Why Evangelism and Discipleship are Inseparable

I am currently serving in the United Methodist Church and have found that in the last four years philosophy of ministry has changed to some extent. Having come from an evangelical background to a mainline denomination, I have notices some stark differences between the way we approach different things, particularly evangelism.

What I've noticed in attending ecumenical events since I've begun working in a mainline church is that any time an event is planned where there may be non-believers in attendance, there must be a concerted effort to present them with the message of the gospel (specifically the idea that Christ's death and resurrection demands a response from us) hopefully causing them to repent of their sins and give their lives to Christ, putting their faith in him as their Lord and Savior. This is not a bad thing at all, so don't think I'm being critical of it. But there are a few problems with making anything specifically evangelistic.

1. With all the effort put into the presentation of the message, there must be an equally concerted effort on follow-up with the new believers. Unfortunately, this is rarely ever done effectively. Young believers are given a commitment card where they are asked to put their church home if they have one. And are otherwise left to follow Christ on their own until a pastor, youth worker, or another believer comes alongside them to get them plugged into the church. This should be a seamless transition, but in over ten years of ministry, I don't think I've ever seen it work well. You can also read a great post by my friend Tim Schmoyer about his struggles with outreach events.

2. New believers go to these outreach-focused events and think everything else in the church or ministry is just like that. Then when they show up to a normal Wednesday night youth meeting without the great band, the lights, and the videos, they are very disappointed. Then they feel like they've been a victim of a bait and switch coupon circular where they were lured into a store for a great buy on a great product only to find they only had two in stock which sold out the first day of the sale.

3. Edification of existing believers must be sacrificed to meet the needs of those who are curious about faith. I have heard some preachers say that every message preached ought to point to the gospel. While I agree with that, I think it gets off track when we put "the gospel" in a box. Making every message point to the fact that Christ died for our sins and we should put our faith in him to be saved will eventually sound like a broken record. While that is the primary tenet of the Christian faith, the fact is the "good news" is so much more than that. So a message can be directed at mature believers and still point to the good news of Christ.

4. Events that are focused primarily on bringing the lost to Christ can be designed to be emotionally manipulative and leave little room for the Holy Spirit. I've been to events where the gospel is presented in some dramatic fashion using vague terminology and a lack of specific criteria where every person in the room could have easily been made to feel that their status with the Almighty was lacking and in need of repair. Maybe some strong guys broke some stuff. Maybe some fantastic athletes shared the message that you can do "all things through Christ." Maybe a great story teller told the most dramatic, captivating rendition of a Bible passage. Maybe there was a band playing the same three chords over and over for 30 minutes lulling the audience into a trance and people start going down front just so they can go home soon. Maybe every head was bowed and every eye was closed and the person who had been made to feel guilty lifted their head, then later walked down front, talked with a stranger, filled out a card, and went home feeling just like she did when she arrived.

5. We equate lots of people coming down front with lots of conversions and spiritual change. I think there is a difference between effective evangelism and giving a good sales pitch. Unfortunately, I've found myself trying to "help God out" by making a dramatic sales pitch for the gospel. And some people do it very well, and the aisles are flooded with teary-eyed spiritual derelicts. But then after all the cards have been filled out and everyone is ready for the next day of work or school, has anything truly changed?

So what is the answer? Am I saying we should not be evangelistic? Absolutely not. But I am saying that we should not separate evangelism from discipleship. When I look back at Acts 2 and read where the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer, I notice that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. While we don't know what specific teachings they were studying, I have a feeling that if the only tenet they studied was the idea of saving faith through belief in Christ's resurrection, their congregation would not have lasted very long. And remember, this was at a time in history when literally the whole world had not heard the message of Christ. If there was ever a time to be specifically evangelistic, it was then. But they devoted themselves to the entirety of the apostles' teaching.

Another hint is found in the writings of Paul. He refers to mature and immature believers and those who are young in the faith. He also refers to those who are non-believers. He encourages Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. He writes in Ephesians 4:11 that "some are called to be evangelists, while others are called to be pastors and teachers, for the equipment of the saints, for the work of the ministry." While those evangelists have their place, their ministry is ineffective without the pastors and teachers who can nurture those young converts in their faith. Look at the encounter of Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch. There were no showy gimmicks. There was no worship-band-induced trances. There was no preaching of guilt and eternal damnation. Philip simply was obedient to the Lord and met the Ethiopian where he was. He was already seeking. The Holy Spirit was already at work, Philip was just being available.

The message of Christ really speaks for itself. We should be more concerned with introducing people to it and less concerned with embellishing it to make it appealing. Then, when true conversion occurs, we know it's the work of the Holy Spirit and not the work of our indulgence.

Following Christ-Is Conversion a Point or a Process?

Today, I read a really thought-provoking post from @gavoweb on Twitter. The article was entitled "I love Jesus, but I'm keeping my stripping job." The article recounts an apparently true story of some Christians who protested a strip club and the dancers who responded with a protest of their own. After the smoke had cleared, apparently two of the girls had "accepted Jesus in their hearts" but were going to continue to work at the Foxhole Club as dancers.

This post hit a nerve with me because it speaks to an issue I've wrestled with over the years. In sharing Christ with others, at what point does true conversion occur? Growing up in church, salvation was always a black and white issue. Once you put your faith in Christ, "what fellowship can light have with darkness?" . But the older I get, and the more I realize how far I am from being the person that Christ wants me to be, I'm not so sure. I've shared before my thoughts on evangelism, as it relates to spiritual growth, and how I see it more as the beginning of a process of discipleship, rather than a magical change that is literally instantaneous.

