TILL HE COMES Blog

Reinventing church requires looking at all that we are and all that we do and asking ourselves, “Is this biblical? Is this the best way of accomplishing what the church is supposed to be and do? Is there a better way?” One key area that such questions need to be asked is in the area of Outreach and Evangelism. (You’ll see by the way I’ve worded some of the questions below that I feel very strongly about this issue.)

What if Outreach, Evangelism and Missions were different?

What if the pastor was not seen as the one who does the evangelism through his sermon?

What if evangelism wasn’t often defined simply as “inviting someone to church for a special event or to hear a special speaker”?

What if the people in church viewed themselves first and foremost as missionaries? How could pastors help them develop this paradigm shift?

What if we viewed supporting missionaries as more important than building a new building or upgrading our existing one?

What is “mission” anyway? Who are “the missionaries”?

What if all our people knew how to share the message of eternal life?

What if there was more to evangelism than simply sharing the message of eternal life (or the four spiritual laws, the Romans Road, or whatever)?

What if we don’t have “evangelism events” but instead trained people to simply love others?

What if we didn’t have “revivals” but instead focused on 1-to-1 discipleship?

What if we stopped praying for revivals and the “evangelization of the lost” and actually went across the street and served somebody?

What if we stopped trying to plan and program our own “serve the community” events, and just joined in the events which the community was already doing? (For ideas, go look at the bulletin board in the Town Hall or the Supermarket. Call the Courthouse, the Fire Department, or the Police. Contact your mayor for a list of events.)

What if evangelism took place in people’s homes as we invite them over to our houses, and us to theirs?

What if we showed as much grace toward believers and unbelievers as God shows toward us?

What if evangelism was just as much about right living as it is about right believing?

Would more people want to become followers of Jesus if we lived life with more joy, laughter, love, patience, kindness, and gentleness?

What if we didn’t care about people using profanity in our presence, or if they smelled of alcohol and cigarettes?

What if, rather than trying to impress our views upon other people, we tried to learn about their views instead, and asked them what they believed?

What if, rather than trying to get people to act like us, talk like us, look like us as soon as they “get saved” we let the Holy Spirit work in them at their (and His) own pace?

What if we stopped saying “Praise God” and “God Bless You” at the end of every sentence?

What if we stopped telling people “I’ll pray for you” and tried to help them instead?

What if, instead of practicing “apologetic evangelism” where we are always trying to defend the faith against the heresies of the heathen, we loved people and served people? 

What if we let people get involved in church who weren’t sure yet what they believed about Jesus or God?

What if evangelism and discipleship were the same thing?

What if we didn’t focus so much on evangelism, but on discipleship?

What if the gospel was more than just a set of doctrines, but an all-encompassing claim on life?

What if nearly everything in life could be redeemed for discipleship?

What if we stopped using Christian music, Christian movies, Christian literature and started watching and reading the same things that our neighbors and coworkers are?

What if, instead of starting Christian Coffee Houses, Christian Work-Out Centers, and Christian Bridge Clubs, we started just going to these places that were already in our community and meeting the people who go there?

What if we stopped “having church” in our Christian buildings, and instead went down to the local beach, or the local restaurant, or the local bar?

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Feel free to provide your own questions in the comment section below.

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I imagine this post will generate one of two reactions. Some will say “Duh! I’ve known that forever!” while others will say “Uhhhhh…I don’t like where you’re going with this as it could lead to compromising the simple message of faith alone in Christ alone.” 

Anyway, here are four premise statements that this post is based on:
1. The gospel contains truths for all aspects of life, both temporal and eternal.
2. These gospel truths are centered around the person and work of Jesus Christ.
3. Evangelism comes from the same word for “gospel” and so might better be termed “gospelism.”
4. Gospelism is a way of living life under the truths of the gospel.

Based on these, I came to a startling conclusion (startling for me, anyway).

Since the gospel contains truths for BOTH temporal and eternal life, then a summary statement of the gospel must be related to BOTH the temporal and eternal truths of the gospel, and which focuses on Jesus. In Scripture, it appears that this summary statement of the gospel is this:

JESUS IS LORD.

