Is Evangelism the Pinnacle of the Christian Life?
Monday, September 5th, 2011
I recently came across a couple of posts on Matt Redmond’s blog concerning the place of evangelism in the Christian life entitled “The Silence of Paul on Evangelism”.
He writes:
A few weeks ago I heard someone say something to the effect of, “You cannot/shouldn’t consider yourself a Christian if you are not sharing your faith/practicing evangelism.” And it really got me to thinking. Something felt wrong about it. But I couldn’t put my finger on it.
On one level this sounded right. It accorded with almost all I had ever heard growing up in the midst of evangelicalism. So it sounded right. Or at least familiar. But something about the statement just ‘felt’ really wrong. It felt wrong as a fact. (Like saying the capital of Alabama is Birmingham.) And it felt wrong morally. (You should look down on everyone who does not live in Birmingham.)
So I quickly went through Paul’s letters to the churches in my mind as much as I could. Could I think of a place where he commands the members of these churches to share the gospel – to tell unbelievers about the gospel? I was pretty shocked to not be able to think of any place where he does anything like this.
Nothing was said, of course. But I filed it away in the front of my mental filing cabinet. My mental filing cabinet is grey, if you must know. Nixon administration grey.
Over the next few days I looked into the Epistles. Really, I thought I would find something. I mean, all the importance we place on evangelism and the urgency we show in preaching and teaching and writing on it, should show up in Paul, right? RIGHT?
I found nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zip.
Paul never commands the ordinary believers who belong to the churches to evangelize. There is no call for sharing your faith. There is no call for witnessing. He never even encourages it. And he never rebukes them for not doing it. He tells them to stay away from orgies and to practice kindness and to live quiet lives but there are no commands to evangelize. Implications? Maybe. But never outright commands.
He follows this post with another one here in which he summarizes his thoughts about the emphasis on evangelism in many quarters of the church and what the Scriptures say and don’t say about the subject.
A couple of great posts that have caused me to meditate deeply on the subject, and well worth your time. Read both of Matt’s posts. I will have a follow up post later in the week working through some of the implications he brings up.
By Pat K
Thanks for passing this along and thanks to Matt Redmond for such clear articulation.
It seems that you are too aquainted with the great command which was given by the Lord himself, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So if Jesus said it to the deciples why would Paul have to say it, he was not the Lord. He is not the one who gives the church its marching orders. Matthew 28:16-20
New International Version (NIV)
The Great Commission
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” HAVE YOU NOT READ THIS. You sir have to go back and read again.
Joel, please go and read the entire post from which Pat pulled the quote. Then read the second one to which he linked. Do you really think we here don’t know about the Great Commission? I think you need to know how Mr. Redmond handles that particular subject before commenting on it here.
Also, I should note what Pat commented in the comments section of Mr. Redmond’s second post on this subject – the Great Commission was given to the Apostles, not the church at large. There is much to consider here.
Why would Jesus give a command to 11 men who he knew would be dead in a few years and say that’s it. When they die no more evangelists, no more preaching, that is ludicrous. Now sense at all. You are the religious leaders stopping the people from going into worship and also you youraelf are not going in to worship……………..
Look at the photo used in Pat’s blog post. Do you believe that ALL Christians should be doing that as their vocation or else they’re failing in their faith? That’s the point here. Too many are taught exactly that and end up ‘failing’ only to walk away from Christ (or at least the church).
Make sure you read the linked posts – both of them – before coming back here to discuss this, please.
Joel,
Calm down there, brother. Neither Matt nor I are against evangelism. It has just been wrenched out of biblical context in many quarters of the church, and often used a either a club to pound on people or a measure of how much you are serving the Lord. It was meant to be neither, and the discussion to return to some kind of balance begins with what the scriptures actually say, and in this case don’t say.
Of course I am familiar with the Great Commission, and will be discussing that in my next post.
Also, be careful what you charge us with, lest you become guilty of bearing false witness against us. Read completely the posts linked and watch for my follow up post.
Every christian is called to be a witness for christ and win, souls. Do you know why there is an affront to witnessing it is because the church is luke warm, and powerless, the same power that fell on the day of pentecost, the church has not recieved and do not want. Thats right the baptism of the holy spirit, have you recieved the holy spirit since you believed.
“So I quickly went through Paul’s letters to the churches in my mind as much as I could. Could I think of a place where he commands the members of these churches to share the gospel – to tell unbelievers about the gospel? I was pretty shocked to not be able to think of any place where he does anything like this.”