To make a metaphor of it, I'll ask it this way. Is putting our faith in Christ a dot on a map, or is it merely us finding the right road we need to be on, on that particular map-the road that leads to Jesus? Paul speaks of justification-justified before God through the work of Christ-but he also speaks of sanctification-being made into the likeness of Christ.

So which is it? Is the power of the Holy Spirit so great that when we put our faith in Christ we instantaneously become a new creation? Or are we just baby disciples learning to find our way and learning to take off the grave clothes of our old lives? The Apostle Paul had a pretty profound conversion. There was no gradual process for him. But we know that some of those whom Paul brought to faith in Christ took a little longer to come around. In Philippians 4, we learn of two ladies who evidently were entrenched in a pretty stiff quarrel.

So what are we to make of all this? Well, I do know this.

1. A lot of services that are called evangelistic really do nothing more than make a bunch of baby Christians and there is not much done to follow up and help these young believers grow in their faith.

2. It's not my place to question whether or not a person's faith in Christ is true or not. Last time I checked, it was only God who knows a persons heart.

3. While I may not know whether a person's faith is real or superficial, I do have a call on my life to spur others on to good works in Christ Jesus.

So what do you think? Is following Christ a one-time miracle, or is it the beginning of a life-long process? Can a stripper be a Christian and still keep her job?

What is Retweet Evangelism?

I got on Twitter about 6 months ago. Twitter is an amazing tool for passing on information. Several times a day, I would read quotes from many different thinkers and think "Wow, that's good." Then, shortly after, I found that I felt this huge urge to try to be as profound as my favorite tweeps. (Since when was Christianity ever about me anyway? But I digress...). I felt I had to come up with stuff that was as philosophical as @rickwarren , @maxlucado , or @donmilleris . But what I realized is that Twitter is as much about re-tweeting as it is about being profound. Many of the Twitter accounts with huge blocks of followers have this huge following not because they are so enlightened, but because they are following people who are that way and are willing to pass that information along (RT).
This is not a lot different from sharing the gospel, is it? Take something good that's been passed on to you, and pass it along to someone else, right? I grew up in a tradition where evangelism was a big deal (and it should be). But we were always learning new "gimmicks" for sharing the gospel. I remember a T-shirt I had once that said, "Ask me. I have the Answer." "The Answer" was a gospel tract that unfolded in the shape of a cross and told people how they could put their faith in Christ. In theory, someone was supposed to read the shirt, ask me about it, and I was supposed to show them the tract and five minutes later angels would be rejoicing in heaven. I don't know if it ever worked. As I remember, every time I wore the shirt, I never had the tract with me-typical 7th grader! While these approaches aren't necessarily wrong, I have to wonder have we as a church made evangelism more difficult than it is? When Christ instructed the disciples (us) in the Great Commission, he didn't say "Come up with some new ways to communicate all of this stuff I've shared with you. Be original and profound and make people scratch their heads after you talk to them." He said, "Go make disciples, and teach them to obey everything I've commanded you." (my loose paraphrase) To be very modern, I think he might have said, "Just follow me and re-tweet." I like to call this concept "Re-tweet Evangelism."
Sharing Christ with others doesn't have to be as complicated as we make it. We've heard the words of the Master. All we have to do is re-tweet (in the real world) what's been passed on to us (and live our lives like we believe it). If you want people to follow you in life; if you want them to come to you for answers, don't feel the pressure to be original or different. Just give people Jesus. Not someone else's version of Jesus. But Jesus. Simply re-tweet.

See related post: A Different Approach to Evangelism

A Different Approach to Evangelism

Last week, I went to a United Methodist ministry conference centered on evangelism. Now, there was a time, when I thought any sentence that had "Methodist" and "evangelism" in it was not to be taken seriously. Since the United Methodist church did not throw around the "evangelism-y" lingo I was accustomed to growing up--passing out tracts, four spiritual laws, the Roman Road, or knocking on doors--I assumed it was just not an important concept. Especially since Methodists seemed to spend so much time taking care of physical needs like building wheelchair ramps and buying mosquito nets.

I learned something, though. I was mistaken. It's not that Methodists don't do evangelism. It's that they do it differently. You see, I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church. I went to a "leadership" camp when I was in 7th grade that taught me how to share Christ with others using a little square tract that unfolded into the shape of a cross. As I grew older, I learned about other ways to share God's plan of salvation--most of which required memorizing statements or scriptures and then worrying about how to work those canned statements into conversation. And I'm not saying these were all bad. I certainly learned what Scripture teaches about God's plan to draw me into fellowhsip with him through the death of his son, Jesus Christ. But it always seemed sort of forceful.

In the Methodist church, the reason we don't talk about evangelism as much is because we are just expected to DO evangelism. This doesn't mean quoting scripture or knocking on doors. What we are called to do is come along side those we know who are living outside of God's kingdom and establish a relationship with them. Through establishing that relationship and letting those people know that we care about them, we then have an opportunity to share; not a tract, or a canned statement of faith; but rather a story of how this God of the universe has totally wrecked our lives in such a glorious way! The picture above is called "Offer them Christ" and is a depiction of John Wesley (the founder of Methodism) sending off Francis Coke (who really got the Methodist movement going in America) to America. That is what Christians are called to do, right? Offer them Christ. Not a canned speech. Not a booklet or a tract. Offer them Christ.

I'm thankful for all the things I've learned. I'm also aware that thousands of people have come to faith in Christ because they picked up a tract or someone quoted them a series of scriptures. But where is the relationship in that? What happens after the tract or booklet is dropped off? What happens when the conversation is over? That's where relationship is key. Paul said he became all things to all people that by ALL MEANS might save some. Our approach to sharing the gospel doesn't really matter as long as it is founded on relationship. It is my prayer that we can all learn to establish relationships with those who may not be living in the Kingdom of God. What are your thoughts on sharing Christ with others?