I know that for many of you, this is a “Duh” statement, but for me, it was staggering. I have spent most of my adult life arguing that the summary statement of the gospel was “Believe in Jesus for eternal life” and that believing in the Lordship of Jesus was not part of the Gospel. But now I am seeing that the statement “Jesus is Lord” is actually central to the gospel!

To clarify, while I still believe that the only way to receive eternal life is to believe in Jesus for it, I do not believe that this is the summary of the gospel. The gospel is good news for all aspects of life, not just good news about how to receive eternal life. Therefore, the statement “Jesus is Lord” is the central claim of the gospel, because that claim alone touches all aspects of temporal and eternal life. Jesus not only wants us to believe in Him for eternal life, but also to recognize His Lordship in all the other aspects of eternal and temporal life as well. Only in this way can the gospel be fully believed and practiced.

The good news about Jesus is that He has come to set up His universal kingdom, by ruling and reigning in our lives and in this world. While this will never fully happen until He returns, He does want us to be moving in these kingdom directions now. And we do so by confessing and living under the central gospel claim that “Jesus is Lord.”

Interestingly, this week I was reading the new book by Frost and Hirsch called reJesus (I’ll post a review of it later), and they wrote about this idea as well. Here is what they said:

The church’s elemental confession that ‘Jesus is Lord’ captures all the meaning significance of the biblical teaching on the kingdom of God. …Our view of God is that Jesus is Lord, and the kingdom of God is the arena in which we respond to God’s sovereign rule over this world. All is included (and nothing is excluded) in this claim (p. 120).

The lordship of Jesus extends to our sexuality, our political life, our economic existence, our family, our play, and everything in between. There must be no limitation to the claim that Jesus makes over all of life. When we get this right, Jesus’ lordship takes on a missional edge. “Jesus is Lord” is more like a rallying war cry than a mere theological statement (p. 123).

I remember when I was a little ashamed to talk about the Lordship of Jesus because I didn’t want to be confused with people who taught “Lordship Salvation.” I am now ashamed that I was ashamed. Who can be ashamed of the Lordship of Jesus?!?! I now see that, ironically, it is only because of my belief that Jesus is Lord that I can trust His claim that anyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.

So why do I believe that eternal life is through faith alone in Christ alone? Because Jesus is Lord.
Why do I study, pray, and worship? Because Jesus is Lord.
Why do I seek to love and serve others? Because Jesus is Lord.
Why do I try to live honestly and with integrity? Because Jesus is Lord.
Why do I seek to see others come to faith in Jesus? Because Jesus is Lord.
Why do I attempt to learn and live the gospel? Because Jesus is Lord.

The gospel is that Jesus has something to do with all of reality, both temporal and eternal. There is no sacred-secular divide. It is all under Jesus, and we ignore Him at our own peril.

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Below is a story I read on Alan Knox’s blog. I think it is a good example of one possible way to “gospelize.”

In November I heard Dino Rizzo speak in a workshop at the National Outreach Convention in San Diego. Dino talked about ways to serve the community. He said that if he were new in a city he would buy some garbage bags and volunteer at a community event to help do cleanup. If there was no community event, he said he would just go up and down the streets in his neighborhood and pick up trash.

I told this story to our little group that is trying to learn how to serve an inner city neighborhood in our city. We decided that we should try it the following Sunday morning, the second Sunday in December, and then do it every other Sunday morning. Our first Sunday out was a cold, windy day, but we met, prayed and then picked up trash in the neighborhood for about eighty to ninety minutes.

We skipped the fourth Sunday in December, since everyone in the group was out of town or occupied with visiting relatives. However, we resumed our trash pickup last Sunday, the second Sunday of January.

We met, prayed and started picking up trash. About two minutes after I started a car pulled up near me.

(Him) “What are you doing?”

(Me) “We’re picking up trash to make the neighborhood look nice”.

(Him) “Who are you people?”

(Me, while pointing to the yellow shirts we all wore that has our group’s name printed on it) “We’re a little group of Christians just trying to help out the neighborhood.”

(Him) “What church are you with?”

