Smart Pastor

My kids checked out Tarzan from the library in town a few weeks ago. They loved it and then I found the soundtrack and checked that out for them too.

Recently they also have learned how to play a track over and over again on the CD player. One track they chose to play nearly 165 times in a row was “Strangers Like Me” written and performed by Phil Collins.

After being annoyed by the sheer number of times they played the song, I actually started listening to the lyrics and found myself quite moved. Why? Because I think this may give us a great picture about how personal evangelism is to work in this new era. The song is played in the movie when Jane is showing Tarzan all about her world.

Check out these words…

Whatever you do, I’ll do it too
Show me everything and tell me how
It all means something
And yet nothing to me

I love that…show me AND tell me. To much of modern evangelism is telling, not showing. Showing comes out of relationship.

The give and take here is something too. “It all means something, yet nothing to me.” Evangelism is a process, not a one shot affair. Non-Christians I meet with often seem interested, but don’t get it at the same time. They need me to give them time to figure faith out.

I can see there’s so much to learn
It’s all so close and yet so far
I see myself as people see me
Oh, I just know there’s something
bigger out there

Do people see there is so much to learn? Do we see evangelism as just getting anther to agree about a set of ideas about Jesus or is it bigger…a pursuit worthy of a lifetime?

I wanna know, can you show me
I wanna know about these
strangers like me
Tell me more, please show me
Somethings familiar about these strangers like me

The imagery of being a “stranger like me” was quite powerful. To often we come across as just strange and not a person similar but yet different then others. We use funny words, we retreat from the world in areas we probably should not and engage the world in areas
non-Christians think is odd. What is different about us does not make people wonder what is inside of us, but rather how quickly they can get get away from us. (Gross over generalization I know.)

Every gesture, every move that she makes
Makes me feel like never before
Why do I have
This growing need to be beside her

Oh, these emotions I never knew
Of some other world far beyond this place
Beyond the trees, above the clouds
I see before me a new horizon

These two cared about each other. We need to have a genuine concern about the people we are trying to bring into the kingdom. Far to many people view the non religious as sales prospects and not friends. People don’t want to be a prospect…they want and need friends.

I wanna know, can you show me
I wanna know about these strangers like me
Tell me more, please show me
Somethings familiar about these strangers like me

Come with me now to see my world
Where there’s beauty beyond your dreams
Can you feel the things I feel
Right now, with you
Take my hand
There’s a world I need to know

As I understand the song, this is Jane singing now. The conversion of Tarzan came out of a relationship that involved much give and take. Jane wanted to see his world as much as Tarzan wanted to know about Jane’s. Can we care about the irreligious in this way?

I wanna know, can you show me
I wanna know about these strangers like me
Tell me more, please show me
Somethings familiar about these strangers like me

… I wanna know

Can Tarzan and Phil Collins teach each us about evangelism? Why not?