Your Personality is Showing

NO MAN was ever won to Christ by a man he didn't like. Before you win a person to Christ you must first win him to yourself. The most powerful evangelistic tool at your disposal is your own unique personality. It might well be, however, that the greatest handicap in soul winning could be your personality. People are drawn to Christ or turned off from Him through the total package that is you.

When the personality package is right, people may be converted without attending a series of revival meetings, without formal Bible studies, or even a series of tracts. And it does not have to take six or eight weeks. It can be done in a matter of minutes.

Let's lay aside the paraphernalia for a moment and look back at the model. What did Jesus do to bring about the conversion of Zacchaeus, the diminutive tax collector of Jericho? There can be no doubt that he was converted, and thoroughly so. The sweet fruits of a changed life burst into visibility for all to see—repentance and restoration. Christ himself indicated that salvation came to this man's house that day.

How did it happen so easily? Jesus, the Lawgiver, simply worked in harmony with the laws of human relations. These laws are as reliable and dependable as laws of hydraulics, electronics, or thermodynamics. The itinerant preacher of Galilee simply recognized and supplied some basic human needs. He pushed the right human relation buttons, and doors creaked open. Having created man and knowing "what was in man" (John 2:24, 25), he was aware of man's basic need for recognition.

He gave Zacchaeus public recognition, calling him by his name. The sweetest sound in the human language is the sound of my name. Door-to-door salesmen need the name before they knock or demonstrate their wares. The basic ingredient of love is knowledge and, I suppose, the least you can know about a person is his name. Relationships are initiated through mutual exchanges of names—introductions. Employee relations directors urge that supervisors and principals instruct teachers to call people by their names. No "Hey you!" will do. Calling a person by his name is recognition, and we all need a little recognition. So much of what we do—the way we dress and groom, walk and talk, is in quest of recognition.

Jesus confirmed Zacchaeus' identity. All of us need our identity redundantly confirmed, and our idea of our worth validated. "This man is also a son of Abraham," Christ announced to all. It matters not how low he has sunk in political corruption. His identity comes through clear to me. He is my brother.

Then Jesus gives acceptance. Certainly, we all need to feel accepted. This is why churches still tend to worship in ethnic groups. Where you feel most accepted by men, you feel most accepted by God. None of us has visible or tactile contact with God. We feel loved and accepted by Him through the love and acceptance of the brethren. Birds of a feather flock together for acceptance. Ex-convicts associate with ex-cons because they are the only segment of society that accepts them. Gangs, clubs, lodges, fraternal orders—all fill this same need. Jesus gave it liberally to this unpopular con man of Jericho. I'm going to your house to eat. As far as I am concerned, you are in. Here again, the chief therapeutic tool of mental-health professionals is this very principle. The patient pours out the details of a sordid, mixed-up life, and the psychiatrist in essence says, I still accept you. This promotes self-acceptance, reality orientation, self-assessment, and a start toward change, adjustment, and mental health. Jesus gave appreciation and assurance, and He gave it all with so few words. I know all about you. I still want to go with YOU. Of all the people in this town, I need you! / need you? That did it.

We all have to feel needed in order to stay healthy. Children, friends, pets—you have to have somebody or some thing alive that needs you or life is not worth waking up in the morning to face. All too often our approach is, "You need what I've got, and you'd better come hear me preach so you can get it."

So the soul-winning relationship is not any series of things that you do. It is really what you are. The young folks call it "vibes," something that vibrates from one person to another, that radiates acceptance or rejection, friendship or fear, attraction or repulsion. Children can sense it at one hundred paces, dogs can smell it, and even horses are aware of it.

Hugh Black, who wrote a beautiful little book around the turn of the century entitled Friendship,* said: "This is why the effect of different people upon us is different, one making us creep into our shell, and cringe making us unable to utter a word; another through some strange magnetism enlarging the bounds of our whole being and drawing out the best in us." Black was right. Some people's personalities are such that in their presence you feel strong, confident, capable. They make you like yourself, you sparkle. Others can make you feel dumb, fearful, denuded of strength, weak. They give you "foot in mouth" disease. Relationships can make you sick, like the wife who gets a migraine headache as soon as mother-in-law dear announces she is coming for a visit. Some people's personalities are healing. You remember going to see your family physician. Your pain stopped as soon as the doctor walked in the door before he even touched you. You were healed by a "corrective emotional experience," by a relationship.

So Christianity and Christian witnessing are really not so much what we do as they are something that we are!

"If we would humble ourselves before God, and be kind and courteous and tenderhearted and pitiful, there would be one hundred conversions to the truth where now there is only one. . . . 'Learn of me,' Christ says. . . . Why do we not learn of the Saviour every day? Why do we not live in constant communion with Him, so that . . . we can speak and act kindly and courteously? Why do we not honor the Lord by manifesting tenderness and love for one another? If we speak and act in harmony with the principles of heaven, unbelievers will be drawn to Christ by their association with us."—Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 189. (Italics supplied.)

So it isn't the publications, the gimmicks. It is US! The wise man says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise" (Prov. 11:30). He is also tactful, he is good and kind, respectful, and polite. He is sensitive to others' feelings and needs. He cares. He is concerned. He listens.

At suicide-prevention centers the rule of thumb for the volunteers manning the telephones is "keep the distraught person talking listen." He that winneth souls is concerned. He is more interested in winning confidence than arguments. He is not a snob. He does not have the "big head." He does not think of himself, his position, and his race more highly than he ought. He does not have visions of grandeur. He is meek and lowly in mind. He is a sweet person. You like him from the very first. You are won to him, magnetically drawn. He takes you by the hand and leads you pleasantly to his Christ.