Evangelism
He has carried a burden on his heart as few men that I’ve ever known.
A burden for the evangelization of the world”
Rev. Billy Graham speaking of Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ
“Evangelism” to those saints before us was the faithful spread of the good news of Christ. Evangelism is an earmark of the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Specifically, the ministry is known for the creation of and widespread use of the 4 Spiritual Laws, also known as the “Knowing God Personally” booklet.
“Evangelism” to a post modern, American generation means peddling that “Jesus died on the cross for your sins”…with whatever tool you have in hand.
“Evangelism”, linguistically, to a post modern, is a bad word. It may seem like semantics – but if you use it with a postmodern, and you mean it in a good way…they probably will not hear that.
When you tell a post modern that we are going “to do evangelism”, you are telling them, “we are going to sell Christianity door to door”.
Language will continue to be an important issue with the globalization of the world. We must continue to pursue understanding of one another beyond a surface glance within a conversation. Other words within our Christian subculture that have negative and inconsistent meanings are “witnessing”, “saved”, “born again”, “testimony”, and “missionary” in some cultures.
posted by Melinda at
8:54 AM
4 Comments:
what is "GWB"?
Hey Melinda! Thanks for dropping by over at alongthepathway.
Have you read any of the Brian McClaren books moving toward a more "PoMo" evangelism? If not, I think they might hit the spot.
Finding Faith - this one is more for the "seeker".
More Ready Than You Realize - this highlights a dialog with someone with whom he shared the gospel over a long period of time.
I found both helpful.
Thanks for visiting at Letters. I just read this first post (due to time contraints on my day!) but we are talking about these issues too. It's so funny....people just have these things conjured up in their minds of what evangelism is.
One thing we see here in So Cal is that we are moving to a post Christian culture. The people who have come to Christ on our campus are mostly from Catholic backgrounds. But there are many now who have no background in the Bible....so the 4-Laws is not adequate (oh my am I really saying this?) in explaining the Gospel. There is not a general understanding of things like the Fall, the Cross, and Judgement.
I think you are right about the phrase "doing evangelism."
We need to think in Biblical terms,--that sharing the Gospel is sharing a Person.
Being in a post-modern culture allows us to look back on previous cultural norms and methods and see it objectively.
Evangelicals in sharing the Gospel in the last 75 years have been influenced by modernist thinking....pragmatism, "efficiency," and being streamlined (to name a few).
What you're saying is resonating with some of our recent team discussions about the ineffectiveness of our modern approach. The obvious nut to crack here is how to communicate the Gospel in our postmodern setting. Our students are great at sharing the "laws" BUT as products of their postmodern evironment are horrible at making friends and initiating in everyday encounters with non believers. We are thinking of teaching our students on basic social skills. And then there is still the awkward step of faith to say something about God much less jesus, particularly when no one is watching. I think its a heart issue. Sharing about Jesus must come from a full heart centered on cross and its implications. Out of a full heart of Jesus flows a desire to share. Moderns are crying out(Frankly I think it)How do you encourage this kind of living much less measure it. Are you talking about these things on your team?...
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