From the 1975 classic “WHAT’S GONE WRONG WITH THE HARVEST” by James Engel
PART III: Proclamation, Persuasion, and Cultivation: Toward Restoring the Cutting Blades
Now, with this overview of biblical communication principles and the task of the Great Commission behind us, it is time to return once again to the community of Rollingwood. First Church, of course, is seeing only minimum results in proclamation, persuasion, and cultivation; and the reasons for this have been made clear. What can now be done to reverse the slump in effectiveness? This is the important question of the next four chapters.
George and Sally Calderone now enter the picture. They are two typical residents of Rollingwood and are about to make the greatest discovery of their lives, that of knowing Jesus Christ personally. From their experience we can grasp something of the nature of the spiritual decision process that could be discussed only in the most general terms in chapter 4. Chapter 5 discusses how the initial encounter with Christ took place in this family and chapter 6 focuses on the implications for the strategy of proclamation and persuasion for First Church and other churches in Rollingwood. Chapter 7 returns to George and Sally once again as they struggle to grow in their newfound faith. Chapter 8 takes the broader perspective of the implications for the strategy of cultivation.
George and Sally’s experience obviously is not normative and no attempt is made to claim that it can be generalized. Everyone comes to a relationship with Christ in a different way. But there are some commonalities, and generalizations can be made from that standpoint. George and Sally are introduced to avoid the sterility of a broad, general overview, and much can be learned in this way.
Freedom!
It was a typical morning at the Calderone household. Everyone was too rushed at the breakfast table to do anything more than grunt at each other and rush off into his or her own little world. As George finished his coffee, he couldn’t help wondering what life really was all about. What a rat race! And Sally had exactly the same thought.
The Calderones had moved to the Kennedy Road area in Rollingwood just a few months before, and their home certainly was one of the most attractive in the community. George had done well as advertising manager at the Ace Bakery, and, from the exterior at least, the Calderones appeared to be an ideal, all-American family. What the world couldn’t see, however, was the extent to which George and Sally’s marriage had gone sour. They seemed to be living in all state of “armed truce,” not really close to a parting of the ways but at a point where each simply tolerated the other.
Everything should have gotten better when they moved into the new home. This was Sally’s great dream, to have that “all-electric kitchen” and the latest of everything. But life didn’t really change. The circumstances were different but the emptiness remained.
George had climbed most of those mountains which had been set before him. At thirty-four years of age, he had gone nearly to the top at the plant, and many were saying that he was next in line for Al Cranston’s job as general manager. But what would that promotion really mean? Probably only more work. Money no longer provided the motivation it did, and George had come to the point where climbing another mountain just didn’t provide the same sense of challenge. Every time he reached the top, there just seemed to be another mountain ahead. Where would it all end?
One of George’s real joys was to get behind the wheel of his Mercedes. Turning out of the driveway that morning, he was relieved to get away from the noise and tension of life for a few minutes. But the thought of heading for the office only brought a new set of tensions. If things don’t ease up, he thought, they’ll be wheeling me into the emergency room one of these days. Maybe there’s some good music on the radio. As the sound of FM stereo boomed throughout his car, George was jolted by a harsh voice that seemed to scream, “Sinner, you will only go one place if you don’t accept Jesus, and that is to hell. Friend, you need Jesus now! Repent and turn to him.”
George had accidentally turned to WILT, the Christian radio station. He swore aloud. “That’s all I need this morning,” he grouched, as he spun the dial over to the “wall-to-wall” music station he usually listened to.
George had gone to church as a child. After all, that was the thing everybody did. He met Sally there and later married her, and that was just a normal part of his life. He and Sally soon dropped out of church, however, as the excitement of being newly married squeezed out spiritual realities. Both had come to the opinion that most churchgoers were faced with the same hang-ups they were beginning to experience. Why go there to hear answers given to questions they weren’t even asking?
The kids still attended Sunday school, of course, but George and Sally had been seriously considering giving in to their incessant demands to let them drop out, too. “Dad, if you and mom don’t go, why should we?”
Sally and George were pretty well turned off on the church. A few months earlier they had been called off by a couple from First Church who came to the door on a community survey. They were willing to talk that evening and the callers stayed quite a while. But somehow communication never really took place. The church callers wanted to talk a lot about a little booklet that showed the “steps to God,” but they just evaded the deep questions George raised. When they left, they said they would come back again. But they never did. George had been through it all before. “If we don’t give the answers they want,” he told Sally, “they just write us off. First Church is just like all the others — they really don’t give a hang about us.” No wonder the preacher on WILT that morning only served to turn him off even more.
When George arrived at the office, what he found there made him want to leave it all and head back home. The production manager was waiting for him with the news that production had to be cut back at least 40 percent because of a shortage of sugar and boxes. But the advertising George had worked on so hard was already underway. What was he to do? Contracts had been signed for space and time, and the new commercials were playing.
Al Cranston knew the moment he saw George at the coffee urn that the lid was about to blow. Al, as you will remember, was chairman of the Board of Deacons at First Church as well as general manager at the bakery.
“George,” Al said, “I know the mess this shortage thing has put you in, but we’ve got no choice but to cut back.”
“It isn’t only that, Al,” George replied. “It just seems as if this has come on top of everything else.”
“I’ll tell you what,” Al suggested. “Why don’t you join Chuck Richards and me for lunch today. We usually get together once a week just to share our problems and our joys. We’d be tickled to have you.”
That day was to launch George Calderone on the way to freedom — freedom from slavery to himself. George had always seen something different in Al and Chuck. He knew they took their religion seriously. They didn’t seem to wear it on their sleeves, but it did show in their lifestyle. Al, in particular, really seemed to care about the other guy. People weren’t viewed by him as just a means to an end. To him, profit at the plant was secondary to developing those under him — not the usual business philosophy.
At lunch Al and Chuck mostly just listened. George knew they cared, however, through their questions, responses, and apparently genuine concern for him.
Both George and Sally jumped at an invitation to join the Cranstons and a few other couples who met on Thursday nights for informal Bible study~ Now for the first time they began to see what true Christianity was all about. This became apparent in the next days and weeks through the lives of these people, who were living models of what Jesus talked about.
As George was driving home one day after their first Bible study, he switched on the radio to his favorite station and listened intensely to an unexpected spot announcement — a conversation between a man and his wife. They argued. Sounds just like Sally and me, he thought. It was unreal! His life was being played before him! The spot closed with a calm voice simply raising the question, “Is there an answer? Is this all there is? Jesus said, ‘I’ve come to bring meaning to life now.’ Are you interested? Take that long neglected Book off the shelf and turn to the third chapter of John. You might be surprised to find that there is an answer there!”
That struck home. What have I got to lose? George thought.
Sally and George became regulars at that couple’s group. They found love, acceptance, understanding, and the source of it all — Christ! Three months later both told God that they wanted to be free, that they wanted the power to live a new life. The result was freedom — freedom for the first time to live, to love. Purpose replaced emptiness.
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