Pat,
This brings back old memories, not too old and no good ones. I can recall all the guilt that such is implied upon someone in this. It is very heavy in the SB church both sides of the arminian/Calvinism mixture. It at length becomes a slavish bondage when it is incorporated into the terror of “how do I know I’m really saved/born again, elect”. Back then I’d do anything, going way out of my normal comfort zone to “evangelize”, cold calls, cold door knocks, you name it – two three times a week, at work, walking the streets, family, etc…. Most the time it just irritated folks. It got to the point where one just wished one would be martyred and get it all over with, I can “joke” about it now a little but back then it was serious soul darkness and suffering.
But I slowly grew disenchanted with it because I noted that few others, clergy in particular, were beating the streets at the level we were yet they were very assured of their salvation. It’s hard to follow for long a program of “do as I say not as I do”. Secondly, the results. Before engaging in the various evangelizing programs like “Share Jesus Without Fear”, “F.A.I.T.H”, “Evangelism Explosion, etc… (we did them all) there was always this advertising of all these wonderful powerful spirit filled conversion stories. I mean its more than car salesman do. So one gets jazzed up for it. But then after paralleling the mentors THEN seeing the after the fact (beating the streets) “celebration time” (usually same day/hours after a street door to door event) I noticed that the stories never reflected the reality and were embellished at best and down right false at worse. E.g. During one street evangelism/mission trip to Utah to Mormons there were tons of evangelicals like us out there, mostly baptist. No church was directly connected or coordinating with another, just one group from X among many groups from Y, Z, P, D, and Q. I think there were 8 “conversions” (did some form of praying the prayer while we were out there). None out of our churches efforts, one mormon missionary was curious and talked. When we got back the number of “conversions” reported for our efforts was “8”. That’s to gin up excitement and that number got reported to the SB Convention as part of their stats on such. You talk about disillusioned, I thought, “Wow, your kidding me, this is all fake” (but you don’t want to say that because you are in wonder of “am I saved” and such a negative reaction proves you might not be, better to feign excitement publically along with everyone else. That’s just one account. The point is is that it all gets fluffed a LOT and in most cases does not reflect any truth whatsoever (another reason Lutherans ought not feel like they need to imitate, its fake don’t fall for it).
But I can recall, getting back to your quote being very frustrated with Paul and the other NT writers because they didn’t spell out how to do evangelism like these programs did. I recall, like you, of combing through the NT for answers in “just how does Paul and the others say we should do evangelism”. I recall my disappointment and frustration in not finding anything at all. Almost thinking, “Come on guys (the apostles) what gives”, not recognizing at the time I was trying to make them say something they didn’t and was a modern fallacy, evangelism driven by the fear “if you don’t you might really love the Lord and not be saved, truly reborn or elect (remember no sacraments or real sacraments for you –as a matter of fact the sacraments “kill” evangelism we’d kind of say and teach, that’s why they (Lutherans) don’t do evangelism goes the thinking, they are falsely assured. This goes hand in hand with the fear mongering about “you might not be a Christian if you don’t do evangelism AND not just not do it but you MUST enjoy it, try that out to be assured of election!). But I recall all that talk about Baptism and stuff Paul and Peter were doing superfluously getting in the way and thinking, “yea, yea, but what about evangelism”, being in that doctrinal mind set.
How Joel, unbeknown to himself (its exactly what I would have said/done) shows just how much the evangelical/baptist church has procured scripture and set forth a concept not actually given. The “Great Commission” is really not the “Great Commission” (though it includes an element of commissioning). Rather, as I learned later, that passage is the institution of Baptism (and catechism in the faith).
The two go hand in hand, the two errors. If baptism doesn’t really save you and one is not regenerate via such, then that passage is no longer that “to you”, rather it becomes a passage for a “great commission” while infants are left unbaptized. One doctrinal error feeds the next. It also, why, as I said in my previous post that as a SB I/we would have viewed Lutherans uninterested in so called “evangelism”, that assurance driven by the sacraments, goes the thinking, kills (what I/we would have viewed as) evangelism. Thus, “evangelism” becomes this kind of new conscience Law that drives itself by threatening “if you don’t and don’t ENJOY it on top of it all you might not be saved, truly reborn, converted or elect (depending on your doctrinal moorings, arminian leanding or Calvinist leaning baptist).
