I liked what Steven Furtick had to say about The Real Competition awhile back. Often Christians get confused into thinking that their competition is with other ministries. While some campus ministries waste time competing with each other, they could be more effective if they better realized who the real competition is.
If we’re trying to reach the lost then competing with other Christian ministries makes no sense. Not only because we’ll in essence just be trading Christians back and forth like sports teams trade players, but also because non-Christians don’t have a reference point for comparing what we do to other campus ministries.
Instead, they are comparing what we do to what the world does. They are comparing our worship band to the secular bands they hear on the radio. They are observing whether your preaching is better than other public speakers they’ve heard. They will decide whether your media quality is as good as what they’ve seen elsewhere.
As Steven Furtick puts it, “The point of comparison for lost people are things that lost people see. That lost people listen to. That lost people experience.” It’s easy to say that we don’t want what we do to look like what the world does. I get that. However, if we truly want to reach the lost we’ll need to compete with what the world is offering.
Before the comments start rolling in, I know that we have a God who no one and nothing can compare with. Don’t misunderstand me, there is nothing that can stand up to the truth of the Gospel. However, sometimes people won’t even come to our meetings to hear the Gospel without seeing it as an attractive place to go.
I’ve talked before about the importance of doing everything with a spirit of excellence. If we look at what the world does and set higher standards, then I believe it will draw people in. We have the Father of creation on our side, so we should never resort to simply imitating or others. Christians should have the best events and meetings possible because we have access to the God who knows the best way to reach people and is the ultimate Creator.
Furtick goes on to say, “Some people might think that this is shallow. And yes, it is shallow. But that’s where people are, and we have to meet them there. Or we might meet them nowhere. I’d rather be considered shallow and be surrounded by people who have found life in Christ than be considered deep and be alone.”
What types of extravagant things has your ministry done to reach the lost? In what areas could you do a better job of competing with what the unsaved are used to experiencing?