Evangelism

As we have seen, Jesus sent his disciples out like a centuria into enemy territory more than once. We can read about one of those occasions in Luke 10. He gave the platoon their marching orders and was overjoyed when they returned, flushed with success. Those orders were not what we might expect, they bore little relationship with what passes as evangelistic strategies in today’s church:

“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’” (Luke 10:5-9)

Jesus is infinitely creative and will guide us in each situation that we enter; but there are some principles here that we should note.

• Evangelism does not need to be confrontational with those we are seeking to bring to faith, they are never the enemy. Accepting hospitality from someone is actually a way of honouring them; to stay in their house and eat their food demonstrates our trust of them. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15)
• Virtually all of the evangelistic encounters that we read of in the Gospels and Acts involve the direct power of God, either healing (e.g. the centurion’s servant), miraculous provision (e.g. John 2:11) or a word of knowledge (e.g. John 4:18), supernaturally being in the right place at the right time (e.g. Acts 8:26) or other ‘acts of God’ (e.g. Acts 16:26). It is folly for us to think that we can bring the world to saving faith without the resources of heaven used by Jesus and the first disciples.
• The message can be simple, if its truth is evidenced by ‘a demonstration of the Spirit’s power’ (1 Corinthians 2:4).
• Seeing Jesus at work is the most powerful witness of all:

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. (John 11:45)

One thing is clear from the New Testament: we do not need to, nor should we try to, sell the gospel. Jesus went out of his way to avoid marketing. Repeatedly he said to the recipients of healing that they should not broadcast what had happened to them and he told the disciples that they should keep the ‘Messianic secret’. Jesus’ unbelieving half-brothers advised him to publicise his mission at a feast in Jerusalem (John 7:3-4), which he positively refused to do. Marketing relies not on telling the truth, but in leaving a positive impression in people’s minds about whatever is being sold – it is all about perceptions, not reality. The gospel is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

In addition to the witness of the Bible, we just need to look at our secular society to realise that we should avoid using the weapons of the world (2 Corinthians 10:4), like marketing. We live in a world that is dominated by salesmanship. The material prosperity we enjoy has been generated by technological advances and by the power of marketing. We all know that we are continually being sold goods and services, and most of the time this washes over us, but it inevitably affects us. Also, if we use these methods to ‘sell’ the gospel, we will never reach more than a niche market. This is exactly what is happening as today’s church seeks a market, each ‘flavour’ of churchmanship appeals to a small section of the population. Churches are seen as providers of religious services (in each meaning of the word), rather than platoons in God’s army – they are seen to be in completion for their customers, rather than as collaborating components of a divinely directed force.

Therefore…

I have had experience of both ‘conventional’ evangelism and ‘Luke 10’ evangelism. There is no doubt that organising events that appeal to people, advertising, trying to change the perception of the church, etc. can reach some individuals in our society, just as marketeers can sell their goods to sufficient people to make a profit; but we cannot get away from the problems identified in this chapter. At Holy Trinity Church, six months before we had our first encounter with the manifest presence of God, we employed a talented evangelist for a week. He preached powerfully 14 times to groups of people (about 400 in all) that we assembled by the quiz nights, treasure hunts, international food evenings, etc. that we put on, never repeating himself. However, this week was almost completely fruitless. We realised that our audience’s reasoning was that they were ‘paying’ for their entertainment by having to listen to a ‘religious’ talk.

It is so different reaching those who have already had an encounter with the risen Jesus. It does not need to be as dramatic as Paul on the road to Damascus, it can be a simple healing, a word of knowledge, a god-instance, an act of generosity, or just recognising something special in a believer. The common factor is the motivation of the evangelist – we need to love people with the resources of heaven that are at our disposal, seeking their best interests rather than our kudos in winning souls. Jesus wants to work through us, revealing himself in us, but we need to let him take the lead, to set the strategy and to do and say things through us that we would never have imagined.

Some years later than the mission described above, we were preparing for the weekend visit of a very different kind of evangelist, Torben Sondgeraard^[47]. Torben was coming not for us to put on events, but to teach us about taking a healing ministry out onto the streets. On the Friday morning, I received an email from a lady who told me that she was desperately in need of help. She wrote

‘Hi, I have had thoughts of coming along to one of your services,  I do not know what religion you are, sounds strange I should want to attend a service when I do not know your religion or  have your beliefs In  God,  I do believe in a power greater than me, May be a spirit world is how I see it.’ I am an Alcoholic wildly reaching out for help in any way I can. I took my last drink 17 days ago, I say last drink meaning I have fought not to drink one since, but I am struggling, I wish it to really be my last. I am not strong.‘

I emailed back, asking her to come to the evening meeting with Torben.

When she arrived, the first person she met was a man we had known years earlier as a drug addict, but who was now transformed after coming to faith and spending a year at a Bible college. He told her of the power of the gospel to overcome addiction. This rang true as these two had known each other – she had worked in a pharmacist and had dispensed methadone to him in his addict days. During the weekend, she spoke with Torben, had an extraordinary encounter with God and we baptised her on the Sunday afternoon.

It may seem to be leaving things to chance to wait for Jesus to give us opportunities to share our faith, to draw people to us or just to make things happen, but it has been my experience that the more room we give him, the more we see him at work. It seems that if we try to do his job of setting a strategy for evangelism, he leaves us to do the work; consequently, we see very little that is supernatural. If we let go and let God, then there is no limit to what we can experience of his power.

Discussion Topics

1. Discuss experiences in the group of different kinds of evangelism. Including yourselves, share accounts of journeys to faith. Include the stories of not-yet-Christians. Can you see any pattern? Don’t worry if you can’t, God does not need to conform to our ways of thinking (Isaiah 55:8-11).
2. Although we do not need to adopt methods or patterns of evangelism, suggest ways that a church can be ready to welcome those that Jesus is drawing to himself.
3. Read through the examples of evangelism in the Bible mentioned in this chapter, plus 2Kings 5:1-15, Luke 10:17-24. Can you draw any more conclusions as to God’s heart for reaching the lost and how this is effective in the war with the enemy.

Next Chapter

Conclusions

Back to the beginning

Revise what it means to follow Jesus

Notes

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