The apostles of Jesus Christ were unique – unique in their experience of the Jesus of history, unique in their sight of the risen Lord, unique in their commission by Christ’s authority and unique in their inspiration by Christ’s Spirit. We may not exalt our opinions over theirs or claim that our authority is as great as theirs. For their opinion and authority are Christ’s. If we would bow to His authority, we must therefore bow to theirs. As He Himself said, “He who receives you receives Me” (Mt. 10:40; Jn. 13:20).
John Stott

What Is Evangelism

What Is Evangelism WHAT IS “EVANGELISM”? (A further response) By Calvin Culver

. I’ve heard it said that Christ took care of physical needs first before moving on to spiritual matters. To that, I have no argument, if we are speaking in a strictly chronological sense. However, do you believe that Christ considered physical needs somewhere below spiritual in priority, as a matter of secondary importance which mainly concerned him as an item to be taken care of before the important stuff of spiritual instruction could be properly begun? Alternatively, may I inquire as to what you believe “evangelism” to be? Are social-action groups such as World Vision, Compassion International, and the like doing evangelism when they dig a well, or feed a starving family, or work toward a peaceful solution of a racewar ? Or is evangelism only being done when we teach people the Word of God, and “lead them to Christ”?
. Let me try to explain by way of analogy. I look at evangelism – or salvation, or redemption – as akin to a marriage. A good, solid marriage has many facets to it; it involves love (as understood in phrases such as “falling in love” or “I love you”), commitment, faithfulness, honesty and of course (for the Christian) a relationship with God, along with many other factors (those of you who are married certainly know more about this than I). It also involves a lot of old-fashioned hard work. Each facet of a marriage works in harmony with every other, and the proper practicing of marriage involves every aspect of our beings.
. When we discuss marriage we can certainly isolate various facets of the phenomenon for academic purposes, discussing love, or faithfulness or honesty in isolation from all the others, but when it comes to practicing marriage no such separation can take place. We cannot say “Today I’m going to love my wife. Tomorrow I’ll practice commitment. Next week I’ll spend the entire week being honest with her.” A marriage run like that certainly wouldn’t last very long. . Again, every facet must be present to have a proper marriage. Certainly, a wife can love her husband, but if she’s simultaneously loving another man on the side then her marriage lacks faithfulness and it is defective. Similarly, a marriage which possesses all characteristics in the proper balance, but lacks a foundation in Christ is also deficient. A husband who is committed, faithful and honest but neglects to love his wife is not practicing proper marriage. And the spouse who reads all the books there are to read on marriage, knows all that can be known about all facets of the enterprise, how they interact, what the proper balance should be, where things go wrong and how to fix them, yet doesn’t put into practice any of it cannot really be said to be engaged in marriage at all. Marriage, then, is a very holistic enterprise, probably the most holistic undertaking two human beings can ever attempt together. . Redemption is the same way. Redemption involves many facets – a proper relationship with the Creator, a love of justice, a practicing of compassion, and many other things besides. Salvation is the holistic phenomenon par excellence, involving, surrounding, permeating and expressing itself through every facet of our lives and beings, as they relate not only to God, but equally to our neighbors and the world as well. To properly practice redemption one must practice it in all it facets.
. To be sure, we can certainly isolate that part of our redemption which involves our relationship with God for academic purposes, but a redemption which practices only that is defective. The working out of a proper redemption in our lives involves such things as regular, substantive devotional times and going to church/sunday school, reading the Bible, driving the little old lady next door down to pick up her social security (and even supplementing it out of our own pockets if need be), helping the drunk lying in the gutter, opposing injustices around us, being concerned with environmental issues (as good stewards), and much, much more. A redemption which lacks any of these facets is a defective redemption, improperly practiced and deficient.
. Thus, for example, James can say “True religion … is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress”; Micah can say “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?”; and God himself says of king Josiah, “Did not [he] do justice and righteousness? ….He plead the cause of the afflicted and needy; ….Is not that what it means to know Me?” This, then, is what Scripture means when it talks of the coming of the kingdom of God, or the bringing of something under the Lordship of Christ. The kingdom of God is simply the rule of God, not only in the hearts and minds of His subjects, but also within interpersonal relationships, and even over social and economic structures, as well. . Ok, all fine and good. Up to this point most everyone probably agrees with me. It is this last point, however, that gets a bit sticky, and here is where I expect the most criticism. What then is evangelism? Evangelism is the establishing of the Lordship of Christ, it is what we do to participate in the onward march of the kingdom of God, IN ALL ITS ASPECTS. Thus, anything we as Christians do to help further God’s kingdom is part of evangelism (or, the mission of the Church), and therefore, digging a fresh-water well in Ethiopia, housing an Asian refugee, or providing a job for a south-side black man to support his family, are all just as much a part of evangelism as the activities of a church-planter in Paris or the mass crusades of an American evangelist, because they, too, are promoting the establishment of godly justice, mercy and compassion in the earth. . In anticipation of one criticism here, let me reiterate: these things are PART of evangelism; they are NOT “evangelism” (that is, not in its entirety). Evangelism, in its entirety, involves and transforms every aspect of the human experience, redeeming it (that is, buying it back again) and placing it under the Lordship of Jesus, in all its multifaceted complexity. This, then, is the true nature of evangelism, and this is the true mission of the Church.

Computers for Christ – Chicago