Better known internationally as the S.U.M.O. Guy, Paul McGee gives us a rare reflection on how he evangelizes through his job as a marketplace motivational speaker, relationship expert and bestselling author.
It was J John, the evangelist and writer who approached me to become one of his associates in a support group for evangelists. What was perhaps unique about his invitation is that I am not an evangelist by calling. I work primarily in the marketplace and virtually 98% of what I do can be considered as secular. It has been a fantastic opportunity to realize that in many ways, we are all trying to engage with society and perhaps evangelists are doing it in a more direct, overt Christian way and I am being perhaps a bit more subtle. But J John said that I would speak to more non-Christians and unbelievers in a year than the rest of the group combined. I have a multi-newsletter that goes out to about 4,000 people and J John actually told me that I should see them as my congregation. Although I am not being overt about my faith, every month they get a chance to hear a Christian perspective on maybe a business or a life issue. So he has been hugely encouraging and I feel very much part of the group even though my role is to some extent different from the rest of them.
Infusing Scripture in Presentations
What is interesting is that I do not communicate the Gospel directly to people in the marketplace, but I get them to think about life. I go out telling stories and getting people to think about themselves, their lives, and the future. And in many ways, evangelists too are often going out to churches or into neutral venues and they are telling stories to get people to think about themselves, their lives and the future as well!
One of the exercises that I do to help my audience to stretch their imagination is from my first S.U.M.O. book, under the principle "Learn Latin." I get seven people on stage and tell them to imagine that each person represents a day of the week, and each of them also represents a decade of their life, so Monday is age 1-10, Tuesday is 11-20, and so on. I then get the audience to see which day of the week they are on. For instance, I'm 43 and I might think I've got loads of time to think about what I want to do with my life still. But if you are 43 years old on the model I'm using, that makes you on the Friday of your life. That's a simple exercise. Although it's not overtly about Christianity, faith, and God, it gets people to recognize that life at its longest can still be seen as fairly short. I'm a thought provoker. And if I talk about one subject, it casts light on other subjects; so if you hear me, you do not get a very overt presentation of the Gospel but I open the gateway for others to perhaps, explore other ideas that may be related to faith.
In another exercise derived from another principle of mine called developing "Fruity Thinking," I started one conference with a business audience in a subject called Personal Transformation. I said, "About two thousand years ago, a Jewish writer writing to his friends in Rome said, 'Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.'" What an interesting statement! At other times, I would say, "Without a vision, people perish." I will also talk about the Old Testament, and how words have the power to bring life or death. And I am very comfortable bringing in biblical insights and verses. But what I do not usually do is go, "It says in Deuteronomy..." What I will say is, "It says in ancient scripture..." or "A Jewish carpenter once said..." Words do have the power of life and the insights from the Bible have the power to transform people and therefore, my subject is about transformation and empowering people and giving them hope. I am a Christian so of course I am going to draw from Christian values and Godly principles. What is interesting is that no one ever tells me, "We've got a problem with your approach."
A Unique Opportunity
I once spoke at a conference and a woman came up to me at the end and said, "That was fantastic! Would you speak at a conference I'm organizing for an organization called LAGSA - the Lesbian and Gay Staff Affiliation?" I told her to email me. I prayed and I felt that most gay people feel marginalized from society and the church, and I asked myself, "If Jesus really had an opportunity to mix with gay people and share some stuff with them and show some love and compassion, He would do it." So I became the first heterosexual to speak at their conference. And they said, "We do invite representatives of other associations to come along but I can tell you now the only association that we know won't come will be the Christian Staff Association!" and I said to them "Well, let them know that one of your speakers this year is a Christian."
I believe that we need to get out there and engage with people where they are. For the woman caught in adultery, Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you." If the Gospel is Good News, it is good news to everybody. And I know there are issues around on homosexuality in the Bible but we need to get alongside people and not say the Gospel is for everybody unless you are gay.
Clearly at times, the Gospel will offend people. Jesus offended people although He didn't seem to offend the outcasts, the down and outs, and the so-called sinners, but He offended the religious people. Whether we are reaching out to gay people or anyone, when we are leaders, particularly Christian leaders, and we are in the workplace, the key issue is ultimately, people believe more what they see than what they hear. You can have all the nice phrases, you can invite them to outreach programs. You can do all those kind of things but what they see in your actions will speak far louder than your words. And that is a constant challenge to me. I want people to see there is something different about me and not because I just say I go to church on Sunday, but because of my values and attitudes, and because of how I am with them.
Reaching Subordinates
In Philippians, Paul encourages us to have the attitude and mind of Christ and therefore, I want to have the attitude and mind of Christ to whomever I am dealing with. So as a Christian, I want to build them up and serve them in some way. If it is an unbeliever, I use opportunities to give an account for the hope that is within me.
Another great attribute in my S.U.M.O. Your Relationships book, I talk about the phrase "Humility Helps" and I think we need to have humility to want to admit that we sometimes do not have all the answers and we sometimes make mistakes. We should also have the humility to not just see someone as "You're an unbeliever and you're wrong." We have to get alongside people, understand their perspective and understand where they are coming from. I want to be a friend to people, not just hope that they will get converted. Whatever I'm doing, I want to be good news to people.
Salt and Light at Work
One of the things I feel very sad about is that you can have someone from your church who is a missionary working in another country, and you may feel that he somehow has a higher calling than those working in, say, an insurance company or in IT. I think to a certain extent, we are all in full time Christian work and we shouldn't have this hierarchy of self worth because it gives us an excuse for forgetting to be salt and light. Often, we are tempted to think, "Well, this is not really my ministry, it's just a job." I understand that in Hebrew, there isn't really a word for secular. To some extent, everything is sacred. Therefore, all our encounters with people in whatever context is part of our full time calling as a Christian. questioning this regard, the question we should ask ourselves is, "Am I encouraged to be salt and light wherever I am?"
An honors graduate in Applied Social Studies from Bradford University, Paul McGee's string of clients include Manchester United, Hewlett Packard, Shell Chemicals, Barclays Bank, and HSBC. He is also the author of five books including his bestseller, S.U.M.O. (Shut Up, Move On) and S.U.M.O. Your Relationships. View his websites at www.paulmcgee.com and www.thesumoguy.com.