Deal or No Deal
discover expansive evangelism
By Jim Henderson
Evangelism has been reduced to a transaction.
Gutted of its beauty and mystery
Technicians use it to control their urge for rightness
Motivational speakers to manipulate emotions
Dealmakers to sell Jesus
God is leveraged
His soul buried under layers of make up.
Too Subtle to Sloganize
identity
empathy
seeing the other
a voice for the voiceless
personal service and historical justice.
attention
an invitation to be known
connecting
These begin to capture the hidden beauty of evangelism
Why Do You Evangelize?
I am often asked this question.
For some it is a TEST question
For others, impassioned lament
God Likes You
I want people to know the name of the God who likes them
This is my answer.
Admittedly contextualized
Admittedly insufficient for technicians, motivational speakers or deal makers
The Marketplace of Ideas
Evangelism is pitched by various constituencies to mean different things
These ideas compete for our attention, loyalty and pocketbooks
What will replace the current evangelism as transaction idea going forward?
Three Streams of Evangelism
Personal
People need to experience God and follow him
They need to feel a sense of responsibility toward him
They need to notice him inviting them into his heart
Local
We need to go into our world not just the world
We need to do what’s doable
We need to become the spiritual concierges of our communities
Global
We use power for the powerless
We give voice to the voiceless
We are political, not politicians
Expansive Evangelism
Evangelism is too exciting, too interesting and too important to allow it to be reduced to transaction. That approach trivializes the gospel and implies that we should escape this world rather than following in the footsteps of our Lord and Master who came to bring the kingdom of God to earth and to make this world a better place. Evangelism advocates for advancing the values of God and seeing the so called kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ.
December 5th, 2006 · 21 Comments
Categories: Doable Evangelism
Bruce Lofland said
am December 5 2006 @ 10:09 am
I agree with your thinking about evangelism. There is too much counting going on when people are “saved”.
payne said
am December 5 2006 @ 10:36 am
How does one become a “spiritual concierge”? I’ve always had difficulty telling people where God wants them to go or what they should do to be spiritual (this from a 5-year evangelical missionary). Is there a class for this? An internship?
I really appreciate your distinction of “our world” vs. “the world”. That one word makes so much difference in our experience.
Keith said
am December 5 2006 @ 12:42 pm
Thank you, Jim
Duane said
am December 5 2006 @ 3:20 pm
Jim,
I like your thoughts and the spirit you share of interest in sharing God’s love in real relationships rather than as sterile mechanics!
I often run into Christians who have a very “cognative” approach to conversion. I think it is better to see conversion as God’s work on the soul and the mind is engaged according to the person’s development and ability.
Doug Pollock said
am December 5 2006 @ 4:06 pm
Jim,
I wonder if we find ourselves having to “reimagine evangelism” as you have been so effective at doing because the business world and it’s bottom line mentality has evangelized the church more than we have evangelized it. When a community is short on results and becomes desperate to see success, it will very likely turn to the business world where results show up on a balance sheet, and in the board room. I wonder if evangelism has been gutted of it’s mystery and beauty because ministeries feel the pressure to speak the language of the business world if they want the dollars they are trying to raise to keep going. I’m wondering how the rest of my comrades attempt to explain how we’ve ended up in the place that Jim has described so well. Just wondering in Ohio?
Jim said
am December 5 2006 @ 6:34 pm
By”noticing” and being attentitive to the needs of people in your immediate sphere of influence.
Go to a hotel and from a distance observe how the concierege interacts with the guests. Interview them about the importance of paying attention to the little things, and the kinds of things people get anxious about.
Being a spiritual conceirge in our community means “we take responsibility” to attend to others needs without requiring them to return the favor.
Jim said
am December 5 2006 @ 6:38 pm
The marriage of Ministry and money have become complelty acceptable and unquestioned in the church. Evangelizing IS a livelihood for many which makes it sound like we are personally attacking people who find themselves in that line of work when we begin to dismantle it.
My personal feeling is that money and ministry need much more separation than we have come to see as normal. The answer is not so much dismantling what exists as to encourage the development of a thousand other approaches.
Rabbi Brian said
am December 6 2006 @ 9:14 am
As usual, I like what you have to say. Are we strange bedfellow? Perhaps. But when we look at the common goal of helping being find and be with (the) God (of their understanding), we are just brothers.
