The topic of evangelism has been coming up a lot lately within the community at Seven Hills Church, which has led me to ponder and reflect upon the subject in my own quiet time. Scripture makes it clear that all Christians are called to evangelize; this word comes from the Greek ευαγγελιζω, which literally means “I preach the gospel.” So, with the responsibility of preaching the gospel, how can we most effectively and faithfully evangelize in our world today?
I would like to lay down a few principles (as well as a few cautions) which I feel are relevant and useful in this regard.
First, evangelism requires words.
I reject St. Francis of Assisi’s idea that we should “preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” Words are always necessary to preaching the gospel. Now, perhaps St. Francis’ point was that we as evangelists must “practice what we preach,” so to speak, living a life which acts as a testimony to the gospel. Of course, this is absolutely true; however, without words, that behavioral testimony means nothing.
So, let us not fool ourselves by claiming that merely living a good life is a sufficient way to evangelize. While we mustn’t downplay the importance of living a life that reflects the Christian gospel, we must also realize that preaching the gospel requires verbal preaching. We must preach the gospel in word and deed (see Colossians 3:17). Therefore, we cannot back down from our message, nor can anyone excuse themselves from verbal evangelism by merely claiming to have lived a good life.
Second, evangelism begins with relationships.
In an increasingly postmodern society, relationships are the key to reaching others for Christ. Monological evangelism from the pulpit and altar calls are becoming less and less effective over time, as people become less receptive to the stranger’s call to a decision (i.e. a Billy Graham crusade, a tract, a conversation on an airplane, etc.) and more open to hearing what their friends have to say.
In his book, The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West…Again, George Hunter uses St. Patrick’s evangelistic efforts in Ireland as an example as to how we can reach our Western culture today. In Patrick’s day, the Catholic Church had tried again and again to convert Ireland to Christianity, but had failed until Patrick came along and, from an understanding of Celtic culture and personal relationships, sparked a chain reaction that would lead to the conversion of all Ireland within 100 years. This “Celtic method” of evangelism is perhaps adaptable to improve our own methods of sharing Christ with others, as long as we realize what implications it must have:
- This style of evangelism means we need to build genuine relationships with others. Yes, it might require more work than printing out a bunch of tracts or even preaching an evangelistic sermon in front of a large audience, but it will also prove to be far more fruitful. What this requires of us is that we intentionally seek to build friendships with non-Christians. The easiest way to do this is through involvement in clubs or organizations centered on a common interest (i.e. gym membership, sports or recreation, dancing classes, etc.). People are much more likely to listen to the gospel if it is preached to them by a friend who does not blatantly seem to be operating on some type of missionary’s agenda.
- While we are trying to reach people through friendships, we must be careful not to compromise the gospel for “friendliness.” People often like to be encouraged in ways that they need not be encouraged (i.e. religious pluralism, sinful behavior, unhealthy relationships, etc.). As I said before, preaching the gospel requires words, and these words must be true. This doesn’t mean we try to cram our beliefs down people’s throats at all costs; God is sovereign and their conversion ultimately depends on the Holy Spirit. However, we cannot ignore our responsibility to speak the truth in love. We must remain faithful to the gospel, even if it means bluntly telling someone that the penalty for their sin is eternity in hell if they do not accept Christ. If we have developed a friendship with this person and genuinely care about them, we should tell them the truth about God.
- This relational style of evangelism both allows and requires us to thoroughly examine the hearts and minds of those whom we are evangelizing. We should find out what they love, what they hate, what drives them, what scares them, and what makes them feel unsatisfied with life. By doing this, we can better understand how to contextualize the gospel in their lives and confront specific areas in their life where they are rebelling against God.
- On an added note, while we should feel great compassion for those whom we seek to introduce to Christ and make every effort to help them understand and accept the gospel, we must realize that God is ultimately in control of the situation. We should understand that many—if not most—of those to whom we witness will reject our message and continue to reject Christ. What matters most is our love for our hearers and our faithfulness to the true gospel. God will save those whom He chooses, and we should be excited to have the blessed responsibility of taking part in His work.
Third, we must not eliminate the offense of the Cross.
One of the risks associated with relational evangelism is that we might try too hard to avoid offending others. While postmodernism should alter the way we witness to others in some ways, we must, once again, remain faithful to the gospel. This means we cannot buy into the “tolerance” movement which is, ironically enough, intolerant of anyone who claims to have knowledge of some absolute truth.
Certainly we do not need to go out of our way to offend people, as some Christians do. Yet the message of the cross is a very offensive message that must be preached in its full potency, without being watered-down by any of our misguided attempts to be “seeker-sensitive.”
We must never buy into the lies of our culture, those false gospels that lurk secretly throughout our society—even in the Church—but somehow remain undetected by most. We must not reinforce people’s false ideas about self-esteem, health and wealth, universalism, and works-based-righteousness—to evangelize without confronting such issues is, quite frankly, neglectful and sinful. We should not paint a “prettier” picture of Jesus, the kind of Jesus who has no room for wrath and justice but instead talks with a lisp and draws smiley faces in the sand wherever he goes. The Cross is brutal, horrific, violent, and scandalous. On it our innocent Savior willingly died for our sins. If this doesn’t convict us to share the gospel of salvation with others, what will?
