Evangelism

One of the terms used most frequently in the New Testament to describe the Christian message is the Greek word euangelion, which means “good news.” The English word evangelism is derived from that and simply means “sharing the good news.” When Jesus visited the synagogue in his home village of Nazareth, he declared, quoting from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, that his purpose was “to bring good news to the poor . . . to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19 NRSV). Hence evangelism can be defined as “ways to awaken or reawaken personal faith in Jesus Christ, and to proclaim to the nations the character and will of God” (Fung, Isaiah Vision, p. viii).

Evangelism is at the very heart of the Christian faith. By definition, to be a Christian is to share the good news with others. Paradoxically, however, evangelism is not always experienced as “good news.” For many unchurched people, it is the exact opposite. Having been targeted by earnest believers as the objects of their evangelizing efforts, they go along to missions and crusades out of a sense of curiosity, only to find themselves feeling conned and trapped by well-meaning church people whose main concern seems to be to process everyone to be like themselves. Even Christians have mixed feelings about evangelism. For some, the constant round of revival meetings has become a way of life. Others—perhaps the majority—find themselves afflicted by a mixture of embarrassment and guilt whenever the subject comes up. On the one hand, evangelism is something they would never do to their dog, let alone their best friends; yet on the other, they know their best friends should hear the good news, but they have no idea how to tell them.

One thing that is common to all these people, Christian and non-Christian alike, is that they identify evangelism with a particular style of Christian activism. It is about holding missions, crusades and revivals in order to recruit people for the church. Even when it happens on a more intimate level, maybe in the context of a home group, evangelism can still look like a scaled-down version of the mass crusade, with Christians giving a summary statement of their belief and then inviting others to accept it and come into the life of the church.

Evangelism and Church

In reality, church often presents more questions than answers for unchurched people, who find there are just too many barriers to be negotiated. “Church is not for people like me,” they say. Church members seem to be from a different social class or have a different lifestyle or live in different kinds of homes and families. Church members also often seem to have no problems, or if they do, they have them stitched up in a way that seems unreal. Hence many people take it for granted that Christians are, by definition, hypocrites. The church’s image barrier is a major obstacle to effective faith sharing.

The church also presents a cultural barrier. The unchurched can find it threatening just to cross the threshold of a church building (or a cinema or stadium turned into a church for the period of a crusade). Even those who make it find that what happens in church, and the way it happens, is far removed from everyday life in the ordinary world. Where else do people engage for so long in procedures that are almost exclusively book-oriented? Where else do people sit passively listening to one person speaking for even as long as fifteen or twenty minutes? Where else does all the action happen invisibly, as it were, in mental abstractions within the mind? And how can anyone possibly fathom when to stand up, when to sit down, when to kneel, when to be silent and when to speak? When people say, “Church is boring,” they usually mean, “This is not the way I normally do things.”

If it is difficult to get people into churches to hear the good news, then logic suggests evangelism will begin when those who are already in church move out in order to share their faith in other contexts. But it is no easier to move Christians out than it is to get other people in. Some Christians regard themselves as spiritual consumers: the church is a place where their own spiritual needs can be met. They like everything the way it is, and the last thing they will allow is change, especially for the benefit of the unchurched. Others say, “My faith is my own business, part of my private life”—not realizing that this assumption is one of the major building blocks of secularism and that the church’s acceptance of it is arguably one of the primary reasons for its present lack of evangelistic success.

Of course, there are many Christians who want to share their faith with others. They are the activists. The church depends on them to give their time and talents to its work—and they do with great courage and at personal cost. But in the process, they find themselves sucked into the organization, and the bureaucracy uses up all their creative energy. Consequently they may easily be the most frustrated of all: they see the urgent need for evangelism but have no effective way of accomplishing it.

Evangelism and Lifestyle

Surprisingly, the New Testament contains very little overt advice about how to evangelize. The apostles recognized that some people might have special talents in sharing their faith, and the role of “evangelist” is listed as one of the foundational gifts of Christ to the church (Ephes. 4:11). But the earliest Christian communities did not generally think of evangelism as some special activity to be delegated to experts, who then needed special training. Sharing the good news was the natural outcome of Christians being Christians.

As Christians live the Christian life, they share their faith naturally and unself-consciously and in the process invite others to follow Jesus. To appreciate the importance of this can bring a great sense of freedom in evangelism—as well as an even greater challenge to scrutinize carefully what is being communicated. “The medium is the message,” said Marshall McLuhan. Whether Christians realize it or not, everything that they do is communicating something about their faith to those who are as yet not Christians. The World Council of Churches document Mission and Evangelism expresses it eloquently: “God leaves us free to choose how to share our faith. But our options are never neutral—every methodology either illustrates or betrays the gospel we announce” (sec. 28).

