it's whether or not they believe that people are lost; because if people are lost, then they need to be found. If they're not lost then they don't need to be found. That makes a big difference in how we do church," McIntosh said.
McIntosh, Professor of Christian Ministry and Leadership at the Talbot School of Theology, at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif., was in New Orleans for the annual meeting of the Great Commission Research Network (formerly known as the American Society for Church Growth) meeting on the NOBTS campus Nov. 11-12. He posed two questions to his audience during a talk at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
"Does God the Father, still care about the lost? And do you still care about the lost?"
In the past, McIntosh said, he believed he knew the answers to those issues. However, an incident on a family camping trip triggered a change in his thinking. Following an argument with one of his sons, the son walked away from his family, leaving the family in shock.
The family expected the son to return for dinner. He didn't. Near the campsite was a town riddled with drugs and other dangers. The family knew their son had headed for that town.
"We prayed a bit, and we cried a bit and we hugged a bit," and I said ‘I'm going to go look for him,'" McIntosh said. He began to systematically, block by block, side street by side street, search for his son.
"That was my strategy," he said. "I was going to cover every inch of town, which I did. Couldn't find him. Couldn't find him."
McIntosh returned to the campsite and told his wife the news. The usual concerns ran through her head: Where is he? What would he eat? Who was he with? The more darkness deepened, the deeper the concern for their lost son. At 10 p.m., McIntosh repeated his systematic search, eventually leaving his car to search the streets on foot until after midnight.
He returned to the campsite for more prayers, more tears, more worry, and no sleep.
"In my entire life, that's the worst night of sleep I've ever received. I got an hour, maybe two," McIntosh said ". . . .You just don't know how badly I wanted to look out of our camper and see my son sitting in the chair by the campfire."
In the predawn hours, McIntosh wondered if he would ever see his son again. Two hours later, he searched the town a third time, combing alleyways seeking his son. At around 11 a.m., he decided to sit in his car near a ferry landing, and just watch people. Then, he saw his son leaving the boat.
"I came up behind him and called him by name. He turned and looked at me and I could see on his face, he was thinking, ‘What's Dad going to do?'" McIntosh said.
But, McIntosh said, the Holy Spirit provided the right words to say to the wayward son.
"I said, ‘Are you hungry?'" They went to a nearby pizza restaurant and talked, "about nothing." The events of the past 18 hours never came up. And by the family's checkout time, the son returned to the camp, ready for the journey home.
"The good news is we were able to reconcile our relationship. And the good news is, he walks with the Lord today," McIntosh said. But you know how you do something like that in your life. Then later on, God brings that memory back in a powerful way."
For McIntosh, the memory flooded back through Luke 15 and its three parables - of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. In the stories there is loss. In each story, the lost is found. And at the conclusion of each, there is a celebration.
But after that family camping trip, the chapter took on new meaning, particularly verse 20, when the father saw his lost son a long way off and felt compassion, and ran to embrace him kissed him.
"I still can't read that, and tell that story, without feeling emotion," McIntosh said. "All of a sudden I got it. I'd read that story for years, and never got it. The father was just like me... The father was looking for him, just as I was looking for my son, hoping . . maybe I can hug him . . .maybe I can reconcile with him."
The parables of loss and recovery are evidence that God cares passionately for the lost, McIntosh said.
"Yes, the Father still cares about the lost, and throughout scripture, we are never the seeker. In spite of the good that seeker churches are doing . . . the seeker is always God," McIntosh said. God sought Adam. Jesus sought Zaccheus.
That leaves the question: Do believers care about the lost? McIntosh recalled the fervency of prayer when his son was lost.
"I prayed for my lost son deeply that night. My wife and I probably never prayed that much in our lives as we did that night," McIntosh said. "When do we pray like that for the lost? When do we pray with passion for the lost people in our neighborhoods, our towns, our friends and our family members? When do we pray for them with passion that they might be saved? Do you do that?"
"I'm afraid to say I don't do that," McIntosh said.
"When we pray, do we ask God for forgiveness for our lack of passion, our lack of compassion, our lack of taking the time to engage people? I looked intently for my son. Do we look intently to engage the lost? Do we look for ways to build relationships. . . to spend time with them?"
He added, "Why do I have so much passion for my son, and I don't have passion for the lost? The reason has to do with relationship."
"Perhaps if we develop relationships with unchurched people. Perhaps if we build relationships with people who don't know Christ, then over time that relationship will also become a compassionate relationship, where we build such a close relationship with them that we desire to see them come to know the Christ that we know. And we will pray for them. And we will ask God to guide us and direct us. The answer is the relationship."
Based on research, relationships are the driving force behind individuals coming to saving faith in Christ.
"When we have a relationship with somebody, we then have the right to be heard, and we are able to enter into evangelistic conversations with them appropriately. And that's how people come to faith in Christ."
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