January 29, 2012
"Reclaiming Evangelism"
Jason Crosby preaching
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I Corinthians 8:1-13
Evangelism, evangelism, evangelism. Just uttering the word can make some squirm. Evangelism is distinct from evangelicals and evangelicalism. On The National Association of Evangelicals website, historian David Bebbington lists the four primary characteristics of evangelicalism. 1. Conversionism: the belief that lives need to be transformed through a “born-again” experience and a life long process of following Jesus. 2. Activism: the expression and demonstration of the gospel in missionary and social reform efforts. 3. Biblicism: a high regard for and obedience to the Bible as the ultimate authority. 4. Crucicentrism: a stress on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as making possible the redemption of humanity. http://www.nae.net/church-and-faith-partners/what-is-an-evangelical. Evangelical is a word that you will hear a lot in the days ahead. As the election season picks up more and more steam, you will likely hear television and radio pundits talking more and more about evangelicals. Evangelicals are a group that has learned how to effectively utilize the voting booth to promote their agenda. Now through November, people will speculate about which candidate the evangelicals favor. People will discuss the amount of political influence evangelicals possess.
The ability of evangelicals to so successfully exert their power, I believe, is one reason that evangelism makes some people, even the most ardent Christians, so uncomfortable. Those who wish to distance themselves from evangelicals who emphasize conversion of people of others faiths to Christianity and who push certain social reform agendas, often do so by distancing themselves from evangelism. Evangelism often goes out with the evangelical bathwater.
Evangelism, however, is an integral part of the Christian faith. Evangelism literally means proclaiming or bringing the good news of Jesus’ love and grace. Jesus’ last words in Matthew’s gospel, known as the Great Commission, encourage his disciples to go forth and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20. It is difficult to get around these words. We are called to share our faith.
Paul elaborates on this theme in 1 Corinthians 3. Apparently, the church in Corinth had a problem. The intellectual elite and financially secure in the church concluded that since food offered to idols would not have any negative impact on them, then it was fine to eat such meat when it was offered to them. They argued that eating certain foods would not tarnish their relationship with God. Paul responds, however, by claiming that knowledge puffs up, while it is love that builds up. Just because some correctly deduced that eating meat offered to idols would not be an encumbrance upon their relationship with God, does not mean that eating such food is the best course of action for followers of Christ. They wielded their knowledge for their own pleasure and to look good in the eyes of others, not to lovingly build-up God’s Kingdom. Instead, Christians are to attempt first and foremost conduct themselves in a manner that communicates the love of God to others. We construct stumbling blocks to God’s love for ourselves and others, if we base our actions on whether or not they are logically or even theologically sound before asking ourselves if our words and actions communicate God’s love to others. Above all else, then, Paul beckons us to engage in evangelism, to proclaim the good news of God’s love in word and deed, and let God take care of all else. We need not concern ourselves with whether or not another person will become a Christian or even start attending our church. To do so, in fact, would only undermine the sincerity of the message we hope to convey. Our job, first and foremost, is, inspired by God’s love, to share that love in word and deed with others and let God’s mysterious spirit loose in our world.
I do not believe that the ultimate objective of evangelism is conversion to Christianity, however. If evangelism is proclaiming the good news of Jesus’ love and grace, I have trouble seeing how it is loving and graceful to strive to convert a person of another religious heritage to Christianity. Evangelism that seeks conversion disrespects the experience of another and is anything but loving. Some contend that Jesus’ statement in the 14th chapter of John’s gospel means that followers of Christ should attempt to convert others to Christianity or others will not experience salvation. In John 14 Thomas asks Jesus, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:5-6. Rob Bell, in his book released last year Love Wins, addresses the question of whether this passage in John means that salvation awaits only those who are Christian. Bell writes, “This is as wide and expansive a claim as a person can make. What [Jesus] doesn't say is how, or when, or in what manner the mechanism functions that gets people to God through him. He doesn't even state that those coming to the Father through him will even know that they are coming exclusively through him. He simply claims that whatever God is doing in the world to know and redeem and love and restore the world is happening through him." p. 154. I hear Bell saying that the salvation of individuals and the redemption of the world are in God’s hands and our concern need not be whether or not a person identifies themselves as a Christian. Rather, our concern should be whether or not we are proclaiming the good news of Jesus’ love and grace in all we say and do.
