After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
When someone uses the word 'evangelism' many images spring into people's mind. A person dressed like the third blues brother on a busy street corner. This blues brother seems to always have a bullhorn, and placard with Scriptures (usually misinterpreted) and flames painted on, screaming "THE END IS NEAR!!" Perhaps some think of Ernest Angley enthusiastically saying, 'Be heeeaaled!' (I do, after all, live in Akron Ohio).
Because of this, among other reasons, I think people push off organized religion and lean more toward a vague 'spirituality.' Allan Bevere has done an excellent post on how being "spiritual but not religious" seems to encourage a safe, discipleship-less, un-transformed sort of faith (http://www.allanbevere.com/2013/04/on-being-religious-but-not-spiritual.html). One thing that Allan said grabbed my attention:
Discipleship is not equivalent to some vague individualistic spirituality in which I judge myself to be basically OK as I am because God thinks I'm OK as I am.
This kind of vague spirituality does seem to breed a 'Lone Ranger' mentality. As one of my colleagues commented it is even worse than the Loan Ranger, at least he had he had Tonto and his horse Silver!
Scared away from 'organized religion' because of the negative images mentioned above combined with the allure of easy, private, consumer driven 'spirituality' many are nervous or even dead set against anything that even smells like evangelism.
All though I am unsure what evangelism exactly smells like, when it is mentioned it is not uncommon to hear things like, "I don't want to offend anyone" or "religion and faith issues are private matters." This may be true of a safe, vague, individualistic 'spirituality' but it is not true of the gospel of Jesus Christ! After all Jesus did say, "Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels," (Luke 9:26). Also, while I would never want to offend anyone unnecessarily, the Gospel is offensive! In the middle of our message is a crucifix of the only innocent human being on earth! We, as Christians, must strive to have the gospel be the ONLY offence.
Sometimes I worry, am I ashamed of the gospel? Do I deny the gospel by my silence? As one examines the people in the New Testament one discovers that not only were they unafraid to share the good news of Jesus Christ, you could not shut them up about it!
So is this a call to gather up our bullhorns, paint our placards, and get ready to 'evangelize' by fire? Not quite. Another thing conspicuously missing from the current church landscape is doing evangelism as a community. It is no mistake the Jesus did not send the 72 disciples out as loan rangers but in pairs. If we are inviting people into loving community, with God and His people, should we not do it through loving community? In other words why are we not sharing the good news TOGETHER!? After all we are, very often, being sent into places where we feel as if we are 'sheep among the wolves.'
George Hunter wrote an excellent took entitled "The Celtic Way of Evangelism." In this book Dr. Hunter contrasts the Celtic way of evangelism and the Roman model of evangelism. In the Roman model People were presented with the gospel asked to decide whether to commit or not and then the evangelized had fellowship with the church. In the Celtic model, by contrast, people were invited into fellowship with Christian communities, ministry happened through conversations, and living together, then people were asked if they wanted to make a commitment. As Dr. Hunter recognizes, The Celtic model reflects the adage that, for most people, "Christianity is more caught than taught."
The Celts formed Christian communities right next to pagan communities and invited them in from there. This was literally meeting people where they were at, much like Jesus coming down into human form to meet us where we are at. At the end of the book Dr. Hunter challenges the reader to think of ways we can position ourselves next to, or in the midst of, un-evangelized communities and invite them in for fellowship and discussion.
In what ways can we invite people into the body of Christ so that we might point toward the healing, transformative power of the gospel?
So is this a call to gather up our bullhorns, paint our placards, and get ready to 'evangelize' by fire? Not quite. Another thing conspicuously missing from the current church landscape is doing evangelism as a community. It is no mistake the Jesus did not send the 72 disciples out as loan rangers but in pairs. If we are inviting people into loving community, with God and His people, should we not do it through loving community? In other words why are we not sharing the good news TOGETHER!? After all we are, very often, being sent into places where we feel as if we are 'sheep among the wolves.'
George Hunter wrote an excellent took entitled "The Celtic Way of Evangelism." In this book Dr. Hunter contrasts the Celtic way of evangelism and the Roman model of evangelism. In the Roman model People were presented with the gospel asked to decide whether to commit or not and then the evangelized had fellowship with the church. In the Celtic model, by contrast, people were invited into fellowship with Christian communities, ministry happened through conversations, and living together, then people were asked if they wanted to make a commitment. As Dr. Hunter recognizes, The Celtic model reflects the adage that, for most people, "Christianity is more caught than taught."
The Celts formed Christian communities right next to pagan communities and invited them in from there. This was literally meeting people where they were at, much like Jesus coming down into human form to meet us where we are at. At the end of the book Dr. Hunter challenges the reader to think of ways we can position ourselves next to, or in the midst of, un-evangelized communities and invite them in for fellowship and discussion.
So, instead of the standard 'don't ask don't tell' and confrontational forms of evangelism, I think we should take a hint from the Celts, and even more so, Jesus. We should tell people about the love of Jesus Christ, not as Loan Rangers with out Silver and Tonto, but together!
In what ways can we invite people into the body of Christ so that we might point toward the healing, transformative power of the gospel?
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