Chick Tracts

[timmyb]

from my personal standpoint, I have never seen tracts used in the Bible, not knocking them in the foggiest... i've seen people saved by televangelists, tracts, christian rock, and various other means... but tracts are my least favorite means of evangelism method...

has anyone ever heard of Ray Comfort's sermon George Street? a guy for 70 years handed out tracts and didn't know of one person who got saved. But throughout the sermon the stories of people around the world who happened to be on that one street came across this man received the same tract and all came to know Jesus through this one man's ministry.

Now, I don't like tracts because I work at a restaurant and we have church people come in and eat. Now the servers who receive tips to pay their bills need money to live on and all. They come and they eat leave absolutely nothing but a tract leaving the server even more closed off to the tract because all that did was show their religious pride. The word of God but no power makes a tract a piece of paper. Few people realize that the gospel is not just in word but in power and that when the Gospel is lived in a person's life that is way more effective than the non personal, cheap, fast, and 'American' way of just handing them a piece of paper telling them they need Jesus.

A Christian who doesn't tip a waiter but leaves a tract does more damage to the cause of the gospel than anything else I have seen. The principles of doing such things are all over the Bible. I just happen to see it done most in restaurants because like I said before I work there and I am embarrassed when people come to me or when I bus a table and find that Christians stiffed the server but left a tract. It really makes me want to cry.

[IBWatching]

...I was one of those -- I saw them as a non-believer, and my eyebrows shot right up and I walked away, not an inch closer to Christ...

Well, whether it effected you or not, you did pick it up, right? A tract read is better than the 10,000 that are not read is my point. Whether it plants seeds or not is ultimately not up to the tract anyway, but the Holy Spirit.

I will only use one Chick tract...the "This Was Your Life" one. As others have stated, the rest are either offensive or will rip your heart right in two, like "Somebody Loves You" (the one about the unwanted little boy thrown out into the alley to die, clutching to the end a tract he had read in his hand). My daughter can't bear that one.

Jack Chick was also KJV only, another "quirk" which causes some to choose not to use them. On the whole, I think their time has come and gone and there are better alternatives available today.

[fuzzi]

Now, I don't like tracts because I work at a restaurant and we have church people come in and eat. Now the servers who receive tips to pay their bills need money to live on and all. They come and they eat leave absolutely nothing but a tract leaving the server even more closed off to the tract because all that did was show their religious pride. The word of God but no power makes a tract a piece of paper. Few people realize that the gospel is not just in word but in power and that when the Gospel is lived in a person's life that is way more effective than the non personal, cheap, fast, and 'American' way of just handing them a piece of paper telling them they need Jesus.

A Christian who doesn't tip a waiter but leaves a tract does more damage to the cause of the gospel than anything else I have seen. The principles of doing such things are all over the Bible. I just happen to see it done most in restaurants because like I said before I work there and I am embarrassed when people come to me or when I bus a table and find that Christians stiffed the server but left a tract. It really makes me want to cry.

Note:

When I was 18, and not saved, I worked as a waitress. I disliked the 'holy roller' people who would come in on Thursday evenings after their 'church service'. They would sit and talk for hours, smoke like chimneys, and never leave tips, but tracts. Yes, they did make a bad impression.

In my mid 30s I was working in a fast food restaurant, and when people would hand me tracts on 'How to get to Heaven', I would get mad and mutter "Who do they think they are, that they say they're going to Heaven and I'm not????!!!" I'd throw the tracts in the trash.

My outrage was my flesh, my unsaved self rebelling, my pride asserting itself. It wasn't the fault of the people who handed me the tracts, or the tracts themselves. I was the problem, why I did not listen to God's call.

I finally got saved, not through a tract, but through the patient witness of an online friend.

Some of us have a hard time facing people and giving them the gospel, so we 'sow seed' in the form of God's word on little booklets that catch people's attention. I like Chick tracts because they do get read. I've seen people eagerly read them after I have handed them out.

