Tim Stanyon
Word
Count: 2149
Is
evangelism persuading people of the truth or welcoming them into a
community? Illustrate your answer with
practical examples from personal experience.
The
answer to this question hinges on the definition of evangelism and the
theological and practical applications of that definition. In this essay a number of the different
approaches and understandings of evangelism will be discussed and how they
relate to both persuading people of the truth and welcoming them into a community. Following on from this initial discussion a
decision as to the definition of evangelism shall be reached based on the
biblical data. The fundamental
theological content of this definition will then be drawn out and discussed
with reference to cultural setting. The
problems posed by cultural setting for evangelism will be pointed out and
practical examples of these problems will be noted. From this an appropriate response will be
formulated through investigating the nature of contextualisation. After these factors have been taken into
account a conclusion can be made as to whether evangelism is, or can ever involve,
persuading people of the truth or welcoming them into a community.
Bosch (1991, 409) writes, “It
remains difficult...to determine precisely what authors mean by evangelism or
evangelization.” Evangelism is a
difficult term to define. Indeed, there
are a plethora of different definitions of the term available, each giving
their own slant on the theology and praxis of evangelism and its place in the
context of the ongoing mission of God. There
are three main ways of construing evangelism, these being, proclamation, church
growth and initiation (Abraham, 1989, 40-116). In understanding the meaning of evangelism it
seems helpful to follow the line of Watson (1976, 26) by investigating the use
of the word in the New Testament. The NT
Greek equivalent of evangelism, ‘εὐαγγελίζω’
“means to announce or proclaim or bring good news.” It carries a similar meaning
in the OT (Watson, 1976, 26). It is
clear then, that following on from the biblical use of the term, the good news
of the Christian gospel is integral to evangelism. It would also seem that it’s verbal
communication and proclamation is of incredible importance. Indeed, this is in line with Paul’s statement
in Rom.10.13 when he says, “But how are they to call on him in whom they have
not believed? And how are they to
believe in him of whom they have never heard?”
Nevertheless, to define evangelism as only verbal proclamation of the
gospel, though providing a neat and clear definition (Abraham, 1989, 45), would
be a mistake. This is drawn out when
further attention is paid to the NT understanding of evangelism. By looking at the evangelistic ministry of
Jesus it can be seen that though the verbal proclamation of the gospel was key,
this also entailed the good news being “set in action” (Watson, 1976, 28) and
physically demonstrated. Indeed, “In
addition [to proclamation], they [the evangelists of the early church] taught,
argued their case about Jesus Christ, gave guidance, were involved in healings,
exhorted, and the like.” (Abraham, 1989, 50).
Thus, there seems to be a move on the part of the NT evangelists toward
making disciples which seems difficult to reconcile with the traditional
understanding of evangelism as proclamation.
Given
these factors and their main consequence, that being church growth, it has
often been understood that evangelism is aimed at that end, or even that
evangelism is the process of church growth itself (Abraham, 1989, 71). Undoubtedly, if one proclaims the gospel one
is justified in expecting church growth as a consequence of that
proclamation. However, there are two
main problems with the church growth understanding of evangelism that need to
be highlighted. Firstly, if evangelism
is defined in terms of church growth, there is a danger that the integrity of
the proclamation of the gospel through acts like that of love and friendship
will be turned into nothing more than a “utilitarian means or tool to increase
the statistics of church membership.” (Abraham, 1989, 77) And secondly, if church growth is evangelism,
then why use the gospel at all? In
certain situations it might prove more numerically fruitful for the church to
discard or set aside the gospel in favour of a more welcoming message that is
more likely to improve the numerical situation of the church. However, as has already been shown, one of
the fundamental parts of evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel, and so
taking this tack would be a grave mistake that could lead to a gospel-less
Christianity. Thus, “...evangelism
should not, and realistically cannot, be seen as a panacea for numerical
decline” even though, “...it is nevertheless right to be concerned with
numbers.” (Booker and Ireland, 2005, 3).
