:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

I’m an evangelical who believes in the importance of evangelism.

To say that another way, I’m a Gospel person who believes in the importance of sharing the Gospel.

To say that yet another way, I’m a Good News person, who believes in the importance of sharing the Good News.

The Greek word euangelion is translated in various ways depending on context as the Gospel or the Good News. Christians have adopted the title evangelicals because they believe in this Good News and believe in sharing the good news or evangelizing.

We could use Jesus’ definition of the Good News or Gospel: “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Or there’s Paul’s statement that fleshes the Gospel out: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.”

So far as I can tell, Jesus presents the big picture of what’s happening: God’s Kingdom rule is coming down to earth, offering salvation to all who repent and believe. Paul provides us with the means by which all of this happened.

We could sum it up as a statement like this: God has conquered sin and death, making us right with God and bringing God’s rule to earth and even placing his Spirit in the lives of those who believe to create a redeemed people here and now and for all eternity. We could argue over the exact wording of this, but the general idea here is sharing a good message about a God who is coming to earth, conquering sin and death, and offering us freedom from the same.

When I read Jesus sharing this message, I see him proclaiming the message, demonstrating the message through miracles and various acts of mercy, and telling stories and parables, many containing cryptic messages.

Proclaiming, demonstrating, and telling stories: that’s what I see in scripture. There are times when people are called to repent of their sins, warned about God’s wrath, and their beliefs are challenged, however, the bulk of the accounts I find tend to deal with one of these three verbs.

Of late our evangelism has focused on changing people, challenging their beliefs, and making sure they convert to Christianity. The goal is typically converting people, proselytizing all who do not believe in Christ. While we want people to repent and believe in the Good News, are we missing something by focusing on proselytizing rather than proclaiming, demonstrating, and telling? Are there nuances and differences to explore?

I’d like to spend some time in the coming week discussing what it means to share the Gospel, whether sharing the Gospel is the same as proselytizing, and essentially how we can share the Good News in the same way as Jesus.

For additional reading, there’s Reimagining Evangelism, The Mystic Way of Evangelism, and the Four Circles.