Maybe the person who reads tract throws it away, but the seed has already been sown, by them reading God's word, Scripture. It might take days, weeks, months, even years, but eventually God's word will not return void, as it is written in Isaiah:

"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." (Isaiah 55:11)

[Izdaari]

Note:

When I was 18, and not saved, I worked as a waitress. I disliked the 'holy roller' people who would come in on Thursday evenings after their 'church service'. They would sit and talk for hours, smoke like chimneys, and never leave tips, but tracts. Yes, they did make a bad impression.

In my mid 30s I was working in a fast food restaurant, and when people would hand me tracts on 'How to get to Heaven', I would get mad and mutter "Who do they think they are, that they say they're going to Heaven and I'm not????!!!" I'd throw the tracts in the trash.

My outrage was my flesh, my unsaved self rebelling, my pride asserting itself. It wasn't the fault of the people who handed me the tracts, or the tracts themselves. I was the problem, why I did not listen to God's call.

I finally got saved, not through a tract, but through the patient witness of an online friend.

Some of us have a hard time facing people and giving them the gospel, so we 'sow seed' in the form of God's word on little booklets that catch people's attention. I like Chick tracts because they do get read. I've seen people eagerly read them after I have handed them out.

Maybe the person who reads tract throws it away, but the seed has already been sown, by them reading God's word, Scripture. It might take days, weeks, months, even years, but eventually God's word will not return void, as it is written in Isaiah:

"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." (Isaiah 55:11)

Yes, they may do some good anyway... but please, folks, if you leave a tract for your waiter, leave a good tip too. It'll make a much better impression, and be more likely to be read.

[CoffeeCat]

Well, whether it effected you or not, you did pick it up, right? A tract read is better than the 10,000 that are not read is my point. Whether it plants seeds or not is ultimately not up to the tract anyway, but the Holy Spirit.

The tracts I saw, in particular, literally weren't about Christ. Forgive me, but I don't recall their names -- it was a long time ago. Once was about hell, and the other was about how evil and repulsive sin was (and went something along the lines of how all Catholics, gays, and fornicators were doomed). They had a "bash over the head" effect for anyone who read them, but at the same time, they didn't explain the hope we can have in Christ, or Christ's resurrection, or in fact anything that would actually help a non-believer understand that God loved them at all.

People who do not know Christ need to understand their sin, but they need to understand the love and sacrifice of the Saviour even more, and need to know that He can and will lead them to Life. Since that element wasn't present in either tract (to be fair, it MIGHT be present in some of Chick's other tracts; I don't know).... but that was a problem with those tracts. It accused, without offering redemption.

The Holy Spirit did work in my life to bring me to Christ. It was through conversation, friends who were Christian, one member of my family, and a lot of patience. I have learned lately that sometimes the truth can be VERY offensive. I don't have a problem with that -- we need to call sin, sin..... but the way the truth is spoken is something that will either push people towards Christ or away from Him. The difference could be as simple as saying "you are sinning, God hates sin, and if you keep sinning you'll burn in hell" versus saying "We're all sinners, and because God hates sin so much, He sent His Son to die in our place so that we could be reunited with Him and avoid the punishment we were owed." Both phrases say the same thing, but one explains salvation, and that's the more helpful of the two, even if both are "true".

I will only use one Chick tract...the "This Was Your Life" one. As others have stated, the rest are either offensive or will rip your heart right in two, like "Somebody Loves You" (the one about the unwanted little boy thrown out into the alley to die, clutching to the end a tract he had read in his hand). My daughter can't bear that one.

Jack Chick was also KJV only, another "quirk" which causes some to choose not to use them. On the whole, I think their time has come and gone and there are better alternatives available today.

I'd be curious to read both of the tracts you mention, just for interest's sake. Would you say both try to grab at the emotional side of people, in an attempt to get them won over?

And yes, I also think there are better alternatives.

[Whitey]

I'd be curious to read both of the tracts you mention, just for interest's sake. Would you say both try to grab at the emotional side of people, in an attempt to get them won over?

And yes, I also think there are better alternatives.

i believe you can read all of the Chick Tracts online at http://www.chick.com if you so desire.

Mike