Accepting that evangelism’s objective is not “conversionistic” in nature does not exempt Christians from being prepared to verbally articulate the Christian faith. Sharing our faith often means speaking about our faith. This can be challenging for those aware that we live and respect that fact that we live in an interfaith world. In addition to serving as an Interim Minister at the First Baptist Church of Battle Creek, Michigan while Kate and I lived in Michigan, I also worked with the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice in Ann Arbor. That organization’s mission is to bring people of various faith traditions together to advocate for peace and justice. This can be challenging. It is one thing to advocate for peace and justice. It’s another thing to bring Christian, Jews, and Muslims to the table in Southeastern Michigan, where in addition to large numbers of Christians, many faithful Jews and Muslims live, to work for peace and justice in Israel and Palestine, for example. However, that experience taught me that Christians can share their faith with people of different faith traditions in ways that engender respect and further the establishment of what we Christians refer to as God’s Kingdom. Through verbally sharing my faith in Jesus Christ, through respectfully stating that Jesus is my shepherd who enlightens my way to peace and justice with people from various faith backgrounds, and listening to how their faith traditions compelled them to work for a similar vision, I discovered that the ability to competently share my faith with others did not lead to greater division, but in fact, drew us, as disparate as we were, closer to one another and strengthened our ability to bring about a more just and peaceful world. Loving, thoughtful, compassionate verbal articulation of the Christian faith in the interfaith context is not an impediment to interfaith relationships. Rather, loving, thoughtful, compassionate verbal articulation of the Christian faith in the interfaith faith context is an essential catalyst that helps us bring about the kind of world that the God we discover in the bible envisions for us. In fact, even though some label Christianity and other religions as the scapegoats for all that is wrong with the world, I believe that it is ability to articulate and live up the best callings of our various faith traditions that remains the best hope for us all.
A post on a Duke Divinity School blog entitled The Covered Dish offers an excellent illustration of how Christians may engage in evangelism in both word and deed in a thoughtful, compassionate, loving manner. The post tells the story of one grave-digging pastor. “It all started, he said, when he led the funeral of someone in the community whose family could not afford a proper burial. To help the family, the pastor arranged for some volunteer people from the church to help in digging and filling in the grave. He found it to be such a powerful practice, such a moving ritual, that he resolved to try to repeat it. Since then, not only has he found that grave-digging has more deeply connected him with the dead, but that it has made him new connections with the living. Each time, he says, he has good conversations with the grave-diggers he helps, many of whom can’t believe that any preacher would ever do this kind of thing. This image of the pastoral gravedigger, of Christian servants graciously rolling up their sleeves and joining people in their (often grim) work, of doing slightly conspicuous or odd things that help people re-think church, of performing deeds that fascinate and captivate the imagination, and that would make absolutely no sense unless Jesus really is Lord – this, I believe, is the present and future of evangelism.” http://divinity.duke.edu/initiatives-centers/thriving-rural-communities/covered-dish/grave-digger.
Evangelism, evangelism, evangelism. Just uttering the word can make some squirm. However, all we say and do communicates to others what we really believe and value. Every word we speak and every word we don’t speak communicates to others who our God and what we value is. Every action we take and don’t take, communicates to others who our God and what we value is. It is really that surprising, then, that our God asks us to engage in evangelism? Should we be too shocked that our God calls us to be people who proclaim the love and grace of God? For each of us is communicating to others what we cherish each and every second of each and every day. Therefore, may we be evangelists. May we cast aside whatever fears we have that preclude us from proclaiming the good news of Christ’s love and grace. May we find ways to lovingly, thoughtfully, and compassionately state our faith in word and deed. For our God and our world need us not only to reclaim evangelism, but to embrace it.