Eric's thoughts

I'll come out and say it. I don't like most tracts. You know, those little pamphlets of paper that are supposed to represent the Gospel. In fact, it's borderline hatred. I especially have a hatred for those money tracts.

A few weeks ago my son's kindergarten friend found a few tracts hidden in the wood chips of the playground at their school. The tracts looked like money folded in half. I believe it was fake $20 bills. I was helping in his class that day and walked over to the commotion of kids who had thought he had found dollar bills, and of course his classmates wanted their cut.

On the tract it said, something to the extent of- Disappointed? Jesus will never disappoint you. Then it proceeded to give how one could be assured of heaven. Repent, pray the prayer, etc. My son's teacher walked over took a look at the fake money tract, chuckled, and then told the kids that it wasn't real. The tract did get one thing right...the kids sure were disappointed.

I have also heard stories of people handing out the money tracts as tips at restaurants, don't worry, sometimes it is handed out with actual money.

Now, I don't know if you are a tract person or not, and I understand that they help some people share the good news about Christ. I also know first hand that tracts are very useful in some cultures. All I know is that when these tracts on the playground were found, and I hear of stories like these, I am rarely more embarrassed to be a Christian.

Think about the question most tracts seek to answer..."If you died where would you go"? Are people even asking this question? Can't we do better than that. (By the way, for more about the questions people are asking check Ed Stetzer's blog at www.theresurgence.com/es_blog_2007-03-27_beginning_a_conversation_about_christ

Some would say that the ends justify the means and at least they heard or read the Gospel. Is this the Gospel? I am too cheap to leave a tip, but here's a tract to tell you where the real treasure is. Or Christ won't disappoint you, but I will! At best this makes us look cheap, cheesy, unloving, and out of touch with the human race...and makes Jesus look the same.

I know I don't have everything right, and I blow it in representing the Gospel more often than I would like, but if this is how we are going to represent Christ, I want no part of it.