In John’s Gospel the “new commandment” is a central feature of Jesus’ teaching: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34 NRSV). Christians have often assumed that this teaching must be “domestic policy,” related only to the internal workings of the church. Jesus identified it, however, as “foreign policy” and the starting point for effective sharing of the gospel. Could it be that evangelism is so difficult for many Christians today because they are failing to take all this seriously? The New Testament suggests it is not events and techniques that are the central features of effective evangelism but integrity in spirituality and lifestyle (see Witness).

Evangelism and Theology

Christians sometimes imagine that God is powerless unless they themselves are active—and so evangelism is about doing things on God’s behalf. This can lead to great pessimism: either a defeatist pessimism in which the evangelistic task seems so great that it will inevitably overwhelm us or a triumphalist pessimism that assumes everything is in the control of the devil and evangelism is, therefore, about hostile confrontation with the world. Ultimately, our views about evangelism stem from our understanding of who God is. A defective view of God produces dysfunctional evangelism.

In Scripture, evangelism is not about Christians doing things on God’s behalf. God is actually the first and primary evangelist, and authentic evangelism starts with the conviction that God is at work in the world. Christians are called to recognize what God is doing and to get alongside it. To invite God to come alongside our efforts is to put the cart before the horse.

In stories about Jesus, the New Testament actually provides a model for how this style of evangelism might work: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21 NRSV). What then can be learned by taking Jesus as a paradigm? What do Christians need to learn in order to be sent in the same way as Jesus was?

First, for Jesus, evangelism was holistic, reflecting the all-encompassing nature of the gospel. Jesus had a broad understanding of the human condition. He saw people not just as sinners but also (even primarily) as sinned against. Modern evangelism sometimes begins by putting people down: you are a sinner, responsible for your sin or pain, but you can choose to follow Christ instead. But not everyone does have the freedom to choose, especially not the marginalized and oppressed. The message of the gospel is “You can be responsible,” and for those who are wounded, this is really good news. Much Western Christianity has a shallow view of sin as something people do, rather than as a cosmic universal reality from which people suffer. As a result there is often little compassion in evangelism. Jesus always affirmed and lifted people up. It is never good news to do otherwise.

Second, Jesus took his message into other people’s territory. He did not invite people to come to places where he felt safe and they felt threatened. He went to the beach, to the market, to the city streets. And he did not set up evangelistic events when he got there. He was simply there, sharing in the life of whatever was happening—and listening. Even when it was obvious what people needed (for example, at the pool of Bethesda in John 5:2-9), Jesus asked questions in order to empathize more effectively with other people. Effective evangelism begins not when Christians speak but when they listen. In response to what he heard, Jesus most often told stories. Stories do not present ready-made (and maybe irrelevant) answers. They create a space in which people can interact and respond in their own ways. Evangelism is about creating a space for God to work in people’s lives.

Third, Jesus issued a simple invitation: “Follow me.” There was no organization to join, and he laid down no preconditions. He accepted anyone who would follow—and in the process often caused offense to religious people, who felt he was too easygoing. Different people responded and followed in different ways, but Jesus accepted them all. There was no single stereotyped pattern for discipleship. The only requirement was a willingness to be open to the good news and to respond to its challenge whenever and wherever that might come. In William Temple’s words, it was about “as much as I understand of myself responding to what I know of God” (quoted in Neill, p. 45). As a consequence, following Jesus was not a static once-and-for-all experience but an evolving and growing relationship that demanded the whole of life.

Fourth, Jesus’ style exemplified weakness in action. At the heart of the gospel story is the fact that in Jesus, God became a child. It is significant that God did not become a full-grown adult. Adults, especially evangelists, like to be in control of things, and they dislike being vulnerable. This is why many Christians feel they can never be evangelists—because they do not have this kind of dominant, extrovert personality. Judged by these standards, Jesus would not be regarded as a successful evangelist either.

Christians have something to share with others, not because they are different but precisely because they are no different. Their concerns and struggles are the same as other people’s; the difference is that in the midst of struggle Jesus is also present. Understanding this, and taking it as a model for evangelism, might easily be costly. But it really will be good news—for Christians as well as for those who are not yet following Christ.

» See also: Discipleship

» See also: Friendship

» See also: Hospitality

» See also: Ministry

» See also: Mission

References and Resources

W. J. Abraham, The Logic of Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989); J. Drane, Evangelism for a New Age: Creating Churches for the Next Century (San Francisco: Harper, 1994); R. Fung, Evangelistically Yours (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1992); R. Fung, The Isaiah Vision (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1992); M. Green, Evangelism Through the Local Church (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990); B. Hanks Jr., Everyday Evangelism: Evangelism as a Way of Life (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1986); Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical Affirmation (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982); S. Neill, The Unfinished Task (London: Lutterworth, 1957).

—John Drane