Yooster Evangelism

Have you heard of Yooster? It is a brilliant marketing initiative. "You get free stuff", my daughter told me. Here's how it works, as explained to me by the expert in my home (and corroborated by the official website). "The people who run Yooster are this advertising company sort of thing, and they send you these products and you tell your friends and they go out and buy it. It's a word of mouth thing." You have to register online and set up your profile. If you match a certain demographic you can get certain products and participate in their opinion polls ostensibly influencing the direction of the products development. Not bad!
"It's a word of mouth thing." Now that's interesting. "Why?" I asked my resident expert. "Why do they go to all that trouble?" "Because, people will do what their friends do Dad!" She's right.
It's evangelism - that's what it is. Good-news telling! This is the Jesus' plan for world wide mission. Evangelism is simply a group of people who have experienced life in Jesus and found that it is very good; then they go and tell others. It's a word of mouth thing.
But it's not really the same, is it? Yooster is cool. Evangelism feels stale and awkward. Evangelism is such a big "TELL" or is that "yell". It doesn't feel like the sort of thing you should do to your friend - evangelise her. Sounds like a medical procedure. Why do the marketers think this is going to work for them? Is Yooster really that cool? I continued my informal research.
"So", I asked my daughter, "How would you ask your friend to buy the product?" "I wouldn't" she said. "If it was say, perfume, I'd just wear it and they'd say, you smell nice and I'd say yeah - Yooster!"
What if evangelism were about SMELLING first and telling second? What if Paul's doxology were right: "But thanks be to God, who ... through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ.' (2 Cor 2:14). Then the most important thing for me would be that I put on Christ every day, and be ready to give an answer (Gal 3:7; 1 Peter 3:15).
And, think about it. We have something so much better to say than Yooster!

- Allan Demond, Chair Crossover Australia, March 2007