REFLECTIONS: Jesus Centered Evangelism

Christian evangelism has been getting a bad rap recently. The media has reported numerous stories of missionaries overseas who have been arrested for proselytizing people of other faiths. Even closer to home, mention the word "evangelism" to someone who is not a professed Christian and you are sure to see someone's eyes glaze over as they begin looking for a polite way to exit the conversation.

The fact is, Christianity in modernity is reeling from evangelism abuse. Evangelism, for many, is getting the "doctrine right" before they even consider getting the "relationship right."

There, I said it.

Not that evangelism is a bad thing. In fact, if you go to the New Testament and do a word study on the Greek word euangelion you'll discover that the word evangelism itself is a transliteration of the greek. Look closely at euangelion and what do you see? The prefix "eu" which comes before such words as "eu-phoria," "eu-charist," and "eu-genics" (from the Greek "well-born" names the practice of breeding animals!), simply means "good." In the second part of the word -anggelion we recognize "angel" or messenger. Evangelism is nothing more than the telling of some good news. An "evangelist" is not someone who has big hair and a strong southern accent, but someone who speaks good news!

In the New Testament, the good news is not just any good news, but news about God having lived as Jesus of Nazareth. There's more to that, of course. The good news that Jesus defied death by being resurrected after a cruel crucifixion. The good news that with the "incarnation" (literally "in-flesh) of God in Jesus, the kingdom of God that had been promised for centuries was now at hand. To people who were persecuted, dominated, hopeless, and despairing, this was good news. God was in charge. Human systems of governance and control were not the final answer. The end of the story was and is that… God wins!

Good news, right? Consider that after Jesus lived, his followers scattered all over Palestine, were persecuted and marginalized for their faith and should have - by all accounts - been wiped out. The Jesus movement should have ended in the first century. But it didn't.

And that's good news. Christians with the power of God's Spirit banded together in small life-giving communities. They remembered and told stories about Jesus. They witnessed healing. They were given hope. And rather than being wiped out, the movement that came together after Jesus's death curiously began to grow in numbers, influence, and spiritual strength. There was something TO this Jesus movement, people began to recognize. Lives were changed. Salvation bestowed. Forgiveness imparted. Hope restored. Brokenness healed. Spiritual gifts poured out.

That was the early church. The teacher, Paul, described it best in the second chapter of his letter to the first Corinthians. "

1Co 2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power."

A demonstration of the Spirit's power. God's power! With that, the Corinth church was birthed.

Evangelism does not depend on one's ability to be persuasive or to convince one intellectually of the "truth" of Christianity. Efforts to do so will not lead to a heart change but only to a temporary "affirmation." Evangelism also isn't about how well you can quote scripture or how many evangelism training programs you've attended. Evangelism isn't about being better than everyone else and "having it all together." Evangelism has nothing to do with these "externals."

The good news radiates from Christian lives like a brightly shining light. So much so, that friends, loved ones - the whole community - will want to know - by what power do these people live? It's then that we evangelize, or tell the "good news." We tell of Jesus's love when we felt no love at all. We tell of healing when all we thought all we'd ever know again was brokenness. We tell of eternal salvation, when we were struck by the possibility that our lives might make no sense whatsoever in the grand scheme of things. When we were down and out, God lifted us up and gave us life to the full! (John 10:10) And we tell of grace - the same grace that empowered Jesus to live among the poor, the outcast, the diseased and downtrodden (he rebuked those who maintained outward appearances with the "right theology" and "worship" of the day!) and proclaim to them the loving and compassionate embrace of God.

And that's good news!