Proclamation
and church growth are important then, but in and of themselves they fail to
define evangelism appropriately within the context of the mission of God. Some form of the initiation model proposed by
Abraham (1989, 13) and similarly Booker and Ireland (2005, 2) who define
evangelism as, “...the process by which people become disciples of Jesus
Christ” seems more appropriate. Not only
is this definition rooted in the proclamation of the gospel message and Jesus’
call to make disciples (Mt. 28.16-20), but it is also rooted in a commitment to
other persons that does not treat them as a means to an end, yet has the aim
and process of Christian discipleship in mind.
From
this brief discussion of the different approaches to, and definitions of
evangelism, it has been made clear that the gospel is central to the act of
evangelism. Thus, persuading people of
the truth and welcoming people into a community, taken in isolation, cannot be
evangelism. I can persuade someone of
the truth that the sky is blue, and I can welcome someone into a community of
tennis players, but this will not be evangelism because it is not rooted in the
gospel and it doesn’t take into account the nature of evangelism, which focuses
on the discipleship and initiation of persons into the kingdom of God. Thus the next step, having established that
evangelism cannot be done in separation from the gospel, will be to understand
exactly what the gospel is. If the
gospel that is integral to evangelism and the activities of persuading people
of the truth and welcoming them into a community cannot be coherently held
together, especially with reference to cultural setting, then these activities
cannot be considered evangelism.
In his
book ‘Christianity Rediscovered’ Vincent Donovan (2001, 25) writes, “I had to
make the humiliating admission that I did not know what the gospel was.” What the gospel is and understanding this,
given that it is so integral to evangelism, will be of chief importance in how evangelism
is approached in practice. It is my
experience that those who don’t understand this largely fail in their
evangelistic attempts. Christianity
makes the claim that it’s narrative is true.
“Gospel proclamation is, in this sense, an intellectual exercise; it is
a truth conveying exercise.” (Carson, 1996, 507). This gospel is centred on the good news of
Jesus Christ, his kingdom, the saving activity of God through Jesus’ death and
resurrection and the opportunity for human beings to respond and take part in
this ongoing narrative (cf. Wright, 2006, 176; Watson, 1976, 33; Walker, 1996,
13-14). It is very difficult to see
therefore, how the acts of persuading people of the truth of this gospel or
welcoming them into a community of those who believe, are inadequate methods of
communicating its message. It certainly doesn’t seem that there is a conflict
between these acts and the gospel proclaimed in evangelism. However, in stark contrast to the gospel, postmodernism
and pluralism affirm that claims to universal truth are both oppressive and
violent and that the very idea of an overarching metanarrative is highly
suspicious (Middleton and Walsh, 1995, 70-71).
In personal experience I have recognized this attitude in evangelistic
conversations. For example, with Long
Eaton Street Pastors I met a spiritualist who said something along the lines of
“it’s true for you but not for me”.
Another attitude common to the postmodern zeitgeist is the view that
metanarratives are social constructions (Middleton and Walsh, 1995, 71). Indeed, I had a conversation with a friend
who said, “I understand why you believe it [Christianity]; we all believe
things so we don’t go crazy”. However,
the gospel immediately assaults this postmodern worldview, in which truth is
what you make it. Thus the very idea of
persuading people of the truth is under suspicion in postmodernist
culture. Before you can persuade someone
of the truth, they have to believe that there is a real truth to be grasped. What this shows is that significant problems
are posed by cultural setting. This could exclude both persuading people of the
truth and welcoming them into a community from being evangelism, because these
acts might not be helpful for making disciples of Christ.
There
is therefore a challenge at the very core of evangelism posed by cultural
setting. The Christian has to work out
how the gospel should be communicated within their culture. There is biblical evidence (cf. Acts.