(Me) “We’re just a small group that meets here in the neighborhood.”

(Him) “I mean, where’s your church? The building?”

(Me) “We meet in cafes or the park. We don’t use a church building. We try to be out around people.”

(Him) “But are you part of some church, like the Catholic church, or something like that?”

(Me) “No. We’re just followers of Jesus, and every other Sunday morning this is how we do church. We go out in the neighborhood and pick up trash.”

Suddenly I was his good friend.

(Him) “My name is xxxxxxxx. I’m on the planning commission here, and I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m church way back, but I don’t go any more. (He gave me some reasons. He doesn’t think much of “religious people”.) Now this is real religion.”

He told me about the dislike the churches in the neighborhood and the people in the neighborhood have for each other, a story that I have heard several times from the neighborhood. (Most of the churches in the area are attended by people who drive into the neighborhood. The churches and their neighbors regularly complain to the city, the police and whomever will listen about each other.)

As we continued picking up trash, people watched. When cars drove by, I looked up. Several people smiled and waved. Some people came out of their houses and thanked us, after watching us from their windows. When we reached the end of our time, and turned around to go back to our cars, picking up a few bits of trash that we had missed on the first pass, more people came out of their houses and thanked us.

Several weeks earlier I walked these same streets trying to see what I could see, and prayed for the neighborhood. No one stopped to talk to me. No one smiled and waved as they drove by. No one came out of their house to talk to me. A couple of gang members asked me for money. That was it.

Oh yes, we do not hand out tracts or invite people to church. We’re just getting to know them and they’re getting to know us. They’re trying to figure out who we are. When they’ve got that figured out, perhaps, just perhaps, they’ll invite us into the spaces of their lives. That is where we will be allowed to hear each others stories. But for now, they’re just smiling, waving, coming out of their spaces to say hello or thank you or to ask who we are and what we’re doing.

After writing this, I thought about a group that is trying to start a new church. Twice they have walked through our neighborhood, hanging invitations to the new church on people’s doors. I watched them. No one smiled and waved at them as they drove by, no one stopped to talk to them, and no one came out of their house to talk to them. After the group had passed, I did see people open their doors to get the flyers, look at them a second or two and toss them in the trash. Hmmm!

I’m going to close out this series on gospelism tomorrow with a post that might ruffle a few feathers. We’ll see you tomorrow!

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Much of my thinking in the areas of mission, evangelism, and discipleship has been reinforced by David Bosch, and his book, Transforming Mission. Below are a few pertinent quotes. Note that he doesn’t use the term “gospelize” but I have included it in brackets where his thinking helped my thinking in this area.

Later today, I will post a story about one group of people who decided to live the gospel in their community (gospelize), rather than just “evangelize.” So here are the quotes from Bosch:

We cannot capture the evangel and package it in four or five “principles.” There is no universally applicable master plan for evangelism, no definitive list of truths people only have to embrace in order to be saved. We may never limit the gospel to our understanding of God and of salvation (p. 420).

Evangelism [is] that dimension and activity of the church’s mission which, by word and deed and in the light of particular conditions and a particular context, offers every person and community, everywhere, a valid opportunity to be directly challenged to a radical reorientation of their lives, a reorientation which involves such things as deliverance from slavery to the world and its powers; embracing Christ as Savior and Lord; becoming a living member of his community, the church; being enlisted into his service of reconciliation, peace, and justice on earth; and being committed to God’s purpose of placing all things under the rule of Christ (p. 420).

Mission [or evangelism] is not narrowed down to an activity of making individuals new creatures, of providing them with “blessed assurance” so that, come what may, they will be “eternally saved.” Mission involves, from the beginning and as a matter of course, making new believers sensitive to the needs of others, opening their eyes and hearts to recognize injustice, suffering, oppression, and the plight of those who have fallen by the wayside (p. 81).

The primary responsibility of “ordinary” Christians is not to go out and preach, but to support the mission project [i.e., gospelizing] through their appealing conduct and by making “outsiders” feel welcome in their midst (p. 138).

