Author: Jim Henderson

Labels can be helpful when we are looking for food with extra fiber and less sodium, or gluten free desserts. Labels can also be helpful when you are at a 25 year high school reunion and everybody has put on 40 pounds, which makes them hard to recognize. Although often helpful, labels can also engender negative emotions and continue negative stereotypes when we apply them to people. Have you been called stupid, fat, tone def, or immature? How about labels that dehumanize people - ethic epitaphs that put others down, while often making the person uttering them feel superior.

The 2nd chapter of Evangelism Without Additives deals with the label that has been applied broadly to people for decades who don't attend church regularly or haven't made it public that they follow Jesus. This label is "LOST." The author, Jim Henderson, is challenging that label. He says… "Christians also do violence to others in their minds when they refer to the people Jesus misses most as "the Lost." They're not Jeff, Susan, Bill, or Maria. They're not fellow humans; they're something else - "the lost." It's almost as if they're from another planet. We say that we love them, but we act like they disgust us."

If our perceptions of people determine our attitudes, then Jim challenges us to find a new controlling metaphor. The story of the younger son / prodigal that Jesus tells in the gospels is often interpreted from a disconnected outside perspective. We see that thankless, selfish, and shortsighted younger son as lost, but his father had a different perspective. To the father, the younger son was missed, and when he came to his senses and returned, the father responded in a way that supports Jim's conclusion. Read the story in Luke 15:11-32.

As a person who struggles to not judge or stereotype, I'm praying for a regular reboot on the way I perceive people. Who is God missing? How can I gain more of God's fathering heart for those He misses? Jesus was never harsh to the face, or behind the back of the people he connected with that didn't worship Yahweh. I can't say that I've always been as gracious. Jeremiah 31 talks about God drawing us towards Himself with loving kinds. That is the attitude I want to exhibit towards the people that Jesus misses most.

Joedy Zapara - book reader

Each chapter concludes with a few ways to practice what was talked about. When appropriate, Jim offers us a 4 question spiritual survey to help change our perceptions.

- What is the difference between religion and spirituality?

- Who is a spiritual person you admire?

- If Christians would listen, what would you tell them?

- Has anyone ever tried to "save" you?

After the person answers these questions, say "thank you" and let him or her go without preaching.Take note of the answers and pray a short prayer for that person.