Best tracts ever

If "making people think Christians are disgusting, self-righteous, jerks" is good, yes, that's very good.

I've known waiters who got those pieces of... stuff... as tips. Let's just say that, when you're paid *LESS* than minimum wage, because the law expects that you will get your living wage off of tips, and your rent is due, they don't exactly lend credibility to the message.

I find the "fake money" tracts utterly offensive, and I have known several people who were turned away from Christianity by them; there is now very little chance they will ever be persuaded that there is any truth to Christianity, because truth doesn't need to be advertised by lies.

Well, when I saw these used, there *wasn't* a real tip.

Fake money is offensive becase it's deceitful. You have a thing which pretends to be other than what it is to try to get people to look at it. That's dishonest, and the response from people I've talked to who have seen these has consistently been to conclude that Christians are desparate and dishonest. It leaves the rest of us with a harder job.

Think about it this way: Imagine that you saw a folded piece of money in the street, and picked it up, and it turned out to be an invitation to begin following Allah, and abandoning false beliefs in Jesus. Do you think your opinion of Islam would be raised by the experience?

Ministry isn't just about making people see a special magic set of words. It's about setting an example, and showing people Christ's love. I don't see Jesus as going about under false pretenses to get people to listen to Him. If we start out on the wrong foot, it takes credibility away from the message.

I agree with you for the most part seebs.

But let me just to throw out another way to look at it...
Paul said when he was with the Jews he tried to blend in with the Jews, When with the Gentiles blend in with the Gentiles in order to reach them (without forsaking God's law, of course)...1 cor 9:20,
The $ tracts could be one of God's ways of reaching the world today.

I am not saying I necessarily agree with one or the other as I have not really formed a solid opinion, I just wanted to provide another point of view.

Mixee.

I dunno, I dislike the implicit dishonesty. I'd rather see tracts that don't pretend to have practical value. It feels like lying to me.

I see these tracts as the equivalent of real-world trollbait.

Using them is much like trolling on an MB: you are looking for a response. . .ANY response. The same thing happens to them as happens with even the most well-intentioned troll post here: it makes people feel as if they have been decieved into replying (or in that case, reading) and therefore VERY defensive and somewhat angry.

There are much better ways to convey the message of God's love. -^.^-

I prefer the old fashioned way of witnessing by mouth and action

Well, it's not as if we have a choice - we *always* witness by mouth and action. The question is, what are we witnessing *for*...

I think you guys are being overly critical here.

Consider her intentions, please, before tearing her well intentioned post apart.

Ya'll might want to look around at the other stuff that www.livingwaters.com offers...if you don't like the tracts move on to something else. They really have some good material.

Mixee.

The ones I've seen used looked like $5 bills.

Note that, at a medium distance, you can't tell what it is, except that it looks like money.

I still think that it's terrifying to see Christians advocating lying as a method of promoting the faith. That's what it is, when you try to make someone think something false: Lying. If you make a thing to look like money, which isn't money, that's lying.

I like the money tracts, and leave them in conjunction with real money. I love any kind of tract that tells God's Word in truth, and lines up with what the Bible says.

Isaiah 55:11: "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

The money tracts do not tell God's word in truth; they hide it in falsehood.

They look like they do simply to be an attention getter...

they were never intended to be left as tips, but maybe as Ratioann said, along with a tip.

24th February 2003 at 06:36 AM Ratioann said this

http://www.livingwaters.com

Tracts that look like money! Leave them for tips, on the ground, whatever.
Theres also pennys pressed with the ten commandments

Has lots of stuff to poke through also. Good tips for dealing with atheists & people with different religions
http://www.livingwaters.com/witnessingtool/browse.htm

Click to expand...

Thanks for the post Ratioann

Deceitful money to spread truth. Nice.

The main thing is to get the words of God in the hands of the lost for it has the power to save.(of course some people might not be concerned with seeing people saved and their life changed by God or might not believe in the power of Gods written word to convert the soul.)

1 Corinthians 9:22
To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

And we should even stoop to making fake money tracts to do so?