With love,
Rabbi Brian
Adam said
am December 6 2006 @ 10:04 am
Evangelism advocates for advancing the values of God and seeing the so called kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ.
Helen said
am December 6 2006 @ 2:19 pm
Rabbi Brian, it’s good to see you here!
Adam – I agree. Voluntary acceptance is the only way.
Jim said
am December 6 2006 @ 8:00 pm
Rabbi Brian writes an ezine called Religion Outside The Box- google him
Mardell said
am December 7 2006 @ 6:19 am
Thank you, Jim. A little story: Yesterday at lunchtime I was at the supermarket and the lady in front of me didn’t have enough money to pay for a $2.25 purchase. I humbly opened my wallet and payed for her little bag of food. She turned and hugged me and in very broken English kept saying over and over again, she was going to give to God. What a delightful moment! She totally got it, it wasn’t from me but from God and she should rightly give thanks and glory to Him. We were both evangelized and understood that the kingdon is truly “at hand”.
P.S. This is the first time I’ve ever posted on any site, so if it’s really bad, forgiveness and grace is greatly appreciated!
Jim said
am December 7 2006 @ 8:41 am
Mardell
You OAed her. To learn more about Off The Maps approach to connecting with the people Jesus misses most check out our other blog called Ordinary Attempts. (see link on blog list in left hand column up above)
This small, doable and decidedly human action is the future for evangelism. It is what I call “really personal evangelism”. Regarding her inability to completely understand what you were doing yet it still having incredible value in Gods sight read Matthew 25 where Jesus “counted” acts of kindness that even the people doing them didnt see.
Helen said
am December 7 2006 @ 12:09 pm
Mardell I love that you said this: “We were both evangelized”
Thanks for pointing out that when we do something kind for someone else we often end up benefitting as much as they do.
Russ said
am December 7 2006 @ 1:01 pm
Perhaps one reason that some reduce evangelism to a transaction is because they also conceptualize salvation as an event that happened in a certain place at a particular time. But if salvation is correctly perceived as the beginning of a journey to a destiny that we all have the opportunity to pursue and realize, then the paradigm of presenting this great truth in the context of a mere transaction is a grave disservice to all.
Jon said
am December 9 2006 @ 3:07 am
Amen! Take my ego out of evangelism. It’s not me, but Christ to be glorified.
Let me ‘do’ this small act and get out of the way so that another can experience God’s voice. I don’t want to hear how God used me, just that I was useful to God.
When Jesus met the woman at the well, I believe he was exemplifying do-able evangelism. I believe when the woman later told others, …’He told me all the things that I have done’ (John 4:39), it was the result of Jesus connecting with a spiritually sick person with much emotional pain and history (she’d had 5 five husbands and the man she was living with was not her husband). This woman had disconnected from her own soul, yet Christ was able to connect with her in conversation over time by Jacob’s well.
Pam Hogeweide said
am December 9 2006 @ 10:16 am
Well said. This perfectly describes the Americanized version of the message of Jesus.
All this evangelism talk makes me think about H – E – Double Toothpicks. Is fire insurance a huge factor for churched Americans to compel others to follow Christ…or else?
Kristi L. said
am December 9 2006 @ 1:56 pm
Russ,
Richard Peace has put out an interesting book on the “process conversion,” called Conversion in the New Testament: Paul and the Twelve. It might be of interest to you.
Jim Kane said
am December 9 2006 @ 3:01 pm
Jim,
I am almost 49 years old and I have been in parish ministry for nearly 20 years. I resonate with this line of reasoning. I felt this way 30 years when I was in High School! Thanks for ‘giving voice’ to this perspective!
Eliza said
am December 9 2006 @ 10:37 pm
I’m posting mostly to try to undo the errant quote line…but have to say: Jim, you are quite a poet!
Jim said
am December 10 2006 @ 12:19 pm
Jim, it frustrates me to hear that you have not been affirmed for 30 years and have had to come to your own conclusions, which makes your story sound just like mine. I hope that in our next 30 we can leverage this learning curve and make some serious changes to the evangelism paradigm as well as affirm the hunches or younger people who are 20 years our junior
Eliza, I am so not a poet – but you are very kind