The church is that community of people who are involved in creating new relationships among themselves and in society at large and, in doing this, bearing witness [i.e., gospelizing] to the lordship of Christ (p. 169).

The church is the only society in the world which exists for the sake of those who are not members of it. [Bonhoeffer said] “The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving” (p. 375).

Mission [gospelizing] is the church sent into the world, to love, to serve, to preach, to teach, to heal, to liberate. …Evangelism is integral to mission. …One may never isolate it and treat it as a completely separate activity of the church (p. 412).

Evangelism is only possible when the community that evangelizes – the church – is a radiating manifestation of the Christian faith and exhibits an attractive lifestyle. …If the church is to impart to the world a message of hope and love, of faith, justice, and peace, something of this should become visible, audible, and tangible in the church itself (p. 414).

A talk-alike, think-alike, look-alike congregation may reflect the prevailing culture and be a club for religious folklore rather than an alternative community in a hostile or compromised environment. ..The focus in evangelism should, however, not be on the church but on the irrupting reign of God (p. 415).

[Mission] is the good news of god’s love, incarnated in the witness of a community, for the sake of the world (p. 519).

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In previous posts (here and here) I suggested that since the gospel contains truths for all aspects of temporal and eternal life, then “gospelism” (aka evangelism), is anything we do, whether word or deed, which reveals these truths to others.

But the question may arise (at least, it did in my thinking), “If gospelism is basically just teaching and living the truths of the gospel, then what is the difference (if anything) between gospelism and discipleship?” After all, doesn’t discipleship take place when we reveal the truths of Scripture to others through word and deed?

Gospelism and Discipleship are Similar
I think the first thing to remember is that disciples are followers of Jesus, whether or not they have believed in Him for eternal life. I find that a lot of people think that only believers in Jesus can be disciples of Jesus, but this is not supported by Scripture. A cursory reading of the gospels reveal that there were many disciples of Jesus who were not believers. People followed Jesus and learned from Jesus for many reasons, even though not all of them believed in Him for eternal life. Judas is the prime example.

So I take from this that discipleship is open to all people, whether they believe in Jesus for eternal life or not. This is true of gospelism as well, so at least in this regard, gospelism and discipleship are identical.

The Primary Difference
But there seems to be a few primary differences between gospelism and discipleship. As I read Scripture, it seems that discipleship is more intentional than gospelism. That is, rather than simply living the gospel as a way of life before anybody and everybody, discipleship is when we live and reveal the gospel to a select group of individuals for an extended period of time so that they might learn to model their life after ours and ultimately, after Jesus.  So here are a few distinctives of discipleship which separate it from gospelism:

1. While gospelism is somewhat random in who it touches, we either seek out others to disciple, or they seek us out. It is intentional in who it touches.
2. Discipleship must be regular. It is for the same group of people, over an extended period of time, with a specific goal in mind.
3. All who are discipling others must themselves be a disciple of someone else.

Summary
So while gospelism is for all people, discipleship is when we gospelize a select group of individuals. Tomorrow, I will share a story showing how some of this looks in real life.

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Yesterday I introduced the idea that “evangelism” might be better termed “gospelism.” Doing so will help us see that evangelism is about revealing the gospel, whether by word or deed, and should not be equated with giving a one-size-fits-all, prepackaged, bullet-point presentation.

Let me try to explain in more detail what gospelism is.

A Definition Proposal
I want to propose the following definition of gospelism (aka Evangelism):

Gospelism is a way of life whereby, through our actions and words, we reveal the good news about Jesus to those who are being drawn ever closer to Jesus.

Let me unpack this.

First, it’s a way of life. The gospel is way more than just a set of Bible facts; it also contains truths about how live in light of those Bible facts. Therefore, while you can believe some of those facts without living them, those who do so don’t really understand the full gospel or it’s ramifications for our life. Also, we can never assume we fully understand and live according to the gospel. There is always more to learn, and more to practice. Gospel truths are a way of life that take an entire life to develop.

