Evangelism in our culture can be . . . complicated. Books and "how-to" strategies for sharing the gospel abound, but why is working for the Great Commission so challenging? Here's one take on the root (and fruit) of the issue. – Paul
I'm no stranger to evangelism. By the age of 12 I was confidently washing windows at gas stations and handing out free bread, hoping to show love and start conversations about Jesus. I was taught that Christians were to make disciples, and I was willing to step into any task with that goal.
But a number of years down the road, I got to see evangelism from the other side of the table. At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, I heard peers discuss run-ins with various campus ministries. Sadly, it was an ugly sight for them. I even had Christian friends who dreaded encounters with "one of those people who knock on your door." The ministries had good intentions, but where they tried to communicate love, all that I saw was damage, solidifying negative Christian stereotypes for my peers and driving them away from the church.
I wanted to love people, but talking to strangers about Jesus seemed to communicate only arrogance.
So, like many, I walked away from evangelism because I feared doing harm. I wanted to love people, but talking to strangers about Jesus in our culture seemed to communicate only arrogance. Eventually I picked a ministry that didn't "knock on doors," convinced that it was the more Christ-like option.
But as the school years passed, this fact gnawed at me: the ministries that knocked on doors sure looked like they were bringing people to Christ.
The tension of evangelism
I think my experience illustrates the tension many Christians in our culture feel. For most of us, evangelism can feel like a lose/lose situation. Be bold, and about 90% of the time you end up feeling like a proselytizing jerk. Try to "show love," and you end up feeling guilty for not proclaiming truth.
I have always wrestled between the two in my own life, but I now find myself wrestling with this tension as the director of outreach at my church. Now the tension isn't just mine: I have to lead others through it too. So what helps that tension?
To start, we need to recognize that our motivations for evangelism can get confused. This is because it is a "fruit and root" issue. Fulfillment of the Great Commission is fruit, a product of our walk with Christ. But that product needs to grow out from the root, which is that walk. Our problem is that we often view evangelistic motivation either as producing the fruit of the Great Commission or as being true to the root of our walk with Christ. But to focus exclusively on either side is a mistake.
If Christians are primarily concerned with the fruit of the Great Commission, they face an immediate motivation problem. The logic is that if the Great Commission is our purpose, we should use our most effective tools to spread the gospel as quickly and broadly as possible, kind of like a mass-production manufacturing process. But if we think this way, we are trying to produce fruit mechanically with human ambition rather than letting it grow out of the root of our walk with Christ. This is where ministries begin to impersonalize, and to lose genuine love—exactly what makes many Christians shy away from evangelism.
In response to this, many Christians try to be motivated authentically out of their relationship with Jesus. In other words we focus primarily on the root, and we hope the fruit will eventually come along naturally. This feels much more honest. It's also quite Biblical; the second half of most of Paul's letters are filled with beautiful descriptions of how a Christian's life should flow out of the Good News. Paul urges Christians to walk in a "manner worthy of your calling," to "put on the new self," and to "live by the Spirit" rather the flesh. It shows us that new life is empowered by the Spirit of God and grows out from one's status in Christ, rather than being built mechanically.
Somehow we must navigate the tension of holding firmly to authentic, gospel-motivated roots, while also pursuing the fruit of the Great Commission.
However, there is a problem here too. If we only think of the Christian life in organic terms most of us will never evaluate it. It is easy to hide behind our "authenticity" as an excuse to never be challenged. We must have a way to challenge and evaluate our life response to the gospel, so that in our effort to be genuine we don't simply become genuinely poor Christians.
Fruitful authenticity
Somehow we must navigate the tension of holding firmly to authentic, gospel-motivated roots, while also pursuing the fruit of the Great Commission. But how?
Ideally, all that we do would sincerely flow out of our walk with Christ. If done perfectly, this would result in an explosion of evangelism. The fruit and the root would both be healthy–our aim. What does this mean? We must point out where evangelism is lacking, but we must never let it be assumed that the answer is some mechanical activity designed to produce converts. If evangelism is not happening, the diagnosis is that something has gone wrong with our response to Christ.
We need to take a look at our roots.
We need to learn the art of opening our hearts to be challenged in how we relate and respond to God and the Great Commission. This is much harder than sitting in often-stagnant "authenticity," or boldly (and often mechanically) carrying out evangelistic programs. In our culture evangelism is difficult, it's complicated, and it requires a lot of discernment. We must accept this tension and regularly walk right into it together, rather than retreating to one side or the other.
We must lay aside our need of a simple answer so that we may pursue a wise one.
So should ministries be knocking on the doors of college dorm rooms? In our culture, I do not believe there is a universal answer to that question. (We do not have that luxury.) Each Christian needs to wrestle with this in their context, from their own relationship with God. That can only be done in community and with much prayer. We must lay aside our need of a simple answer so that we may pursue a wise one.
The fruit of the Great Commission relies on every gift that flows from the root of Christ, not just stereotypical evangelistic ministry. Every Christian responding to Christ with every gift should link their work to furthering the kingdom of God. In my church I want the young couple reaching out to their neighborhood to be motivated by their roots in the gospel and hoping for the fruit of the Great Commission, and I want the same for the retired financial analyst whoserves faithfully in regards to the church finances.
We have two different areas to work on. First, we need to start aiming at the Great Commission with what we are already doing. We need to lead people to start hoping, and more importantly praying, that their honest response to Christ, no matter how "evangelistic" it seems, would in fact contribute to the Great Commission.
Second, we need to start regular, safe conversations that consider how our walk with Christ motivates us to pursue evangelism in our culture. Evangelism is complicated where we live, and every Christian needs support and counsel when it comes to navigating how to pursue it in their context. How much would we grow in disciple-making if this was a regular side conversation in every church small group?
For me, this hits the ground with a group of men who gather together every other week in my living room. We are studying a book together right now, but we also talk about gifts, strengths, and serving God in the contexts where we live. As we talk, I have begun to learn more and more how different we are. We ask different questions, we work different jobs, we have different concerns, and we are in different places in our relationships with God.
I've realized that I would never be able to give a knock-out talk on evangelism that makes sense for the whole small group, let alone our whole church. It has convinced me that leaders must not just wrestle with evangelism for ourselves, we must model the processes. We need to show others how to wade into the difficulties of evangelism from the root of the gospel, in community, with discernment, and with passion for the fruit of the Great Commission. It's not an easy or simple task.
But let's take heart. We have been called by a God who knows what he's doing.
Tyler Campbell is Director of Worship and Outreach at Gateway Community church in Middleton, WI.
