Ambushed!

[This blog begins a journal of a personal quest for a more effective evangelism: an evangelism with credibility and biblical integrity.]

We were vacationing at a lakeside resort in east Texas. Early Saturday morning we were sitting on the deck enjoying the beautiful setting, when a family strolled by. The woman trailing the group asked, “Do you know Jesus as your personal savior?”

We both said, “Yes,” partly because it’s true; but mainly to get rid of her!

On a busy sidewalk a man stepped directly in front of me like an NFL linebacker and asked, “If you were to die today, where would your soul be tomorrow?” 

I said, “In heaven, with Christ,” partly because it’s true; but mainly to get rid of him.

One advantage evangelical Christians have over us mainliners is their evangelistic passion based on their conviction that people are going to hell. I honor that passion.

While I admire their passion and devotion, and although I don’t have an effective alternative, I cannot with integrity participate in their strategy. I truly believe the rude, confrontational approach drives more people away from God’s kingdom than it attracts. It’s just common sense!

On the other hand, we mainliners, in our effort to make sure everybody knows we’re “not that kind of Christian,” have unwittingly communicated that we don’t have a sense of urgency about living like and for Jesus.[1] We abandoned evangelism during the 1960s, rationalizing that “everything we do is evangelism.” And, while results are not a valid motivation for evangelism, they certainly are an indicator of effectiveness, and our journey is a classic example of throwing the baby out with the bath water!

Still, the in-your-face approach of the two people mentioned above is counterproductive on at least two levels. First, it’s an ambush. NOBODY wants to be ambushed! Second, it’s dehumanizing. I felt like a “mark” in both situations.

Their rationalization is that it’s not a confrontation; it’s an invitation. I get that; however, if it walks like a duck… 

I find it incredulous that anybody believes it’s an effective invitation that would attract anybody at all! In the first place, there’s no context. It’s just… an ambush! Of course, neither was there a context when Jesus encountered some fishermen and said, simply, “Follow me.” Still, I think I'd be more likely to respond positively to "Follow me" than to "If you were to die today, where would your soul be tomorrow?"

It’s a real conundrum. I sense the call to share faith; but, aside from the pulpit and the classroom (where I’m very comfortable), I need a context within which to do so. Unfortunately, the counterproductive approach described above has established a negative social context for virtually any initiation of faith talk. Consequently, a prior step in Christian witness is to build a receptive context—to overcome the negative stereotypes associated with any manifestation of organized religion. The truth is, I''ve not seen any mainline effort to do even that.

Aside from context, there’s also the issue of content. Evangelical Christianity seems to reject any call to “justice and righteousness” as an earthly call, substituting a call to prepare to a future heavenly existence. 

I have issues with either/or propositions. The New Testament presents a both/and call to faith and action[2]: the call to faith is a call to trust that God’s grace is sufficient to settle the issue of our eternal destinies. In that faith one is free to concentrate on God’s call in Christ to bring in the reign of God “on earth as it is in heaven.” 

One Christian doctrine says this world is the kingdom of Satan and will remain so until Christ returns. God has issued a special “dispensation” that puts everything on hold until that return; therefore, there is no purpose accomplished in ministries of social justice. I do not share that doctrine, because my reading of the book of Revelation does not arrive at those conclusions.

The Gospel’s call to faith (salvation) is a beginning. Once a person is saved, what’s next? The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) is a call, not get people saved, but to “make disciples” (which begins with being saved.) Disciple means follower. It implies action. It implies imitating Jesus’ own ministry. 

Faith leads to partnership; called in Christ to actualize the qualities described in his Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-10) and in his opening statement of purpose in Nazareth (Luke 4:18-19). He frequently fleshed out those virtues with undeniable calls to serve the disadvantaged and to work for justice. The Parable of the Sheep and Goats is one compelling example (Matthew 25:31-46).

Yes, Jesus was confrontational, but not to those he came “to seek and to save”. His confrontations and his harshest criticisms were reserved for those who used their influence to establish and benefit from policies that increased their wealth and power while keeping the disadvantaged in their place, and then rationalized their approach by blaming the victim: “Poverty is a self-inflicted result of laziness.” Sound familiar? His confrontations got him killed.

It’s interesting to note that at Nazareth his confrontational witness was counterproductive; in fact, he was run out of town! But his Beatitudes drew many followers. Perhaps—do you think?—this comparison could serve as a foundation for an effective approach to evangelism. By lifting up the visionary ideals that describe the reign of God, perhaps the spiritually yearning, institutionally disillusioned public[3] would be drawn to Christ[4], instead of repulsed by a dehumanizing strategy. Maybe it’s a starting place.

That’s the way it looks through the Flawed Glass that is my world view.

Together in the Walk,
Jim

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[1] This is a paraphrase from Derek Penwell, Outlandish: an Unlikely Messiah; a Messy Ministry; and the Call to Mobilize (St. Louis, Missouri: Chalice Press, 2018) page 16.

[2] In many ways faith and action cannot be separated. In the New Testament, faith is not faith until it is tested and demonstrated. Until then, it’s simply a system of beliefs.

[3] A description coined by Thomas G. Bandy in Christian Chaos, et al.

[4] Which doesn’t automatically mean “join the church”. As a mainline Protestant, I continue to insist that evangelism does not have as its purpose the increase in membership of specific congregations. The Body of Christ is infinitely more than the established church.