Lesson Two
Evangelism, A Dirty Word
Early evangelism in America originated with the people who immigrated to
America, particularly from areas in England, Ireland and Scotland. These were
the people who were facing persecution during the early years of the Protestant
reformation. The Puritans, Anabaptist, Methodist and Congregationalist made
their footprint during this era in American history. Early evangelists include
Jonathan Edwards who led a Congregationalist revival in New York and New
England in the early to mid-1700. William Tennent led a Presbyterian revival in
New York during the same period. Thomas Coke, Francis Asbury and George
Whitefield led a Methodist revival throughout the Mid-Atlantic and then into
the western regions of the young nation. In the 1800’s we had Charles Finney
and then DL Moody who led evangelistic camp meetings throughout areas in New
York, the Midwest and even across the ocean in Europe. Probably the most recognized
name’s in modern times is Billy Graham whose crusades brought thousands to
Christ.
Much of the evangelistic movement in America is dead! The earliest
foundations that grew the churches that now are scattered across the counties
and cities of America
has been lost to time, culture and our own sense of priority. And yet we now
face a reality of life that offers more questions than answers, has more people
seeking peace and serenity and a culture that spends more on drugs for
depression than on any facet of health care. Is it such a wonder that many seek
professional help when our churches stand sadly empty? God wants us to be a
blessing to the world and to tell them about the redemptive power of a
relationship with God. And yet, we have lost touch with the power of
storytelling. We find ourselves strangely frightened at reaching out to another
human being with our stories and our witnessing to the power of a God of grace
and love. But it has not always been that way. Our earliest memories of our
American culture are of evangelistic meetings in every corner of population.
Where we go from here depends on what we learn from our last twenty to thirty
years and about what we learn about ourselves.
Our understanding of evangelism has been greatly influenced by the
evangelistic movement through the median we call television. As a result of
much of the negativity associated with televangelists, evangelism in America has
become a negative term rather than a positive focus of the church. If we look
back at the history of the church, especially the early church and use that as
the model we have a clearer understanding of what our role should be.
There are two models for evangelism that have been promoted and used
since the 1970’s. I would suggest that neither is the appropriate biblical
standard by which we are to spread the Gospel of Good News. The first is what I
would affectionately call the model of fear. This model has been promoted by several
groups using fear tactics as the way to get people’s attention. The focus of
this model is on where you will be in eternity if you are not brought to
salvation. Many terms such as the fiery pit, hell and fire and eternal
temptation, saved, and born again are thrown around as if they are biblical
terms. The term “born again” appears once in the Bible when Jesus talks to
Nicodemus and suggests that we must begin anew with the Holy Spirit. The truth
is that even this is a modern day translation. The actual Greek suggests
instead that this term should be “born from above.” But at no time does Jesus
focus his attention in a fearful way; rather the ways of grace, compassion and
love are his tools to restore relationships with God and the people.
The second model suggests that as a church we are to be servants. Our
whole focus has been in the last 40 years to become a serving church reaching
out to the folks who are in need, who are hurt and who could use compassion and
support. This is the model that is presented as living in the image of Jesus.
And yet, I would suggest that not once did Jesus heal someone, teach someone or
feed someone for the singular purpose of the healing, teaching or feeding.
Rather, Jesus singular focus was always to evangelize to the person about
restoration of relationship with God and the focus was and is always on the
Kingdom rather than on the individual. Not surprisingly then, we have evolved
into a church whose purpose becomes missional outreach where we work hard not
to impose our religious beliefs or ideals on those whom we are offering
financial, emotional or physical support to.
And last but certainly not least is the focus towards individualism in
the world we live in. Today it is more likely that families will not even know
who their neighbors are, much less interact with them. In this technologically
advanced world, we find ourselves interacting with humans less and less. I
would suggest that we are becoming a world of lonely people fixated on
increasing the loneliness by eliminating the need to interact at all.
Lesson Two questions:
1. Where
have we come from, what have we learned?
2. How
do we incorporate witnessing into a revival of the church?
3. How
do we incorporate witnessing into service and outreach?
4. What
would we need to do to create a resurgence of evangelism in the church?
No comments:
Post a Comment