Second, evangelism does not just about what we say, but also about what we do. Since the good news about Jesus concerns all aspects of our physical and spiritual life, then we can live the gospel just as well as speak it. And how liberating this can be! We don’t have to beat ourselves over the head if the words didn’t come just right, or if we forgot eight of the fifteen points in the “gospel outline” that our pastor wrote up.

Sometimes, the best way of sharing the gospel will not require words at all. One of the sources that helped me see this is “Doable Evangelism.” Among other things, this site shows that “evangelism” can be simple acts of honesty, service, kindness, and grace toward other people.

Remember what St. Francis of Assisi said: “Preach the gospel always; if necessary, use words.” If we are living a life of love, grace, generosity, forgiveness, patience, honesty, sacrifice, etc, then our lives are living testimonies to the gospel, which is always more winsome than words.

This is why you should live intentionally for the gospel. Fill up at the same gas station every week. Use the same check-out person at the grocery store. Request the same server at the restaurant (and tip well). As we consistently live the gospel before people, they do take notice, and over time, the service aspects of the gospel may result in verbally sharing the eternal aspects of the gospel as well.

Finally, gospelizing is revealing the good news about Jesus to those who are being drawn ever closer to Jesus. This liberates us from trying to pack the gospel down into one five minute conversation. It can’t be done, so don’t try. Since there is so much information to the gospel, it is impossible to share it with any one person in any one setting. Rather, only bits and pieces can be shared at any one time.

Therefore, “evangelism” can be viewed as a process, rather than a one-time event. If we share or show a bit of the gospel to a person we will never see again, that’s okay, because they are in process just like we are, and God can bring others into their lives to show them more light. We must do our part, but we don’t have to do the whole part. We must always be looking for ways we can show or share the gospel with any and every person we encounter.

Similarly, if we are developing a relationship with a person, we know that we can’t dump the gospel truck on them, because (1) there is too much to share in one setting, and (2) we don’t know or practice it all ourselves. If we share the gospel with words, and they reject it, we can still be friends, because our life is “gospelism” (evangelism) just as much as our words.

Summary
To put is as simply as possible, I believe that “Gospelism is anything, whether word or deed, which reveals the gospel to others.

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There is a lot of confusion today about how to evangelize and what to say and do in evangelism. I believe the primary problem lies in the word itself. The word proves the truth of the saying, “The translation is the traitor!” Let me show you what I mean.

You would never know it in English, but in Greek, the words “gospel” (Gk. euangelion) and “evangelism” (Gk. euangelizomai) have the same root. In fact, the word “evangelism” isn’t really a translation of the Greek word at all, but is instead a transliteration. The translators, rather than translate euangelizomai, just changed the Greek letters into English, and left it:

euangelizomai
evangelism

Sometimes, the English translations use the phrase “preach the gospel” which is better than “evangelism” but tends to make us think that the gospel is spread only by preaching, which as we saw in a previous post, is simply not true.

Let me suggest a new term instead of evangelism. How about “gospelism” (evangelizing = gospelizing)? This would help show a clearer connection between the gospel itself and the activity of spreading the gospel. This would really help clarify what gospelism is (i.e., what evangelism is) and how to carry it out.

What is Gospelism?
If (as we saw in a previous post) the gospel is more than a set of propositions which must be believed to receive eternal life, then gospelism is way more than just sharing a set of propositions to a person in the hopes that they will believe and receive eternal life.

Put another way, gospelism takes place whenever the gospel is revealed.  And if the gospel contains all sorts of truths about the temporal and eternal benefits that are offered through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, then logically, any time we share (either by word or deed) any of the truths related to the gospel, we are gospelizing.

Since the gospel contains truths about how to live life in light of the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus, “gospelizing” is not only done with words, but with actions as well. Ideally, since the gospel is related to all aspects of life, our entire life – all we say and do – will be gospelizing.

More concretely, since the gospel affects how we interact with others, how we spend our money, how we use our time, etc., we are gospelizing not only when we preach and teach about the gospel, but also when we treat others with kindness, fairness and honesty, when we show forgiveness and grace, when we stand up for the poor, the neglected, and the outcast, and any time we reveal the changes that the gospel has brought about in our own life.

I’ll expand on this idea more tomorrow in Part 2.

