Yesterday at the Tulsa Emergent Cohort we talked about evangelism. I tried to stoke the conversation by bringing some quotes from one of the best books on evangelism I’ve read: The Logic of Evangelism by William J. Abraham.
What is especially striking is the way in which the gospel of the kingdom initially spread. It did not spread because of a carefully designed program of evangelism; nor did it start because the early disciples meditated on the Great Commission and felt that they had better obey it to assuage their feelings of guilt. The church did not begin its evangelistic activity because it was terrified about the prospects that faced those who died without hearing about Christ; the Christian movement was not initiated by a band of professional evangelists eager to sign up a public relations firm and get the show on the road. Rather the gospel spread and the church grew because the sovereign hand of God was in the midst of the community that found itself surrounded by people who were puzzled and intrigued by what they saw happening. Pg. 37
Thus Christ?s death as an atonement for sin becomes in many quarters the heart of the message, and the whole drama of the coming of the rule of God in his birth and incarnation, in his life and ministry, in his death and resurrection, in his ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and in his continued presence in the worship and ministry of the church are all treated as a kind of scaffolding or backcloth to the salvation of the individual sinner. The impression one receives from the New Testament is very different from this . . . Pg. 59
Evangelism in the early church was rooted in the eschatological activity of God, which was inaugurated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and continued in the act of the Holy Spirit. Given what God had done in and through Christ and the Holy Spirit, it was only natural that Christians should proclaim the mighty acts of God in salvation and liberation, and that they should found communities committed to celebrating all that God had done. They were propelled by a wellspring of joy and love that was at once irrepressible and contagious. Pg. 92
We can best improve our thinking on evangelism by conceiving it as that set of intentional activities which is governed by the goal of initiating people into the kingdom of God for the first time. Pg. 95
One of the issues we tried to grapple with is the evangelical tendency to make evangelism hell-centric. In Scripture, evangelism is so much more than just making it hard for people to go to hell from your city.
Another issue that came up was urgency. Assuming that keeping people out of hell is not your primary motivation for doing evangelism, then where does the sense of urgency come from? Are hell-centric evangelists more likely to have a sense of urgency than those whose evangelism is motivated primarily by something else?
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
Great job Wade!
Michael Green used to say that the gospel in the first century spread like gossip over the backyard fence. I think key to this discussion is a firm understanding of what we are really saved from (hint: it’s more than just being saved from hell when we die) and saved to (hint: it’s more than just heaven when we die).
The urgency comes from love for the entire body of Christ, and wanting all of them to share in our joy. I manage to call my wife much faster with good news than bad. So far I can’t say I treat the people I don’t know (or even a lot of them that I do know) with the same urgency, but that’s where we’re called.
Loving the posts – good to have you back more regularly, Wade!
I like the idea of Contagious Christianity. It spreads naturally as people see the difference in you. They approach you. They ask why you have that smile on your face, or why you are helping those people or, why do you seem to approach life differently? Of course this demands two things… 1. We must get involved in the world around us and in the lives of the people around us. 2. We must change. We’ve got to become like Jesus. I have a friend in India named Ricky who is full of joy. “Full of joy” is the best way I know to describe him. He never met a stranger, He is daily leading people to Christ. I guess what I’m saying is that evangelism should not be forced. It should be a fruit of the Spirit in our lives.