Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor
© 2020, Dr. Tamilio
Has anyone ever asked you for your “elevator speech” when it comes to something you think or believe? Here’s how this works. You get on an elevator on the tenth floor of a building. There’s someone already on the elevator. In the time it takes the two of you to go from the tenth floor to the first floor, could you sum-up what you believe about an issue? What about your faith? Could you sum it all up in the time you and the stranger take the trek to the bottom floor together?
Here’s a fun fact: the term elevator speech is “from the 1990s. In the early days of Web development, aspiring innovators prepared themselves for brief encounters with venture capitalists. If they could present their vision in the short span of an elevator ride, they might get the capital needed to bring vision to reality.”[1]
Asking a Christians for their elevator speech is somewhat unfair question, because faith isn’t that simple. There are many things that you believe about God, Jesus, the church, and the like. They can’t all be encapsulated in a few sentences. Or can they? Can you give the Cliff Note version of the Cliff Notes version? Jesus did.
He was asked which commandment is the greatest. It helps to understand what lies behind this question. First of all, there weren’t Ten Commandments, as we discussed recently. The Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) contains 613 commandments. Asking Jesus which is the greatest is an attempt to trap him. Aren’t all the commandments important? Aren’t they of equal value, for the most part? Jesus knew the intention of the Pharisees. “Tell us which commandment is the greatest, Jesus, and we’ll assume that the other 612 are secondary.” Jesus’ answer silences his adversaries, and provides us (his followers) with a profound answer.
Not only does he tell us that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength (a reference to Deuteronomy 6:4-5), and that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (a reference to Leviticus 19:18), but he also says, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” I like how Eugene Peterson translates this verse in The Message. He writes, “These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” Bible scholars Arndt Bauer and Danker Gingrich claim that the Greek word used for “hang” that Jesus uses here is similar to saying “as a door hangs on its hinges, so the whole [Old Testament] hangs on these two commands.”[2]
We’ve talked about this before. Jesus often uses the phrase “the Law and the Prophets” throughout Matthew. When he does, he is basically saying the Bible, because the Bible of his time consisted mainly of the Hebrew Law (the first five books of the Bible) as well as the prophetic writings (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and the like). So, basically, Jesus is saying that all of the Bible can be summed up with these two commands — they are the pegs on which all of Scripture hangs.
That’s quite an elevator speech. We would probably modify it somewhat. We would add the death and resurrection of Christ, but even that is encompassed in the dual love command. If we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, then we certainly love Jesus who said these words, who is God incarnate, who shouldered the cross for our sins, who rose from the dead to open to us the gates of everlasting life.
Business consultants often tell clients that their business should have a mission statement that everyone in their organization knows. It helps disseminate the collective vision to prospective clients. In order for everyone in the organization to know the company mission statement, it has to be brief. It has to be an elevator speech of sorts.
Here is the mission statement of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches: ‘Bringing together Congregational Christian Churches for mutual care and outreach to our world in the name of Jesus Christ.” Under twenty words. That’s impressive. It would not take much to memorize this and share it with others. Many church consultants feel that all congregations (like all businesses or non-profit organizations) need a clear and brief mission statement — an elevator speech if you like. Maybe this is because people today have shorter attention spans, or maybe it’s because brevity can be more effective than being verbose. One of my favorite nonfiction writers, William Zinsser, stresses the need for simplicity in his bestseller On Writing Well. Maybe churches can take a page from this book when it comes to getting the word out about who we are, what we believe, what we do, and what we have to offer.
I decided to have a little fun when I wrote this sermon. I did some crowd sourcing using social media. Basically, this just means that I asked a question of Facebook, looking for responses from friends. My question was, “If you are a Christian, what is your elevator speech? Why are you as Christian?” The answers ranged, with some of my friends acting like idiots. Here are some of the serious responses:
- Because He first loved me.
- I am forgiven through the blood of Jesus. No other religion can make such a claim.
- Because God is love and Jesus came to remind us of that love. We are God’s hands in the world to share that love.
- Because I know in my heart that we belong to each other and Jesus gifted us with the best example of how to live and love to that end. (That one is from our own Pam Loughran!)
One of my friends in the NACCC wrote, “If I need a speech, I’m doing something wrong.” Clearly, a follower of St. Francis, who is credited with saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and, if necessary, use words.”
Even if you preach with your actions, do you have an elevator speech? Do we as a church have an elevator speech? Saying we are a Good Neighbor Church is a start, but that doesn’t necessarily signify that we are a religious institution. The State Farm Insurance Company also claims to be a good neighbor!
Mind you — this isn’t a criticism. Rather, it’s a challenge. Our job, 24/7/365, is to see ourselves for who we are: disciples of Jesus Christ. We are vessels in which God has placed his Word, and we are charged with sharing the Word with everyone. Sometimes your actions will be enough. Sometimes they won’t be.
Let me leave you with this though: the Word you say, the hope that Jesus offers, may be exactly what someone needs to hear. You never know what other people are going through. Some feel as if they are lost. Some are at the end of their rope. Jesus loves you. He went to the cross in your place. He rose to offer you everlasting life. He cherishes you. That’s twenty-one words. That’ll get you to where you’re going, whether you’re in an elevator or not. Amen.
[1] David Neff, “Jesus’ Elevator Speech,” from Christianity Today, May 21, 2013 (online).
[2] Bauer and Danker quoted in Robert H. Mounce, Matthew (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1991), 210.