If a belief or practice never makes impact beyond intellectual assent to take root in daily life, we have fallen far short of evangelism's goal for new believers to experience new life in Christ.
The process by which I instruct new or potential believers may be as necessary for their joy in an ongoing relationship with Jesus as the facts which I teach them. Take Sabbath keeping for example.
It is one thing to accurately teach the perpetuity of the seventh-day Sabbath coming to humanity today directly from God's six-day fiat creation and seventh-day of rest through the authenticating testimony of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and, ultimately, Jesus Christ Himself. It is another matter entirely to assist believers in experiencing the benefits of Sabbath keeping for themselves in such a way that they can say with the Psalmist, Taste of the Lord and see that He is good!
In fact, I am so convinced of this necessity to emphasize the benefits of the experience more than the responsibilities of the knowledge about Jesus and His holy day, that my approach centers less on proving something and more on spiritual experimentation to discover the blessing God has in store for those who will, with open minds and hearts, approach the experience of His will.
Jesus envisions us learning by doing which allows His biblical truth to self-authenticate itself in our experiment with and experience of obedience. Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know if my teaching is from God or is merely my own. (John 7:17, NLT).
We should never fear the results of experimentally developing confidence in God's way. Rather, we should seek new and innovative ways to encourage others to taste and see for themselves. The most effective evangelists proclaim eternal truths from God's Word coupled with opportunities for potential believers to experiment with God's will for their personal lives, such as special Sabbath Celebrations built right into the evangelistic program.
Sabbath keeping is an excellent laboratory to see the value of this approach. Rather than asking someone to pledge adherence to an intellectual concept, why not encourage them to experimentally discover the blessing that awaits them in testing God's promised blessings.
Thus, rather than risking that some one might reject what they have tried out for themselves, we actually build faith by providing such opportunities for experimentation. Real experience is a variety of careful experiments made with the mind freed from prejudice and uncontrolled by previously established opinions and habits.1
In his book The Different Drum, M. Scott Peck says that learning can be passive or experiential. Experiential learning is more demanding but infinitely more effective. As with other things, the rules of communication and community are best learned experientially.2
Personally, I've discovered great benefit in teaching principles of Sabbath keeping from God's own fourth commandment, but rooted in experimental and experiential discovery in fellowship with others who seek to know and experience the best that Jesus offers. Referencing the fourth commandment, itself, three distinct principles readily present opportunities to experience Sabbath.
1. Preparation. The biblical concept of remembering the Sabbath means that the entire week is involved in preparing for a special encounter with our Creator with Friday, the sixth day becoming a special anticipatory day which even bears the name, Preparation Day. Imagine! Our time, priorities, business schedules, leisure pursuits, and even mundane activities become focused on remembering to prepare to meet our God.
2. Holiness. Remember the sabbath to keep it holy. Scriptures closely link holiness with worship (O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness) and corporate fellowship (Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together). Experimenting in fellowship with like-minded believers confirms the necessity of communion with our best Friend, Jesus, the Lord of Sabbath.
3. Rest. Six days is sufficient to accomplish our own agendas and we need the rest provided by Sabbath, this sanctuary in time. Rather than a legalistic burden, Sabbath keeping envisions, preeminently, a secure rest in Jesus Christ instead of our own works for our salvation, coupled with a rest of our bodies, minds, souls, and families in relationship to the One who declared, If you are heavily burdened, come to Me and I will give you rest.
1 Ellen G. White, Testimonies to the Church (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1S8S), 3:69.
2 M. Scott Peck, The Different Drum (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), 84.