Do you see the flip that goes in all that? It’s all connected and its what this Matt guy is alluding to.
My question with the argument, “The Great Commission was written to the disciples, not to the church at large” is this: Wouldn’t that mean that the writings of the Gospels are not for us as Christians since the church was not developed yet?
Brian,
You asked, “Wouldn’t that mean that the writings of the Gospels are not for us as Christians since the church was not developed yet?”
I’m not entirely sure I understand your point but the Gospels were written after the establishment of the ‘church’ (regardless of your theology) for the church. So to answer your question, “No, it does not mean the Gospels are not for us.”
Also, I’ve been seeing this blog post on InternetMonk regarding this same subject and I wanted to post it here for everyone’s perusal as well.
http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/imonk-classic-wretched-urgency%E2%80%94the-grace-of-god-or-hamsters-on-a-wheel
Generally, I find that those who have the most difficulty with this are those who have no understanding of the doctrine of the ministry — namely that Jesus has instituted an office into which He calls men for the express purpose of preaching, both at home and abroad, and not all Christians have this office.
Thus, the Great Commission, as given to the Apostolic office, continues in that office to this day, for the office of preaching, and the Apostolic office are the same office. Thus Paul speaks of his fellow-elders who, together with him, have the administration of the office of the Gospel.
Those who are so called into this office have, as part of that office, the duty to evangelize. Those who are not called into this office, have no such duty except that which is common to every Christian: to live (and thus love) as befits the Gospel, and to be ready to give an answer to every man.
Martin, your post begs the question,”How do you know who is in the Apostolic office?” So exactly what IS the “apostolic office”? Where in the Bible do you find such an office?
Tina,
I am not saying that there is a separate “office of Apostle” today. Just the opposite: I am saying that when Jesus sent the Apostles to preach in the Great Commission, and gave them the office in John 20, that IS the preaching office, which today is filled by pastors. We can see this plainly from the Epistles of Paul and Peter, how they make no distinction between themselves (who were called directly by Jesus), and the other elders, evangelists, bishops (who were called indirectly by Jesus, through the church). They may differ in their spheres of activity (Apostles had general oversite of all the churches, pastors today do not), but to them, it is the same office: that of the public administration of the Word and Sacraments.
At the same time, they DO make a distinction between the preachers, and their hearers. So they do not place all Christians into the preaching office.
The Apostolic office has now passed since there are no more eye witnesses of Jesus, but the distinction between the preaching office, and the laity still remains. God still calls some out of the assembly of His Church, to preach the Gospel at home and abroad. These have the ministry, and the vocation to evangelize. Christians in general do not.
Cf. 1 Cor. 12:27f., Eph. 4:11f., Col. 4:17, Acts 20:28f., 1 Pet. 5:1, Rom. 10:15, Titus 1:5f., 1 Tim. 3:1f., 2 Tim. 2:4
Again it goes back to what the Matt. 28 passage is seen as “the Great Commission” or the institution of baptism similar to the institution of the Lord’s Supper.
Thus, what one finds at length in the two differing confessions is this:
Under non-sacramental churches, it is called the “Great Commission” and what happens, on the ground and in reality, is at length the church gets turned inside out like a shirt in which about the only chance one actually has to hear at least a smidgen of Gospel is in outreach and where one will certainly hear none to zero is within the walls of the church but rather “law” that “gums you to death”. So really what should be “the church” is really on the outside and what should really be the law is on the inside. It all becomes inverted and “groping around” via the law, de facto, as the way to salvation is largely preached, taught, implied within the church.
In the sacramental church what one finds is that (or at least it should/better be) within the four walls of the church, as our pastor told us, is chalked FULL of forgiveness of sin in the preaching, teaching, liturgy, sacraments, etc… The “groping around” via the law as a way to salvation is on the outside.
When I was still a Baptist and a good Baptist pastor friend of mine use to always joke and mean it seriously too, “If you want to hear the Gospel in our churches, Baptist, you better pretend constantly to be an unbeliever because that’s the ONLY time you will hear what Jesus did FOR YOU.” And that’s a sad but true reality.
To use an analogy, the church is like a house for my family, the shelter of the Gospel. Outside is the law storming and raging. People should be fleeing from the storm (law) to the shelter (gospel), but ‘great commission’ churches which really don’t GIVE the Gospel TO you FOR you invert all that and put the storm inside the house and the sunshine outside so that you have to flee the house to get away from the storm.