Re-imagining Evangelism

We’re starting a new teaching series this week called “Re-imagining Evangelism”. This title comes from a book of the same name by Rick Richardson. Richardson notes that the word evangelism has become a bad word in our culture. It is “something you wouldn’t do to your dog, much less a person you like.”

The word evangelism has an image problem and the image is one of a slick salesmen.

Show pictures of televangelists.


In this image the evangelist is a salesman trying to close the deal on a person. What do I have to do to get you in this nice car? Substitute the words church, flock, heaven for the car and that’s basically what an evangelist is, in this image. In this paradigm some Christians feel like if they haven’t dumped the content of their belief on someone then they haven’t witnessed for Jesus Christ. I suspect many others of us feel even further left out if we are not extroverted or highly knowledgeable about the Bible or very persuasive in our sales pitch. Perhaps we don’t share our faith because we assume it has to look like this image. If so, it’s understandable that we would not be very enthusiastic about doing it that way.

Another problem with the sales pitch image is that we give people information about Jesus but we don’t actually invite people know Jesus. Facts or information about God is not the same thing as knowing God. Certainly, we need more knowledge of God and many times the Church hasn’t done a very good job at this very basic, fundamental level of spiritual life. There are more than a few dying congregations that wistfully look back to the heydays of the 1940’s and ‘50’s when their Sunday schools and services were packed. But what they may not remember is that people began leaving the church in droves in the sixties because these churches weren’t teaching fundamental knowledge of Jesus Christ. Many young people began looking to Eastern mysticism as a way to view “how life really is.” The Church must become the teacher of the knowledge of God and how life really is according to the Creator of life.

But this knowledge of God must not be knowledge at a distance. We must “press on to know the Lord.” Dallas Willard calls this knowledge by acquaintance. This is kind of knowledge only comes through an active relationship. To paraphrase the words of Job who spoke out of his own experience of God:

“ I had heard about you. . .but now my eyes see you. So take back all I said, and I repent by throwing dust and ashes upon myself.” Job 42.5-6

Thomas was of the first disciples and friends of Jesus. He heard about Jesus being alive after his crucifixion, but Thomas needed more than just heresay. He wanted to touch the wounds. He wanted to see for himself. Thomas is often scorned and nicknamed “Doubting Thomas.” Leon Morris calls the disciple a “robust doubter.” He needed touch, he needed sight, he needed to know for himself. He needed personal acquaintance with the truth. This kind of robust doubt is a good thing. It can lead us into personal knowledge of the truth and personal knowledge of Christ himself. Would that more were like Thomas the Doubter.

“The way of Jesus Christ is a way of firsthand interaction –knowing by acquaintance-direct awareness of him and his kingdom,” Willard writes.

Jesus wants to be known this way. The resurrected Christ came and “stood in the middle of them.” Though he was in a glorified body he came close and invited his friends to see and speak and touch. This is the only way Christ will be known by anyone. Jesus shows up where he is wanted. He breathes his life into our lives when he is invited.

John, the same disciple who recorded this post-resurrection scene, writes in chapter ten of Jesus words in temple in Jerusalem,

“You do not believe because you are not one of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” John 10.26-27

So if we are considering how we can witness to our faith in Jesus, we start by casting aside the old image of the sales pitch. We are not marketing the Church or Religion. Even if we wanted to our culture is remarkably uninterested in that product. I’ve often been reminded of that in my life. Last year I coached Seth’s Little League team and though our season started with promise, it quickly began to go south. Like any good coach. . .I blamed the players. They didn’t play very well. But regardless of who was to blame I knew that I wouldn’t be winning any Coach-of-the-Year Award. I did, however, hold out hope that I would win a new award the league was giving to a coach and that was the Sportsmanship Award. I figured, hey, I’m a nice guy. Who doesn’t like me? And what’s more, I am a religious guy. I was pretty certain I knew more about religion than the other coaches. But the day they announced the award, they began “to the coach who best exemplified the qualities of sportsmanship, the award goes to. . .” and I have to admit I was halfway out of my seat when they said, “Rich. . .Hollingshead!”

See apparently, they didn’t care that I knew more about religion than the other coaches. They were interested in actually, you know, seeing character and sportsmanship. They don’t give out awards for religion in our culture today or no doubt lots of churches would be recognized. What is recognized are churches that are effectively reaching people in their community for the sake of the Kingdom. That kind of witness still gets attention. It’s been said of people today, “They like Jesus. They don’t like the Church.” You can still buy t-shirts that were very popular a few years ago that have a picture of Jesus on the front and read “Jesus is my homeboy.” You’ll be hard pressed to find a t-shirt that says “Hey, let’s go to Church!”

Jesus is not a religious product we are peddling. Jesus already belongs to humanity. In spite of how badly we have garbled and mangled his message, he comes through in spite of everything. Richardson suggests a new image to replace the old one – witnesses as travel guides. Instead of trying to push a sale, we can invite people to join us for a walk. We can point out things that known, things that can be obviously seen, things that can be seen if you know where to look. That’s what we are going to explore a little further with this series, how to invite people to see the clues of God. How to discover what God is up to in their lives.

One of my favorite things is when I get to introduce an old friend to a new friend. This doesn’t happen every day but when it does it is such a good feeling and experience for me. I love connecting good people. It gives me pleasure to get people that I care about in the same room together. I had a birthday party years ago and I said to Jennifer that the present I wanted from her was permission to invite anyone I wanted to invite. And I invited different friends from different places. I invited friends I had known for many years and I invited the neighbors across the street with whom we had just formed a friendship. I invited friends in their twenties and friends much older. I purposefully mixed it up to see if anything interesting would happen. And it did! I loved it.

To witness for Jesus is really just figuring out a way to get Jesus and your friends in the same room together, to mix it up, to have party, and to see if anything interesting happens. It will. It will. It’s not a science. It’s not a perfect system or process. But it is
amazing what happens when we intentionally enter into this acquaintance with Him. For the next several weeks, let’s see what happens as we learn to say, “I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine.”