Well. that's a little judgmental, mean and inaccurate.
Tracts open doors to form those relationships, sometimes doors that are slammed shut and locked to anyone bearing the name "Christian."
Let me give you an example. When I was in college, I hated Christians and everything they said and stood for. I would have never talked to any of them about anything that really mattered in my life, because the ones I knew were judgemental snobs.
One day, Christians came to my door, and I went about trying to unconvert them. I almost got one to repent her faith in God! They didn't leave me a tract, but if they had, I would have read it, to make fun of it if nothing else.
One other day, the Gideons were on campus giving out new testaments and tracts. People ahead of me refused the books, spit on the Gideons, or even took the books and threw them on the ground and stepped on them.
I didn't want one, but when I saw that bad behavior, I accepted the book and the tract from the nice man, and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was grateful that even one person hadn't hurt him. I knew that man was praying for me as he handed me that book. I still have that book, almost 20 years later, even though I didn't become a Christian until more than six years later. The fact that those men came to campus with those books, and willingly accepted poor treatment and abuse without complaining told me something about SOME Christians. It told me that they weren't all hypocrites, snobs and judges. Some of them were humble. Some of them were kind. It was one of the first events that God used to call me to Him. Some Christians are willing to suffer and make sacrifices to give hope to other people.
At that time in my life, I was suffering badly. I need Jesus like you wouldn't believe. My Christian roommate was such a pain in the roo that I would have never listened to anything she had to say about God. But this stranger with a tract touched my heart.
He will never know until heaven that he had such a big role in my life. He doesn't even remember me. But I love that man for what he did.
Are tracts a waste of time? I don't think so.
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