17.16-34) to show that this process of contextualization has been occurring
ever since the gospel was originally proclaimed. Thus the response on the part of the
Christian will be aimed at the contextualization of the gospel. The gospel has to “be transmitted with flair
and culturally fitting forms.” (Abraham, 1989, 171, cf. Newbigin, 1997, 141). Despite the problems of cultural setting, if
contextualization allows for the potentiality of persuading people of the truth
or welcoming them into a community then these acts could be considered
evangelistic. There are two dangers in
attempts at contextualization that must be noted. Firstly if one goes too far in trying to make
the gospel relevant to the postmodern they run the risk of dismissing its claim
to truth, or diluting the gospel to such an extent that it is devoid of
meaning. This danger is highlighted by Newbigin (1997, 141), “What comes to the
heart of the hearer must really be the gospel, and not a product shaped by the
mind of the hearer.” Secondly, neither
can the Christian go too far in the other direction. If the gospel is not effectively
contextualised then it risks becoming irrelevant and devoid of meaning. Thus, a balance has to be achieved in the
contextualization of the gospel regarding evangelism. The process of contextualization needs to be
an ongoing process analogous to ongoing changes in culture. This idea is
expressed well by Carson (1996, 506), “There is intellectual content in this
heralded gospel, content that must be grasped, proclaimed and taught, grasped
afresh, proclaimed afresh, in an ongoing cycle.”
Having
understood that the key to effective evangelism is through understanding and
contextualizing the gospel for its relevant communication, one now has to ask
whether evangelism could involve persuading people of the truth or welcoming
them into a community given the right culture.
As has already been noted, the idea of persuading people of the truth
will be largely irrelevant to evangelism in postmodern culture. However, if a trip is taken back only two or
three hundred years to the enlightenment where the concept of objective truth
would be acknowledged, the activity of persuading people of the truth of the
gospel would have been formative in the process by which people became
disciples of Jesus Christ. In our own
day the contextualizing of the gospel often does involve welcoming people into
the church community, but this welcome should not be divorced from the
Christian claim to the truth of the gospel. What evangelism is or involves then, is
largely relative to current culture and the contextualization of the gospel so
that it is appropriate for that specific culture. Therefore, both persuading people of the
truth and welcoming those people into a community have the potential for being
evangelistic activities.
In
conclusion, it has been seen that at the heart of evangelism is the truth of
the Christian gospel. It has also been shown
that though the concept of proclamation is integral and that the church growth
model highlights concern for numbers, neither approach adequately articulates
what evangelism is. It has been seen
that some form of initiation or discipleship model of evangelism is the most
appropriate definition. This discussion
showed that if persuading people of the truth and welcoming people into
community are done in separation from the gospel and the process by which
people are made disciples of Jesus Christ then these activities cannot be
considered evangelism. Furthermore the
fundamentality of the gospel to efficient evangelism was explored in relation
to postmodernism and cultural flux. It
was shown that the gospel, despite being challenged by cultural setting did not
exclude its communication by persuading people of the truth or welcoming them
into a community. Following this it was
shown that while cultural setting could pose challenges to the way evangelism
is conducted; cultural setting is in a state of constant change, showing that
for effective evangelism the Christian needs to contextualize the gospel. The process of contextualization was
discussed, revealing that what constituted evangelism was largely relative to
cultural setting. This means that both
persuading people of the truth and welcoming people into a community, within
the right cultural setting have the potentiality of being evangelism, provided
that they were rooted in the gospel.
Bibliography
Abraham,
W. (1989). The Logic of Evangelism. Kent: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd.
Booker,
M., and Ireland, M. (2005). Evangelism-
Which Way Now?. (2nd ed.). London: church House Publishing.
Bosch,
D.J. (1991). Transforming Mission.
New York: Orbis Books.
Carson,
D.A. (1996). The Gagging of God.
Leicester: Apollos.
Donovan,
V.J. (2001). Christianity Rediscovered. (2nd ed.). London: SCM Press.
Middleton,
J.R. and Walsh, B.J. (1995). truth is
stranger than it used to be. London:
SPCK.
Newbigin,
L. (1997). The Gospel in a Pluralist
Society. London: SPCK.
Walker,
A. (1996). Telling the Story. London:
SPCK.
Watson,
D. (1976). I believe in Evangelism.
London: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd.
Wright,
T. (2006). Simply Christian. London:
SPCK.
All
Biblical citations taken from the ESV.
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