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I still have an exciting announcement which I want to make (well, it’s exciting to me…), but it will have to wait until after I am done with this current series on the gospel and evangelism.

In two previous posts (here and here), I introduced the idea that to properly proceed in our mission to others, we need a proper understanding of the gospel and evangelism. In this post, I will discuss briefly the content of the biblical gospel. But first, let me give some background.

Background
About two years ago, I published an article called “The Gospel is More than ‘Faith Alone in Christ Alone’” in the Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society. In the article, I challenged two of the more popular definitions of the gospel. First, that the “gospel” is equated with nothing more than “believe in Jesus for everlasting life.” There are some who think that this is the entirety of the gospel message, and those who ask others to believe more than this are adding to the gospel. I argued that the gospel is way  more than such a pared down message.

A second view I argued against was that the gospel could be limited to a set number of theological propositions. Depending on who you read, most Christians have between five and ten propositions which they say constitute the entire gospelm, all of which must be believed for a person to receive eternal life. This view is based primarily on a faulty understanding of 1 Corinthians 15. Generally, they include the following in their gospel definition: 
      -human sinfulness
      -the deity of Jesus
      -the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins
      -the resurrection of Jesus
      -the necessity of faith in Jesus to receive eternal life

Against these two views, I argued that the biblical gospel is pretty much everything related to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, including the prophecies about Him, and the ongoing empowerment for life with God that we receive as believers. I wrote:

This gospel contains everything related to the person and work of Jesus Christ, including all of the events leading up to His birth, and all the ramifications from Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for unbelievers and believers (p. 50).

Response
Understandably, I received a lot of criticism from various groups for questioning their traditional teachings and practices regarding the gospel. One primary criticism was that my idea was new, and nobody else was saying such things as I had written. This is a weak argument, but interestingly, since I wrote the article, is seems that nearly every book I read has ideas which parallel the content of my research. One book in particular really helped my thinking.  It is Transforming Mission by David Bosch, and it is now one of the top three most influential books I have ever read. He shows over and over that the gospel is not only a set of facts or propositions to be believed, but is information about how these beliefs will change our lives and how we interact with others.

Gospel of Faith, Love, and Hope
Let me provide a few quotes from Bosch which show this, and then I will close this already-too-long post with a few summary ideas.

“The good news is that the reign of God, present in Jesus Christ, has brought us all together under judgment and has in the same act brought us all together under grace. And yet, this does not mean that the gospel is an invitation to mystical introspection or to the salvation of individual souls, climbing out of a lost world into the safety of the church. Rather, it is the proclamation of a new state of affairs that God has initiated in Christ” (Bosch, 148).

The gospel of the early church “was practiced not as a stratagem to lure outsiders to the church but simply as a natural expression of faith in Christ” (Bosch, 49).

Similarly, salvation is way more than just “entrance into heaven when you die.” Salvation involves all aspects of life and living. It is a full redemption. “Whatever salvation is…it includes the total transformation of human life, forgiveness of sin, healing from infirmities, and release from any kind of bondage. …It does not have only a ‘vertial’ dimension” (Bosch, 107).

What is the Gospel?
The most basic definition of the “gospel” (Gk. euangelion) is “good news.” But that is not really what the biblical gospel is. Based on my years of studying this issue, and especially on my reading over the past few years, I am more convinced than ever that the gospel is message for all people about all the temporal and eternal benefits available to us through Jesus Christ.

Certainly, the message of eternal life is central to the gospel. However, what we Christians often neglect is that there is more to the gospel - much more. The biblical good news also tells us about how God wants to rule and reign over all aspects of life, how there is nothing beyond the scope of redemption, how there is hope for the future, a source of joy and gladness to be had, true community to be experienced, and peace to be introduced. It is good news for the poor, the lonely, the hurting, the despised, the neglected, the abandoned, the abused, the slandered, the outcast -  indeed, for all who are suffering mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

The gospel is more than “believe in Jesus for eternal life.” The gospel is even more than “Jesus died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, so that all who believe in Him might have everlasting life.” These are the “bulls eye” central tenants of the gospel, around which everything else has power and significance. Without the truths of the death and resurrection of Jesus, there is no gospel, but the gospel is way more than a message about justification and how to get eternal life. If we limit it only to that, we are proclaiming a partial gospel at best.  

