Evangelism Rant

For the independent Baptist movement it is common to hear Great Commission messages that emphasize that we should “go into all the world.” The problem; we don’t actually believe or do that. The history of our movement has been one of hyper separation and though we preach “go into all the world” the truth is we expect the world to come to us, especially when it comes to evangelization in this country. The message is more like this. Learn to fit in with us, that is, come to our church, dress like us, learn the rules and then you can come to Jesus. I say that knowing this statement it’s a little more extreme than the normal church, but, that is basically our attitude. So, what about the “go ye therefore?” Well, as a norm, in order to fulfill the Commission at home we depend on confrontational evangelism. That is, cold call, door knock, approach on the street and ask people we’ve never met to make an eternal decision.

This is on my mind for a couple of reasons. First, a conversation I had the other day with our summer intern Kevin. The discussion was about our college and career ministry that Kevin started during this past school year. The foundation of the ministry is a group of Piedmont Bible College students, which is good, in that you know that they’re going to show up most of the time. I’m sure you see there is an obvious conundrum, which is, when the Bible college students go home for the summer, so does the college and career ministry. So, Kevin is thinking about how to reach the career singles we have in the church and keep them plugged in, and then, how to use the ministry to reach Wake Forest University, which is a large university within a ten minute drive of our church.

Our conversation goes like this. I ask Kevin how he’s planning to reach the career singles to keep the ministry alive now that we are in the summer months. He replies “I’m thinking about doing something other than Sunday School hour on Sunday morning.” I immediately express how much I think this is a good idea which starts my thought process, no doubt affected by things I’ve been reading and much contemplation which I’ve taken part in since entering the pastorate a few months ago. Kevin expresses how he would like to see the ministry expand to include some type of ministry at WFU. This is where my rant begins. I start talking about the need to go into their world. We can’t expect secular students in a secular university to come to our church just because we’ve invited them nor can we expect to see much fruit by walking on campus one day with some tracts and expect them to receive us. So, how about taking some kind of ministry to them? “The catch,” I said, “you must develop a relationship and trust first if you ever expect to see them come to Christ.”

The second reason this is on my mind is a book I’ve been reading called The Unlikely Disciple. This is a book written after Kevin Roose, a Brown University student, spends a semester at Liberty University. It’s a surprisingly objective look at an evangelical university from a person who is admittedly an unbeliever. The entire book is interesting, as long as you don’t mind reading someone’s views who does not think like you and me. But one thing that triggered my thinking was a Spring Break mission’s trip in which Roose participates. A team of students, after a crash course in confrontational evangelism, go down to Daytona Beach during spring break to witness to as many people as they can. Obviously, this was a difficult trip which ended without success, unless you count getting spit on by an old lady successful. What really piqued my interest was an observation that Roose made himself. “I thought….that we’d be told to do some sort of follow-up with successful converts, if we had any – guide them to a local church, maybe, or at least take their contact information. But there’s no such procedure.”[1] Interesting observation Mr. Roose maybe we should think of that.

Let me take just a moment to state that I have already thought of that, along with many others like me. Just so you know I’m not developing my evangelistic practices apart from Scripture much less from a secular writer. But, this has drummed up some memories of hours of door knocking that produced little and front door conversions who I never could talk into showing up to church. So, I return to the original premise. How should we evangelize? Does confrontational evangelism have any place in the programming of our churches? Well, possibly, depending on the culture of the people we wish to reach. But, can it fulfill the “go ye therefore” here at home?

Let’s say, then, that confrontational evangelism isn’t the answer and if you haven’t noticed already I’m convinced that if it ever was, that it’s becoming less and less the answer. My mind goes to a sermon I watch online from Liberty’s campus church. Ergun Caner, whom I respect and enjoy listening to occasionally, was preaching and made a statement that I’m still accessing. He told the Liberty students, “I don’t know what your calling is, but, I know where it is; one foot from the gates of hell.” He was telling the students that our mandate is to live our faith in the culture. He illustrated by stating that he could be dropped into the middle of a worldly, ungodly, secular cultural situation and be the salt and light that he was called to be. I have to admit, it pumped me up a bit to listen to this and for the most part I agree.

This is how I agree. When it comes to evangelization of the lost we need to step out of our world and into theirs. This is Christ’s example. He left His world, in heaven with the Father, and came into our world. Not only did He die for us, but, He worked through relationships with us, so, He’s our model. We need to go into the culture to reach the world. Not to act like them, not to take on a lifestyle of sin, but, separated from sin step into their world to build relationships so they can see the love of Christ in us. This is more than just confrontational evangelism which is historically the way we like to do things. What’s the problem with confrontational evangelism? Well, there are several. First, you will irritate more people than you reach. Anyone who has done this knows the number of converts to those met are anywhere between 1 to 250 and 1 to 1000. Secondly, it’s basically easy believism to which we are trying to win them. Many people who preach against easy believism go out and expect someone to come to Christ like it’s easy. Unfortunately, this is usually presented in the method of “say this prayer” and then you’re in. That’s easy believism. If you never see the person darken the door of the church is it a conversion? I know, only God knows the heart.

There is one dilemma I’m dealing with, however. As Caner prompted the Liberty students to go live Christ in the midst of an ungodly culture one thing crossed my mind. Are they ready to do that? I have the same question in regard to the members of our church. I would like to extend the same type of message to our people, but, are they ready to go live Christ in the world outside the safety of the church, outside the safety of the community that keeps us out of harm's way?

So, the answer. It seems, in our independent Baptist movement, that we have always been ready to send people out to witness. To get them ready we coach them on how to “win someone to the Lord.” But, don’t they need more from us than for us to coach them to follow the WWJD line of questions to make someone realize they need a savior? Obviously, this type of teaching, or I should call it training, is not sufficient for someone to go live Christ in an ungodly environment as Caner suggests we do. If we expect Christians to be this kind of witness they must become strong people of faith. If not, don’t they stand the risk of not being able to stay grounded in their faith? Don’t they stand the risk of falling back into old habits and vices?

I agree with Caner in that we must be willing and prepared to live Jesus in the middle of the culture around us. The church has become its own culture and we’ve separated ourselves and become a sub-culture in America. In order to reach America we must now re-enter the culture. But, before we send our people out to do just that we’d better make sure we equip them. That is also a Biblical mandate. “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.”[2] [emphasis mine] If we are going to reach our community, if Kevin is going to grow the college and career ministry to reach WFU, then, we must equip the saints to live Christ in the culture. This will take significant investments of time and energy. This is more than a Wednesday night or Saturday morning coaching session. I do not believe we will see large amounts of people coming to Christ in the culture around us unless we are willing to make true, long-term, Spiritual investments in our people.

[1] Kevin Roose, The Unlikely Disciple (New York: Grand Central Publishing), 159.
[2]The New King James Version. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Eph 4:11-12.