Graceful Evangelism

Christian Witness in a Complex World

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781441214355
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

The word evangelism evokes strong reactions among Christians. Conflict about what it is, whether to do it, how to go about it, and the desired results divides churches, demonstrating the need for new theologies and methods that address today's religiously pluralistic and secular contexts. This book offers a comprehensive treatment of evangelism, from biblical models to contemporary practice. Frances Adeney shows that understanding different contexts and approaches to evangelism and accepting the views of others on this crucial topic can help replace the "evangelism wars" (social action vs. proclamation) with a more graceful approach to sharing God's good news with the world.

Acknowledgments

The idea for this project began with an invitation to do a weekend leadership seminar for First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, West Virginia. They were in between pastors and it seemed a good time to evaluate evangelism and forge some new directions. The weekend began with tension among those with differing perspectives on evangelism but ended with people talking across the room to one another, comparing notes on some of the dreams they had for ministries still “in the briefcase.” Rather than tension between more conservative and more liberal session members, there was respectful listening, excitement, and affirmation. With a broader understanding of what Christian evangelism could be, barriers broke down and even those with differences headed down the road together.

I left that church with a great sense of excitement. This was a group of people dedicated to the work of the gospel. They had been divided falsely between caricatures of evangelism that were not really incompatible when understood as full-orbed theologies. Each group could find a place for its deeply held convictions. Each could see the other’s views in the biblical narrative. Each could grasp how changing contexts became crucial in planning approaches for witness and presence. Conflict had been transformed into cooperation, lethargy into motivation. A graceful evangelism was taking shape.

As with any book project, many people helped and encouraged me along the way. Thanks go to colleagues at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Colleagues Marty Soards, Dianne Reistroffer, and Cliff Kirkpatrick each read parts of the manuscript and gave invaluable advice. Faculty member Elizabeth Walker and President Dean Thompson gave chapel sermons that elegantly demonstrated graceful evangelism. Dean David Hester gave unstinting support as did the LPTS Board of Trustees, which generously gave me a sabbatical to work on the project. Students gave feedback on chapter contents as we struggled together to devise a way through the evangelism impasse that plagues the churches. Thanks also go to Baker editor Jim Kinney for his invitation to write this book, for his enthusiasm, and for the skill and patience of the editors who worked with me to bring it to publication. To my husband, Terry Muck, goes the biggest thank you, both for his wonderful support and for the integrating theme of graceful evangelism.

To readers and critics, I thank you beforehand for your comments and dialogue, which I hope will lead to greater understanding about the role that a graceful evangelism can play in today’s church and world.

Frances S. Adeney
William A. Benfield Jr. Professor of Evangelism and Global Mission
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Introduction
What This Book Is About

The word evangelism evokes strong reactions from Christians and non-Christians in American society today. To many Christians it is a word full of hope. Evangelism is the way to spread the good news that Jesus Christ came into the world to save us. Evangelism is the way to fulfill Jesus’s injunction to “go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15). It is our mandate, and we should pursue it vigorously.

To other Christians evangelism is “the E word.” Evangelism is the way to alienate non-Christians and embarrass the church. Evangelism is an outdated way of announcing that Jesus Christ came into the world to inaugurate the kingdom of God. The church should find other ways to demonstrate the paths of justice that Jesus came to show us. After all, when Jesus announced his ministry in the synagogue, he focused on preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom to the captives, and releasing the oppressed (Luke 4:16–19).

To some non-Christians evangelism is the way superreligious Christians push their views onto others with equally valid religions and ways of understanding the world. To others evangelism is a way some people protect themselves from the harsh realities of a world where every person looks out for his or her own interests, where resources are grabbed by those who can get them, and where political wrangling often gives way to open conflict. To still others evangelism is an irritating way people who haven’t kept up with the times try to get others to follow an outmoded religious tradition.

How did we get to this impasse? Conflict about evangelism – what it is, whether we should do it, how to go about it, what results we seek – is dividing our churches. Where did this conflict come from, and how can we address it? The battle among views of evangelism rages and exacts a toll from congregations and denominations as they argue over definitions and strategies of inviting others to follow the Christian way. Should the church attempt to evangelize around the world, or should we concentrate on our local situation? Should we try to bring people of other religions to Christ, or should we affirm the religions of others? Should congregations try to grow numerically, or should we nurture our life together and hope that others will be attracted to the church?

In the wider society, the battle takes the form of arguing over religion in the public sphere, including debate about prayer in schools, posting the Ten Commandments in high school hallways, and announcing Christian holidays in schools, shopping malls, or town squares. To protect freedom of religion, our society is moving away from specific Christian references about Christmas, for example, to more general ideas that don’t push Christ as “the reason for the season.” Coke ads replace Christian symbols with snowflakes, “Merry Christmas” becomes “Happy Holidays,” and Tiny Tim’s famous line from Charles Dickens’s Christmas Carol morphs from “God bless us every one” to “Bless us every one” on street banners in San Francisco. There are good reasons to protect people from having religious views foisted upon them and to be careful not to offend the religious sensibilities of others. But Christian evangelism no longer has the cultural support of general consensus and struggles to find a fit in our pluralistic society.

