I’m in Arkansas today, driving to Searcy to work with a small group of young people who have committed to go to Italy for two years in the Avanti Italia program. One of their main activities will include . . . . I don’t even know what to call it anymore! And that’s part of the problem.
We used to call it either personal evangelism or personal work. If we did it in a group or in a concentrated way, the same activity was called campaigning. When I was a boy and my parents were doing it, they called it conducting cottage Bible classes—and I don’t have a clue where the cottage part of that came from, but I suspect it was the same place as in the old song that starts with the line, ”I’m satisfied with just a cottage below . . . .”
Somewhere in the 80s and 90s, any phrase that used the word evangelism took on a negative connotation, so the same activity was described as outreach. With the new millennium though, we must have needed a new word, so if this activity is talked about at all, it always is described, not named, and it always includes the word sharing. Faith sharing or sharing my faith seem to have been the most common that I hear.
More recently, the trend seems away from talking about faith and has turned to telling my story, sometimes sharing my story, and if we need to objectify it a bit more, we leave out the my and just tell the story.
Of course, the words we use change with both what we do and how we do it. Here’s a quick and very subjective description of our methods of doing whatever it is we don’t have good words for!
- New people were brought the gospel and converted by the sword! As the Crusaders went through countries, they converted people or killed them. The conquistadors/soldier priests did the same thing . Or your king became a Christian—or a certain kind of Christian–and if you wanted to live in his country, you did too—a la, European Christianity after the Reformation. This is a quick, though painful way, to make lots of new Christians—or at least church members. I’m not so sure about whether people became Christians.
- In the New World, education was the way people were converted. Schools were started to teach reading, so that people could read the Bible and be Christians. Natives were civilized and Christianized as if those two were one and the same activities.
- The 1800s were the time of great revivalism. Great preaching was the means of conversion for most people. Tent meetings and gospel meetings lasted for weeks—months—until all the unsaved were saved.
- Over a period of time that spanned the turn into the 1900s, the various denominations in the U.S. began mostly trying to convert each other to the “right” church. The average Christian was unprepared to deal with someone’s unbelief if that person were a Darwinist or a scientific atheist, but they were prepared to tell others why their church doctrine was right and the others were wrong.
- As rational modernism gave way in popular thinking to the more relativistic post modernism, Christians became less sure that these doctrinal differences should make such a big difference, so we quit talking about them. But then we weren’t quite sure what to talk about, since almost everyone we knew believed in Jesus . . . and so our words got softer and fuzzier.
- Now we are in a time when it is socially inappropriate to try to convince someone of anything. It’s OK to tell people what you have experienced—share your story—but to try to persuade someone that they should change their story for any reason is considered highly arrogant.
So this is why we don’t have any real words anymore for . . . .
Even this nameless activity is being changed to just living out our story in front of people and hoping that somehow they connect the dots to know that Jesus loves them and died for them. Our time may be the time of the wordless Gospel.
And if that sounds OK to you, then I wonder if you are OK with your children or your grandchildren never hearing the story of Jesus, never reading the Bible—just watching people do good things—because I’m afraid that we are virtually to that point.
Does faith still come by hearing the word of God? And how can they hear without a preacher? And do we still persuade others because we know the fear of the Lord? And is the Holy Spirit still a guide to all truth—or just a Comforter?
We need some new words. More and more of our neighbors care less and less about Jesus. If we are faithful to our calling, we have to go preach and teach as Jesus said in the Great Commission. We don’t have to call it preaching and teaching if those words are somehow inappropriate . . . but we have to do it!
Mark's Blog 
Reblogged this on Forgiveness Factor.
Thank you.
Further thoughts…putting in a good word for God, for Jesus every day can help open a door that is just waiting for an intentional follower of Jesus to come along and open. If you have the Light of Jesus living within you, people who know there is more to life than they have found will ask you, “What makes you different?” That’s the time to “share your story.” And, yes, Bruce, the spirit will quicken our tongues to have the right words to say at the right moment. — Anne in Transylvania
Mark, your comments, as often, are very well said. Thank you. Much of it falls right in line with what I’m reading in Peterson’s “Working the Angles” regarding how we’ve come to regard scripture and the need to read it as though we are hearing God speak: “Gutenberg gave me an inexpensive book [even the Bible] that I can own and carry with me wherever I go, encouraging the illusion that I have its contents in my pocket or purse, a possession over which I exercise control. My schooling gave me an authoritative [utilitarian] text in which I can look up reliable information regarding the furniture of heaven and the temperature of hell. My consumerism [‘What’s in it for me?’] gave me a best-selling manual that I can use to make life better on gloomy nights and to whip my congregation into a shape fit for eternity. I live, am educated, and make my living in a world that treats all books in this way and makes no exception for a book just because it is blessed with the adjective ‘holy’. Ad so the speaking voice of God and the listening ear of the human–the very things that led to the writing, reading, copying, and translating of Scripture in the first place–are given a quiet and decent burial. Paul was right: ‘the letter kills’.” But “the spirit gives life”. May he quicken our tongues with the living Word of God to share life with others. Thank you for your ongoing efforts to help us. Bruce
Mark (and others), I’ve been reading Scot McKnight’s King Jesus Gospel and it’s been really challenging me to rethink what is the “good news” and how I share that with others. It’s not a manual for evangelism or a “how-to” book, but if you’re looking for something to challenge your definition and understanding of the gospel, I recommend it. Great post — I look forward to the rest in this series!
Thank you Mark for your always thoughtful comments. I’d love to hear how you start conversations, both to those from other churches and non belivers. Diana
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Again a comment from Jordan: Some peoplethink so much about their choice of words that they forget to speak out at all. I strongly believe what is needed is 1. feel a burden for lost people and 2. Much more boldness!
What are we afraid of or whom? Let`s be wise but not quiet!
The value of where I and you spend eternity is too high and beside soooomany blessings are lost when we don`t find and speak! the words!
Thank you for putting “in a nutshell” what has been happening…and describing exactly where we are today…and emphasizing that the “words” are not what is important. The important thing is that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow…and He said If we are faithful to our calling, we have to go preach and teach — Jesus said it in the Great Commission — and He meant it.
If we are intentional followers of Jesus, we will do what He says.
Mark, I appreciate your insight about these trends and identifying the fact that we no longer have a word for….that, at least not a culturally appropriate one! So my question, based on #6, is this: as we are in an age where it is socially inappropriate to try to persuade someone to change their story, and not only is it inappropriate because social rules say so, but because the people whom you are trying to persuade feel that way, as well, how do we approach evangelism/outreach/etc using Paul’s approach to become all things to all men in an effective way? I’d love to hear your ideas, you’re full of good ones!
Thank you, Chris. You’ve raised a great question and I’ll try to address it soon. You know, there is a real tension between Christians being “all things to all men” but at the same time, being “in the world, but not of the world.” I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.