Evangelism: Telling the good news
March 26, 1999
The report of this denomination’s Church Growth Strategy Team (see story, p. 8) is disappointing. After a year and a half of discussion, this group has produced a weak definition of evangelism: “being called to listen to, and learn from, the stories of others as we discover together where they connect with God’s story.” Although church growth strategies were promised, none has been produced. That is not surprising, given the group’s apparent consensus that evangelism means little more than “listening.”
Listening
To be clear, listening is essential in evangelism. In fact, Presbyterian and Reformed Renewal Ministries International characterizes its new evangelism initiative as “listening evangelism,” taking as its model Philip the evangelist, who listened as the Holy Spirit led him to the desert road where he heard the Ethiopian reading from Isaiah.
But after Philip listened, he told the Ethiopian about Jesus Christ. Philip’s listening established the context in which he could proclaim the good news. He heard the Ethiopian’s deepest need, and he offered the only answer that could satisfy it (Acts 8:26-40).
Good news to tell
What troubles us about the Team’s good news is its lack of specificity with regard to anything distinctly Christian. Connecting “stories of others” with “God’s story” would indeed be good news if what is meant by God’s story is Scripture’s announcement that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. God meets us in Jesus, the crucified one whom God raised from the dead. That is the message we are called to proclaim, and there can be no evangelism without it. Yet that is the content that is noticeably missing from the Church Growth Strategy Team report.
In all fairness to the Team, it did promise that more is coming (if the denomination is willing to spend an additional $50,000 in order to continue the group for two more years). Acknowledging that no strategies for church growth (the Team’s assignment) appear in its report, the Team said strategies would appear in “attachments” which, as yet, have not been written. One can hope, therefore, that an adequate definition of evangelism, along with specific strategies to accomplish it, may yet appear.
Doing something
Presbyterian Church (USA) leaders are having difficulty getting the denomination’s evangelism priority off the ground. Numerous high-level committees and commissions have discussed the matter endlessly in recent years, producing voluminous reports but little action. We are aware that the General Assembly Council has attracted to the evangelism/church growth area new staff members with impressive credentials, so while we find little merit in the current report, we remain hopeful that more fruitful materials will be forthcoming.
As Team members continue their work, we would encourage them to look beyond the box wherein denominational officialdom resides. Just outside those perimeters they will find fellow Presbyterians who are engaged in exciting and successful evangelistic endeavors. We have written about three in this issue of The Presbyterian Layman (see stories, pp. 12-13). They are groups that have moved beyond theory to launch strategic activities that produce measurable results.
Boldly proclaiming Jesus Christ
Evangelistic initiatives like Presbyterian and Reformed Renewal Ministries International’s Philip Endeavor, the Knox Fellowship’s Journey of Faith Weekends and Literacy and Evangelism International’s worldwide reading program courageously remind Presbyterians that Christians are called to declare Jesus Christ as Lord of all, to proclaim in the public square that Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to God without a personal relationship with him (John 14:6). These vital (and growing) renewal organizations that teach Presbyterians how to proclaim good news are bringing much needed vision and encouragement to a denomination that has hemorrhaged members for three decades.
Official Presbyterian strategy has not been able to stem, much less reverse, the flow. That leads us to suggest that task forces commissioned by the General Assembly would do well to spend less time defining terms, discussing theory and drawing demographic pie charts, and more time learning from congregations and independent groups like Knox Fellowship, Literacy and Evangelism International and Presbyterian and Reformed Renewal Ministries International. These groups know that the Church has something to say that no other group, cause, or movement can say. Instructed and emboldened by their witness, the PCUSA may find its voice once more. That strategy would grow the church.
Evangelism is …
Evangelism is “a concerted effort to confront the unbeliever with the truth about and claims of Jesus Christ and to challenge him with the view of leading him into repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and thus, into the fellowship of the church.”
– Lewis A. Drummond
“Evangelism is the major instrument of social change. For the gospel changes people, and changed people can change society. … This is one way in which we may declare without embarrassment that evangelism takes primacy over social action.”
– John Stott