This book attempts to assess this situation and move toward a more graceful approach to evangelism. We will analyze the past, take stock of the present situation in evangelism, and find a way forward – a way that will reduce conflict and infuse energy into practices of Christian evangelism. We begin in chapter 1 by looking at some contemporary definitions of evangelism – definitions that bring people together and definitions that divide. We examine the inclusive definitions of church councils and denominations, both evangelical and ecumenical. We look at definitions of evangelism that have grown out of people’s lives and their actions. How we define evangelism influences ways we are likely to cooperate and compete with other churches, denominations, and mission organizations. As times and circumstances change, definitions of evangelism are reformed. New alliances of Christians are formed around those changing definitions. Sometimes new ways of understanding evangelism and new configurations of organizations working on evangelism lead to conflicts. Those conflicts arise not only from changing definitions of evangelism but from our history.

Part 1 of this book deals with evangelism as shaped by biblical and historical models. It asks the question: “Where did we come from?” Where have we come from as a church, and as Christians who love God and want to share God’s love with others? Has evangelism always been understood in the ways that we in American society today understand it? How has the church navigated the issues of plurality, conflicts of interest, and diverging theologies of evangelism in the past? We will examine patterns of evangelism used in the church over the centuries. We will focus particularly on crucial transitions in the ways the church has responded to the surrounding culture – the Reformation, the Great Awakenings, the nineteenth-century worldwide mission movement, and the fundamentalist/modernist controversy in the early twentieth century. Understanding the past helps us recognize where our own views came from and how they might be reordered to address current situations and foster future possibilities.

Chapter 2 examines five biblical models of evangelism. During Jesus’s lifetime he showed again and again what it meant to evangelize. He spoke words of hope; he declared a new day; he insisted that the way to God was through him. Jesus himself is a model for evangelism. As we follow the paths he walked during his life, we will become light to the world. Relieving oppression as a declaration of Christian faith is another biblical model of evangelism. Jesus stood up in the temple and declared that his mission in life was to loosen the bonds of oppression, heal the lame, and give sight to the blind. For Jesus, declaring the time of salvation meant changing oppressive structures and bringing healing to the world. A third model – the Great Commission – finds its source in words that Jesus reportedly said after his death and before his ascension into heaven. He charged his disciples to follow him in preaching, teaching, and calling all nations to follow his way. The apostle Paul adds another model to this list of ways to evangelize when he instructs Christians to live their daily lives as a witness to the love of God. Finally, the apostle Peter reminds Christians to be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks why they live with hope in a world filled with suffering. These five biblical models each result in different approaches to evangelism.

In chapter 3, we look at how these biblical models were carried out through the centuries that followed. Evangelism began in a persecuted church, but its shape evolved with changing situations. New Testament models were adapted and transformed by the church fathers. Evangelism of a different kind was practiced by monastics in the fourth and fifth centuries. Medieval modes developed as the church ascended to a place of power in European society. The Reformation saw renewal and a changing focus on what it meant to live one’s life as a witness to Christ. Modern philosophical frameworks have influenced evangelism, and colonial expansion took Christian witness in new directions. Today various liberation and contextual models address Christian witness in a time of postmodern thinking and globalization.

Current denominational and congregational conflicts about evangelism can be understood only against the backdrop of the history of the Western missionary movement of the nineteenth century. Chapter 4 takes a more in-depth look at nineteenth-century models of evangelism, particularly in the American context. As we look back two hundred years, we see changes in the shape and scope of evangelism and its relation to the role of Christianity in America. We see differences in the way denominations understood and practiced evangelism, in the United States and in other countries. We see different results in various locations.

As we get a grasp on where we have come from, we begin to better understand the complex situations we face today. Part 2 of the book is devoted to the question: “Where are we now?” What concepts of evangelism guide our thinking, and what emotional responses does the word evoke for various sectors of society? We will examine where the real conflicts are and outline areas of compatibility among varying views. We will look at the situation of churches and analyze some current theologies of evangelism that deepen congregational life and foster unity in denominations. We will look at the diversities of culture in the United States and ask what theologies and strategies of evangelism might fit into those diverse settings.

Chapter 5 begins by outlining the situation for evangelism in the twenty-first century, again from an American perspective. A world of cultural diversity and religious pluralism confronts a church that is no longer the dominant voice in public life that it may have been a century ago. Philosophical understandings of relativism and the limited nature of all knowledge have influenced views of Christian faith. Postcolonial critiques of Christian mission cause us to take seriously the potential harm some approaches to evangelism may have in certain contexts. The fundamentalist/modernist controversy, rather than ending, has taken new forms – forms that pit Christians with different theologies of evangelism against each other. Finally, the mishandling of evangelism by charlatans and well-meaning but naive proponents of wealth through Christian faith have turned some Christians away from doing evangelism in any form. This chapter addresses each of those issues, finding that they yield both positive and negative results for evangelism.

Christian evangelism links us to the worldwide church. Chapter 6 describes how mission trends around the world influence evangelism patterns in the United States. The growth of the church in Africa and Latin America has produced missionary activities from those continents to the United States, Asia, and Europe. An increased focus on national church leadership in countries that have previously been “mission fields” of the West has resulted in fewer missionaries going to those places. A decline in support for US-based denominational missions has corresponded with a growth in congregationally based mission and evangelism efforts. The recognition of women’s leadership roles in evangelism and mission has also changed the face of Christian evangelism. Those changes are reordering, refocusing, and realigning US mission efforts around the world.

Addressing today’s mission trends along with our history results in a number of contemporary theologies of evangelism, the topic of chapter 7. For some Protestants, proclamation – preaching the Word – takes a central place in approaches to evangelism. For others, justice and service have become key ingredients to evangelism and mission. Some Catholic churches take a “threshold approach,” sharing Christianity with anyone who crosses the threshold of the church building. Orthodox churches evangelize by their presence in a community procla...