Seeker or Sought?

I'm currently reading a book entitled Off-Road Disciplines by Earl Creps and it is making a fundamental positive change in my assumptions about evangelism. We hear different terms for those who are not in relationship with Christ, with "seeker" being a very common one. Creps takes the position that Christ is the "seeker" and that those who don't yet know Him are the "sought". He refers to the three parables in Luke of the lost coin, lost sheep, and lost son. In those cases, the ones doing the seeking were the owner of the lost coin, the shepherd for his lost sheep, and the father looking for his lost son. There was great rejoicing when the seekers found what they sought.

Creps says on page 145, "The practice of evangelism involves making room for the Spirit to draw the sought into a saving encounter with the Seeker through Christ. The Church's job is not to save people but to shape the space in which God calls them to Himself."

This sounds a lot like Lakeside's strategy statement of creating environments where the needs of people are met. These environments can look a lot different than any of the environments we have seen before. Many if not most of the environments must look different than what we have seen before.

Let's strive to be creative instead of conventional in our approach to our personal Great Commissions.