I must confess that I have had to reconsider the whole issue of evangelism. As I have moved beyond liberalism and secular theology, it has become increasingly clear that the church does have a unique message and that it is legitimate to call alienated and lost people into the fellowship of the new creation. If the church does have a message that properly can be called “good news,” then it is inconceivable that the church would not be proclaiming that good news to our sick and dying world.
Christians are called to live in radical obedience to Jesus Christ, and to witness. But before we are able to witness, we must understand the meaning of discipleship. The immediate task is to begin to examine our faith and know what it is that we believe. We must know what the faith and message is that we would proclaim and witness to. We need to know what we believe and in whom we believe.
In addition to not being committed to the faith, an important reason for our lack of interest in evangelism lies in our misunderstanding of what witness means. Conservatives and liberals have both distorted evangelism. The conservatives have reduced witness and salvation into an individualistic saving of an inner soul, an emotional experience unrelated to political and social issues. This shallow understanding of salvation allows people to exclaim how thankful they are that Johnny “was saved” before he went to
The liberals have also messed us up. For some, evangelism is no more than a social action program that would hopefully result in the church having enough power to change the structures of society and create a better world. While an emphasis on the social and political aspect of the gospel has been much needed, too often this approach to evangelism has not included the need for personal salvation and changed lives. Another failure has been in setting up social service programs where the goal is neither to name the name of Christ or call people to change their lives. There is nothing necessarily wrong with YMCA community programs, but if that is our purpose, why not just support the YMCA? They can probably do the job better than we can anyway.
What then is our witness? Evangelism consists of two parts: calling sin by its name, and pointing the way to salvation. In all periods when the church was alive and relevant, it made clear its opposition to evil and was not afraid to specifically name those evils. Today, however, in our attempt to fit into middle-class society and gain respectability, there has been a general aversion to talking about sin. And as our opposition to evil decreased, our positive witness was also dulled. The radicals are correct in saying that in order to affirm, one must first negate. The old time preachers said the same when they maintained that in order to say yes to Christ one must say no to Satan.
We must call sin by its name and be specific. We must let it be known that militarism, pride, racism, materialism, and economic exploitation are sin. We must call people to stop supporting and compromising with evil structures, and challenge them to actively fight against them. We dare never be comfortable in the face of sin. The first part of evangelism is to call sin by its name.
But evangelism is more than negation. It is also to point the way to salvation. It is to proclaim the good news that we can be liberated from the structures of sin, that we can be liberated from the structures of sin, that we can live a new life. In the midst of unreality, hatred, war, and despair, the Christian points to reality, love, peace, and hope. In the midst of slavery, oppression, and exploitation, we can proclaim liberation and the coming of the
We are to point the way to salvation. But we cannot do that unless we have experienced the new life, unless we begin to live by the light of the new age of the kingdom rather than by the standards of the old fallen world. First we must allow our own lives to be transformed by the power of the Risen Lord. Unless we personally know our Lord, we cannot speak meaningfully of him to others.
Salvation is also corporate. The body of the church also begins to live by new relationships and new structures. The world should be able to look at the church and exclaim, “Look, that makes sense. That is the way we should live. How can we find that new life?” If the church has experienced salvation, then the world can look at the church and see concretely what salvation means. Our very lives will demonstrate the reality of salvation. As the church points to salvation, new alternatives for the dead structures of our society will be created and demonstrated. The church should already be doing what is yet unthinkable for the rest of society.
Christian witness is to call people to repentance from the old life of bondage in sin to a new life in Christ. With this understanding of witness, evangelism is not going out into the community and inviting people to “come to church” because we have a wonderful pastor, good potluck dinners, and nice, friendly people. Evangelism is confronting people with the gospel and challenging them to accept it. Evangelism is proclaiming a message.
To witness in the community, then, is not to try to present a good image and convince people that we are like everyone else. Instead, we will tell them how it is, let the seeds fall where they may, and hope that a few will fall on fertile ground. We should not be trying to find the lowest common denominator, but give people something to either accept or reject. We have much to learn from Jesus’ ministry at this point.
We need to overcome the influence the American success ethic has had upon us. We should not be so concerned that our witness be effective and acceptable, but that we are faithful in our witness. We are not called to be successful to build the
With all the potential of modern communications, there really is no excuse for anyone in your area not knowing what your congregation stands for (unless it doesn’t stand for anything). In most every town or city there are a few churches which have made their position known. Think of your community. That church is probably fundamentalist, strongly anti-communist, and very conservative politically. And it has made its position known. Why can’t we do the same?
How shall the witness be made? I think the basic clues and methods can be found in the civil rights and peace movements, and the fundamentalist movement. A very small group of dedicated people has shaken our whole society by their creative witness on peace and race. The fundamentalists also have been very effective in reaching people. These people must be doing something right.
I confess I have had to change much of my thinking in this respect. I used to make fun of the fundamentalists for their street preaching, handing out tracts, and door-to-door visitation. But then while working in the movement, I discovered that I also was doing street preaching, handing out tracts, and doing door-to-door visitation. The content may have changed, but the form was the same!
I have also come to the realization that not much outreach is going to take place within the structure of our “regular worship services.” If we are going to reach people outside the church fellowship, it must be in the streets and where they are. Wherever people gather, there the church should be visible in its witness.
It is important to keep in mind that evangelism needs to be both personal and corporate. The individual Christian should be making his personal witness, but the corporate body of the church should also have its witness. It is difficult for the individual to make his witness without the support and the example of his community of faith. The church is not a collection of individuals, but the body of Christ corporately involved in witness. The whole body must make its stand on the vital issues that the individual faces.
Below are some suggestions on what form evangelism can take. They are meant only as illustrations, for it may well be that local congregations will find more creative ways to make their faith known. These suggestions, however, do point the general direction evangelism should take.
- Write a short statement about a deep concern (the draft, for example) and mimeograph a thousand copies.
- Start your own underground newspaper.
- Advertise your ideas in local newspapers. Or better yet, create news by your actions that will get your concerns into the paper. Write letters to the editor.
- Get on the radio or television. This can be done by buying time, calling in on talk shows, or by asking for equal time to answer some obnoxious statement made on the station.
- Start a coffee house that will provide for dialogue and discussion of important issues. Or hold public forums with well known speakers.
- Hold a public prayer vigil at a public building concerning a specific issue. Or organize a march.
- Set up a booth at fairs.
Ideally these types of witness should be done corporately by the local congregation. Attempts should be made to get approval and support from the church board and council meeting. If this is not possible, concerned Christians should not spend the rest of their lives waiting for the institutional church to act. Small groups of concerned Christians can get together and start doing what needs to be done, thus confronting the church with its lack of witness.
In every city and town there are many who are hungry for the kind of message we can provide. In fact, I have the feeling that never in the history of our country have people been so interested. Why not start preaching the good news that people are begging for? Let’s get our faith straight and start proclaiming it.
Reprinted by permission of Arthur Gish. Art Gish was a regular contributor to the Post American when this article appeared, and author of The New Left and Christian Radicalism.
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