The Heart Matters

Evangelism

On page 43, White identifies that “Evangelism involves effectively communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ with the goal of converting an individual to the Christian faith.” Perhaps, the better goal would be to introduce someone to the person of Jesus and His offer of relational reconciliation. The gospel message is always the same, yet the manner which it is communicated changes with the audience. The apostle Paul affirms this as an objective of evangelism in 2 Cor 9:22, as he “became all thing to all men so that by all possible means (he) might save some.” In layman’s terms the good news must be contextualized.

When rethinking evangelism, one must consider the background, culture and language of the audience. As Jesus spoke, he used narratives and stories that his audience could readily comprehend. To fisherman, he spoke of fishing. To a women at the well, he talked of living water. He identified his audience and reasoned in their terms to convey a spiritual truth.

Barna has recently determined through research why non-Christians are not affected by the message of Christianity. This is important to understand, for the mission of the church is to reach those who are not believers. The threefold reasons given by those surveyed are that they “do not see the relevance of the Christian faith, they do not understand what the Christian faith is trying to say, and they have difficulty accepting how different the Christian answer is from what they though the answer would be.” (p 53)

The key to successful evangelism is to invite a person to into a situation where they can “seek and find a redemptive relationship” with Jesus Christ. Notice that the key word in this is relationship. It is not about building up some program or coming up with the perfect teaching series, rather it is about building relational bridges where people can understand the gospel. The message must be presented in verbal witness rather than displayed through merely the activity of Christian community. The gospel must be spoken in such a manner that it is understood and able to prove relevant in that person’s life.

In our fellowship we do well at being the fun neighbors next door, or the supportive friend who is there, but often we put more investment in the activity of fun at the expense of expressing the gospel of reconciliation. We build our warm bridges without the gospel being first and foremost in our budding relationships. The gospel must always be preeminent. Its relevance promoted, lest we chance to place ourselves in a bait and switch” predicament.

When the gospel gets the back seat, we lose an opportunity for seeing who is and is not receptive to the word, and as a result, we invest unwisely. To invest a great amount of time without substance limits the opportunity to successfully evangelize to those in our lives. Balancing the warmth of relationship with the substance of truth can be difficult, but again this is the activity of the assembly and we should depend and count on the council and support of the Body of Christ when evangelizing.

When we do get people to a meeting where the gospel is presented clearly, do we ask the relevant questions? Or do we turn the conversation to the weather or the latest entertainment scandal? What better opportunity than to talk about Christ and who He is and what He has done and what He is offering. Ask yourself, “As a Christian, what is the business of the church? What are we here to accomplish?” Or better yet, “Who do I need to introduce them to?”

White addresses the changing needs in evangelism for a post modern society. No longer is reason or facts enough. Now we need to communicate “So what?” and “How does this affect me?” A postmodern culture no longer understands who the God of the Bible is. They now must be introduced to Him just as Paul introduced the Greeks at Mars Hill to the one true God. Also, the postmodern person is seeking experience. They want to belong and to be part of the sacred. Another need in the postmodern world is that people are wanting to see an example of the transformed life. They want evidence that the spiritual life is genuine. People want to see practical models of life transformed.

In our fellowship, there has been great success with the Discovery Group model , based on Poole’s seeker small groups concept. People have been personally invited to engage in spiritual conversations. The relationships are built outside of meetings, through both group gatherings and one on one time. An environment of safety is established where attendees are comfortable to discuss spiritual values and ideas. Those non-believers attending these groups are exposed to the truth and have the opportunity to ask how it is relevant to them. They are able to experience the “sacred” through attending meetings where prayer, fellowship, and service are practiced. As for seeing the transformed, many hear testimonies and in time see genuine sacrifice and other’s based love put into action.

Perhaps the greatest obstacle for our fellowship is that discovery groups take a step of faith into the unknown. This step of faith can seem so huge, especially since so much is out of the control of those leading the group. It also can require a huge investment. But for those who have taken this step it has born fruit both in the lives of those hosting and of those attending. For those supporting the effort, a hindrance could be a lack of vision for how best to support the group. Effective communication of needs and well promoted and attended prayer meetings could assist others in the body to back these groups. The fruit born is evidence of the work of the Spirit which testifies to successful evangelism.