The full gospel is full-orbed in the claims it makes about our present life and eternal existence, and what Jesus wants to do with both.

Now, if this is true, what does that do to our “evangelism”? I will address this question in the next post.

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Have you heard the good news? There is something better to this life than what you are currently experiencing – not necessarily easier, but definitely better.  And the best part is that what I have to tell you is not only for this life, but also about the life to come!

In our culture, conversations about the biblical gospel could possibly begin in such a way. Such a conversation would be awkward with a stranger, and maybe only slightly more natural with a friend. Regardless, it will lead to way more dialogue than the following statement:

Did you know that you are a sinner, and are destined for hell? However, God, because of His great love for you, sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for your sins, and rise again from the dead. If you will just believe in Jesus for eternal life, you can go to heaven and be with God forever when you die.

If you have ever tried to “evangelize” with such a line, you know how (in)effective it is! And yet, the vast majority of Christians today seemt to think that evangelism us best accomplished with option number 2.

Here is a nice rule to remember when trying to engage people in discussions about spiritual matters: Your immediate goal is not to win a conversion, but to win another conversation.  (I read that somewhere, and cannot remember where.) Of the two options above, which one is most likely to win another conversation?

Only pick the second one if your idea of a conversation is someone saying “F*** you!” as they walk away. Sadly, many Christians are fine with such a response, because, as I shared in my last post, they believe that as long as they “share the gospel” the “blood of that person is on their own head.” In my view, this reveals a very poor understanding of the gospel. Of course, I am not even sure that the first option above is a good beginning point either. While the first option is more likely to result in dialogue, if you start off with such a statement, it reveals a misunderstanding of the nature of evangelism.

To truly engage people in discussions about Jesus and the gospel, a few things are necessary. Many believe that a relationship or friendship with the person is necessary, but I disagree. While a relationship is incredibly helpful, it is not required. Instead, at the most basic level, two things are required: First, an understanding of what the biblical gospel is, and second, a good grasp of how to share this gospel with others (aka “evangelism”).

I will briefly discuss both over the next couple of posts.

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Have you ever heard a pastor give a sermon on Ezekiel 33? God tells Ezekiel to cry out against the unfaithful watchmen in Israel who did not warn Israel about impending judgment. He says that because they were silent, the blood of the people who die will be on the heads of the lazy watchmen.

Every time I hear this passage preached, the application is the same: “If you don’t tell people that they are going to hell, when they die, God is going to hold you responsible! Their blood will be on your head! So never miss an opportunity to tell a friend, a coworker, a neighbor, a relative, or even a stranger on the bus about Jesus!”

I heard this passage preached just last week with this exact application.

I have always been uncomfortable with preaching this passage this way, but only last week did I understand why. First, the passage has nothing to do with eternal destinies, but only with temporal judgment on sinful Israel. So from that perspective alone, the “bloody head evangelism” application is illegitimate.

But more than that, as I listened to this pastor preach, it hit me that all he was really endorsing was “hit and run evangelism.” He was basically saying that as long as a Christian got something out about sin, hell, and believing in Jesus for eternal life, their duty to warn others was fulfilled. They were no longer responsible for that person. The pastor’s exact words were “Their blood will be on their own heads rather than on yours!”

Aside from being a terrible application of this passage, such an approach to evangelism is simply scary, and probably does more damage than good. It gives a Christian the sense that as long as they get the gospel off their chest to anyone and everyone they come into contact with, they are no longer responsible for that person. Once the other person “hears the good news” they are solely responsible for what they do with it.

With such a perspective, it is not necessary for any Christian to befriend or develop relationships with other people. It diminishes evangelism down to a simple proclamation of a few Bible facts. Under the guise of “caring for people’s eternal destinies” it reveals a heart that really doesn’t care about the person.

This is not what evangelism is or how it should be done. Over the next couple of posts, I will suggest some better options.

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