My good friend, Adam, is starting a multi-day post on evangelism. I responded to his post today and thought that I would include an edited version of my response here.
I might be a Christian that does not see evangelism as an essential spiritual discipline. I am not against people developing a faith and practice in relationship to the Christian God. However, I am against the idea of making converts (evangelism) as a primary relational motivation. I am against the strong us/them distinctions that the word evangelism evokes. I am against sitting around with Christian friends and philosophizing about how to convert my friends. I am also against (as you mentioned, Adam) attractional, depersonalized, marketing schemes designed to lure others into an 'organizational christianity'--this is propaganda and is what many organizations participate in to some degree.
If we took the word 'evangelism' and placed it in the semantic toilet and flushed for a long time, that would be good.
We are in need of new words to reconstruct how we relate with one another. Redemption, until perverted, might be one of those. If we are at work to redeem each other it does not matter whether or not we have faith or will ever come to faith.
If someone is going to redeem another then they must really know them. If one were to redeem my frustrating night last night then they might tell me how valuable my thought processes are despite the how they lead me to procrastinate. They might give me the courage I need to embrace what is good about me. This of course would require that Christians can read the world (the world not according to Thomas Kinkade) and discover beauty, goodness and truth in what they see. This is a task which I fear that many who don't regard Jesus as their Savior are just plain better at--even though they may not embrace a larger-than-life story which has any redeeming value.
Then again, the word 'redemption' might not be what I am looking for. I just know that the way that the word 'evangelism' (and sometimes 'witnessing') has emerged within Christian subculture is repulsive.
Incidentally, I feel the same way about the word 'missional' as it is used in some circles. Don't get me wrong. I am not against telling someone 'facts' about Christianity or about how meaningful my faith is for me; I am not even bashful about telling friends that I think my faith can be meaningful for them. However, this is not a one way street.
My friends (regardless of faith) can have a redeeming value for me if I give them a voice in my life. This weekend I spent time camping with some of my closest friends--even though we are distant. I don't know if any of them would profess to be a Christian, although some might; I am sure some would not.
These friends have full reign in my life to offer me advice and console me in life. I respect what they have to say. They tell me when I am treating my wife poorly and even help me make career decisions. They even listen to my frustrations with my faith and occasionally read this blog. This past weekend I learned from them when a joke can go to far; I also learned about what is refreshing about being loved. I have few friends that care for me like they do.
Because of my faith I believe that all of these things that I learn from them (full of goodness, truth and beauty) are from God. They minister to me out of the gift of life that God has given to them. I only hope that I can do the same for them.
It is ultimately up to each of us (Christian or undecided or non-Christian) what place we will give the redemptive power of Jesus' story in our lives. In this regard we are all equal in our pilgrimage. Each day our questions, doubts and beliefs face new relevance.
Wow. I wish I would have read this before our camping trip, then we would have had a lot more to talk about. You have a lot of interesting thoughts. I don't pretend to know more about the Bible than you, but I see evangalism as extreamly important in the life of a Christian. If you believe the only way to God is through Jesus, how can you believe otherwise? I'm sorry you see term "evagalism" in the mainstream Christian faith today as something you find "repulsive", but evangelism is something we are called by God to do, even if it makes us uncomfortable or we are despised for it. From my perspective, it would ultimately be best for all if I "sat around thinking about how to convert my freinds", simply because if I succed I am leading them to everlasting life. Its important to not loose sight of the person during this proccess, but spreading the Gosphel is a good thing and not something to be avoided because we have a particular predudice against a certain group's use of a biblical term or because it makes you feel uncomfortable. Why does this idea offend you so deeply? Your blog on this seems really harsh. You might want to consider using words that are less inflamatory if you want to get your point accross based on its merits. God bless.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I am trying to figure out who you are :) and which camping trip you are referring to... I appreciate your honest response. I think that if we talked through this together (maybe for a while) that we may find at least some common ground.
ReplyDeleteI agree that as a believer in the story of Jesus that I hold a truth about eternal life that is desperately needed by others. You may be right that it is consequently appropriate to sit around with friends and discuss how to share this redemptive belief with others. That, I guess, is in part what I am doing in this blog.
I find fault with many of the methods attached to the word 'evangelism.' They are often manipulative and controlling in my opinion. They often look down on others who do not share similar beliefs and maintain a harsh (and unhealthy) us/them distinction between believers and 'non believers.' They also often overlook the life of another for the sake of the end product of conversion--this is in direct opposition to the principles of the parable of the Good Samaritan which contained actions without any attachment to whether or not the traveler would be 'saved.'
I think that the word 'evangelism' cannot be rescued from these faulty methods. In fact, when the word 'evangelism' is uttered in many Christian circles it is immediately associated with some Christian sub cultural concepts that are repulsive to me. It is not that there are not good concepts associated with the word 'evangelism'--and in this regard you may be right that I am overly harsh--but I think that if I were to ever use the word that I would have to spend considerable amount of time explaining what I do not mean by it. I may be better off never using it again.
If we were to talk further about this we might have to talk more specifically about certain methods and world views associated with the word 'evangelism.' We could then hash through the positive and negative effects that they may have. Until then I am only speaking abstractly about the semantics of evangelism. This consequently has its down sides.
I would look forward to future dialogues...thanks again.