Elevator Talk
A good idea pitched poorly.
At my church right now we are talking quite a bit about giving one’s testimony, but what is this?
It isn’t just a backstory. It isn’t about how I became successful or what lessons life has taught me. I think it’s more specific. It is what I believe about God personally that determines whether I have a testimony or just an opinion. Everyone has an opinion, but there are a few who have had a true life-changing encounter with the living God.
In general terms, the testimony of how someone became a Christian, is the one most given to others, but I think this is just the beginning.
Spiritual growth from the moment of conversion on, all those day-to-day experiences and thoughts, each and every one qualifies as being a testimony -- assuming the credit goes to God and not man. If the credit goes to man, if I was the clever one in the story, then my god (lowercase “g”) is my imaginative creation. If the credit goes to God, on the other hand, then it is an admission, actually of personal weakness, and the way I look at it, personal weakness before Almighty God, is a strength with the label Humility.
In our discussion in Sunday School this morning, the idea of developing an elevator talk came up. Having pitched business ideas, I’m very familiar with the term along with the “slide deck” format used when trying to raise investment money. The business pitch side of the plan is the idea that you only have so much time to grab the interest of the decision maker and so you have to be prepared to give “your business testimony” as it were, if and when you might happen to be near someone with the power to potentially change your life.
I get the analogy but think there are a few differences between business and sales pitches and testimonies. Having said this, where I might be coming from with my particular opinion is simply one hammered into me over a number of decades. My point is it isn’t necessarily wrong to not have an opinion in this area and to think that the business description is perfectly appropriate. I used to agree and now have changed my mind – which also means, I might, with further discussion and evidence change my mind again in the future.
What makes me uncomfortable with the elevator pitch is probably what makes me uncomfortable with what most see as the acceptable method to evangelize the “lost.”
For one thing, we are compelled to share with others about how this life isn’t all there is both now and after death. We love and have been loved by people and this compels us to want to bring others, both those we know as well as the occasional stranger, with us into Heaven through them obtaining a relationship with God through his Son, Jesus Christ just as we enjoy.
Nothing wrong with such a wish. In fact, when understood as the longing of a heart for the welfare of others, it is a beautiful thing.
But here, in my mind, is a possible problem. I will speak for myself here to be polite, but I think this can be applied to all of us with few exceptions.
I don’t like people trying to sell me stuff. I don’t like unsolicited solicitations on my phone or in person. I don’t generally like salespeople following me in stores unless I ask them for help. In fact, it makes it even worse if it is someone I know or am related to. Why do we think people who work in sales generally find it hard – either to make sales or keep healthy relationships? Usually, it is because they have been trained and told to push the pitch. If you have been in sales (and I have at times in my life) then you have encountered the idea that it will take so many no’s to get to a yes. You might have to knock on a hundred doors to get one who open interested in what you might have to say (and this, I think, is optimistic).
Could it be, we have everything wrong when it comes to helping people both in business as well as in finding God?
In healthcare, practitioners are taught to never treat a stranger. I think this applies in business as well as in the church.
Yes, people come to us first as strangers. We had to even get to know our mothers after birth. But there must be a change in relationships before any sharing of information. The personal testimony can work to do this, if we are invited to give ours, as Peter wrote:
…[be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect...
1 Peter 3: 15b
But a context is implied. The thought behind this one is there is something they see that doesn’t make sense and they are asking for clarification. They have watched our behavior and it doesn’t make sense to them why we act the way we do. Why do we love God when at the same time we are suffering? This doesn’t make sense to the rational mind. It stimulates curiosity. The elevator pitch is attempted at someone who has no curiosity, at all, only a strong desire to reach their particular floor without being accosted.
Today’s conversation in Sunday School touched on the question of what to say when someone is hurting. How do we weave our testimony into an encounter like this? Or how do we overcome the one whose life is just fine, and they don’t seem to have a care in the world? To me, this is evidence that the testimony pitch concept of evangelism is off the mark.
Instead, when I am hurting, what I really want is to be acknowledged, to be listened to, not to be advised or even “encouraged.” At another time, or even when this struggling person is with another person, they may be ready to listen back. It is not our job to bring anyone into the Kingdom of Heaven, not even ourselves — dwell on that a few hours until it sinks in…
Great post. IN my time of going to prisons it was never about me but the prisoners I was talking to. I never felt that my testimony would cause a person to make the decision to accept Christ. When dealing with those that are sick, as a general rule, the same principle applies. A big no-no in my book is telling someone who is hurting in some form or fashion that if you need anything call me. Never in the history of poor advice have I ever heard that this worked. The question I ask is, "Can I call you to check in?" I have never received a no. If you care, then show it.