Prior to entering the ministry, I was working with a TV station in Kokomo, Indiana. On many occasions I would go fishing with Mike Hammer who was head of the Sports department. He once told me, “Never buy an imitation bait, always buy a brand name.”  He said, “The imitations may look like the real thing but the fish will sense something artificial and avoid it.”

The same is true when “fishing for men.”  If our life depicts anything other than the real thing, people will sense something “artificial” and avoid what we are trying to teach them.

The very first thing we must be concerned about is the *first impression* that we automatically transmit to all whom we come into contact with. Paul writes, “Provide things honorable in the sight of God and all men” (2Corinthians 8:21).

Consider that when businesses advertise, they know their product will be no more appealing than the person presenting the product. For example: Clothing manufacturers don’t just drag someone off the streets to model their clothes.  You will never see a dirty, rusted, dented car in an auto dealer’s showroom. Alcohol manufacturers don’t try to entice people to buy their product by showing a drunk lying in a ditch, or behind the steering wheel of a car that’s wrapped around a telephone pole with dead bodies strewn about. They always show very attractive people who are supposedly able to get exactly what they want out of this life just because they drink their product.

Satan used this same principle in leading Eve to sin (Genesis 3:5-6). He made the forbidden fruit as attractive as possible.

If you went in to the finest restaurant and ordered the finest meal money could buy, if the waitress delivered it to your table with filthy hands or in an uncouth manner, you probably would never return to that restaurant.

Now, you probably know the point I’m trying to make. We have the truth; we have the finest feast in the world to offer people, but if we offer it to them in an unappealing way, they will probably refuse to sit at our table and listen to what we have to say.

There have been times when we have made people lose their appetite for the gospel by serving it to them with unclean hands. This is sometimes true with parents trying to get their children to obey the Gospel, but the children look at their parent’s Christianity and see nothing that’s very appealing.

I’m certainly NOT suggesting we use gimmicks that appeal to people’s fleshy appetites! Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light SO shine…” That is, let it shine is such a way that people will be drawn to God. Peter writes, “Have your conduct honorable among the Gentiles…” (1Peter 2:12).

God used “LOVE” to make Christianity attractive (John 3:16). Jesus says, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, that ye have love one for the other” (John 13:34-35).

We may talk sports or politics with people in a generic way. Such will not draw them to Christ, but it can certainly drive them away! That is, even our speech can make the Gospel UN-attractive.

What attraction does a congregation hold where there is constant bickering and gossip? What attraction does a congregation hold where there is no specific focus? What attraction does a congregation have that is cold and lifeless?

We would probably be shocked if we knew how many of our contacts are actually looking for and desiring to find *genuine* Christianity. Will they find it in us? Or will they find us just as “shallow” as the rest of the religious world?  There is a certain “saintly sanity,” a certain confidence and a certain inner peace in genuine Christianity – do our friends see that in us?

Satan provides us with some real tough competition when trying to win souls, therefore, we should not overlook any detail – after all, we are dealing with life and death.

by Toby Miller