Evangelism exists because missional living does not. That is to say, Evangelism–as a system or pitch–exists because missional living–living the daily life of a follower of Jesus–does not exist. Since missional living does not exist, we live with the reality of vast lostness living in close proximity to the church. The result is that there is now a need for those who are on a church campus to go off campus to proclaim what they believe. They must proclaim since they are not living it out visibly before the world. There is a disconnect between their life and their message. This makes the message appear as a shameless ploy to try to fix the shortcoming of not living out the faith in and before the world.
quoted from Rastis
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
not sure what the correct protocol is here… not to be pedantic, that was something I wrote in response to DW’s discussion on bait-and-switch evangelism. I have no clue if he would actually agree with me or not-i didn’t end up getting a chance to bounce it back off of him for his reflection. Not a big deal, just trying to give some clarity.
Sorry man…great quote though. You’ve got me thinking about this and I’m going to start a series next week with some thoughts out of this quote.
I look forward to reading it. It is something i really struggle with. On the one hand my desire to proclaim, and the proclamatory {i know i just created that word} nature of the gospel, and on the other hand the need to live in the real world, be a real person, hear and communicate, and take people seriously without cheapening who we are, who they are, or who Jesus is. complicated….
Evangelism exists because God ordained it and commanded it and gifts people to do it: Matthew 28:19, Acts 1:8, Ephesians 4:11, 2 Timothy 4:5. I would assert that HOW we evangelize is primarily THROUGH missional living.
When you “go off campus” that IS evangelism.
Ryan…thanks for the comment. I obviously agree with you on evangelism…the key sentence in the quote above is…..”Evangelism–as a system or pitch–exists because missional living–living the daily life of a follower of Jesus–does not exist.” We have to create methods and programs and gimmicks to do evangelism for a myriad of reasons.
Barbara…also thanks for the comment…good to have you visit {missional}space. I would adjust your statement a bit…. When you go off campus that should be evangelism or really missional living. The truth is that for most Christians it is not a reality. They live in the space where missional can occur but they minimalize the gospel to a canned presentation, a tract or a night of visitation. To me a biblical definition of the gospel would include both word and deed. Most ev programs and methods focus solely on the word aspect of this. It would be nice if Christians took on this responsibility but sadly most are content to interact with the world in sound bytes.
Grady
Grady, In John Piper’s book, “Let the Nations Be Glad,” he says that “Christ is calling His church to a radical, wartime engagement in world missions. And He is making it plain that it will not happen without pain.” Sadly, many of us don’t want to engage in anything that’s painful. Yet Christ tells us in Matthew 5 to expect persecution. I think that’s why we see people walk out of the church looking/doing no different from their unbelieving counterpart. They don’t want pain. We must be willing to step out of our comfortable lives and live conformable lives, a willingness to live as those who love our brother as ourselves to feeding His sheep to pain and persecution. The missional Chinese Christians are an example of that radical, wartime engagement in missions. They are not afraid of pain, persecution or death, therefore, they are willing to live as Christ commanded in Matthew 28.
While this truth can be somewhat distressing, there is a practical response and that can be found in Matthew 9:38 – “Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” A more thorough Greek translation might read, “Plead! Bind oneself to this urging (deomai) SO THAT (hopos) the Lord of the harvest will send out workers unto His harvest.”
And we all know that when our minds, hearts and souls are engaged in prayer for workers to the harvest, then God’s hand can move in mighty ways through us to be missional and model that for others. Just as Christ did, so should we.
Oh, I also want to point out one more thing. The church is the body of Christ, not a building and not a campus. Once we get that simple fact into our minds and hearts, then we can begin to understand the weight and responsibility of living missionally. Unfortunately, many churches aren’t willing to take that direction with their congregation. So let’s be aware to teach that to our brethren. Perhaps the truth will reveal itself from the bottom up.
Angela,
Thanks for the visit and the comments. You are dead on…most churches don’t want missional living to occur because it devalues the building and the infrastructure they have built.
And your right about suffering. It’s easier to live on the campus and occasionally leave to share through a method. When they reject…we blame it on Satan and run back to the sanctuary.
Good thoughts!
Grady