The Logic of Evangelism
William J. Abraham
Reflections written by Ted Hutchin
July 2007
This book is written in a very academic style, which at first is rather off-putting. But perseverance pays handsome dividend as the author develops his argument. He also has two interesting comments which grab attention, and force the reader to think right at the start. For example “Surely it is obvious that there would not have been a Christian community if there had not been any evangelism; nor might there be one in the future” (p4). This has echoes with the comment of Tom Wright that Christianity is one generation away from oblivion. Abraham goes on to say that “…Christianity has been a part of the fabric of the West for so long that it has been assumed that Christians do not really need to evangelize”. (p4). For Abraham this lies at the heart of the problem facing the notion of evangelism, but what is lacking is a coherent theology. What evangelism needs is a clear theology, one that is rooted in a clear and practical understanding. Part of the issue lies in the absence of a full definition, a lack of integration into mainstream theology, and also in the way in which evangelism is seen by many today. The impact of predominately US evangelists operating in a rather over-the-top manner where the primary focus seems to be a combination of money and mass emotion results in an opinion that evangelism is for the slightly weird. At the same time Abraham argues strongly for a new, and fresh, approach to the understanding of evangelism, one that does have academic standing rather than a similarity with a fast food chain!
In one paragraph Abraham sums this up by saying: “Reflection on evangelism forces us to wrestle with what the essence of Christianity is an with such topics as conversion, faith ad repentance; it leads us to come to terms with the nature of the kingdom of God and the place of the kingdom in the ministry of Jesus; it leads us to think deeply about the nature of baptism and of Christian initiation; it encourages us to explore the relation between the intellect and the emotion in Christian commitment; it draws us to examine how far the faith of the early centuries can be expressed in the modern world; it makes us tackle anew the nature of apologetics; it makes us focus on haw far, if at all, theistic proposals are amenable to rational persuasion” (p11) And this is just the start!! Of course the impact of the post-modern understanding of our world helps in an odd way. With the decline of the concept of “Christendom” and the changes taking place within the established churches, it is clear to most that something has to change. Falling membership, less and less impact on public morality and thinking, greater marginalisation in most Western communities and a sense of being out of touch, has led many within the church to re-examine just what the church is all about, and to recognise that perhaps the only way forward is to rediscover the concepts and practical applications of evangelism, not in the tarnished form of recent years, but in the vibrant, exciting and challenging spirit of the early church.
Abraham throughout the book examines a number of themes, The Gospel, Proclamation, and Church Growth and so on. In each theme he covers the key writers with an analysis of their position and reflects upon that position with respect to his own, and the desire to place evangelism onto a higher plane of recognition and understanding. It is the lack of any real academic debate that drives this book, based on the importance Abraham attaches to the whole issue and concept of evangelism. The role of evangelism, in the mind of Abraham, is clear, and it is the fact that, to the author, this role has not been taken seriously which lies at the heart of the whole book.
The place where Abraham starts is with the Gospel – which is not too bad a place to start! For Abraham “the kingdom of God is absolutely central to the ministry of Jesus and to the mission of the disciples that launched the Christian movement into history” (p17) which means that the range of analysis must include the concept of eschatology. Abraham argues strongly that the early Christians considered that the new age had already started. He argues “The witness of the evangelists to Jesus is that the dynamic rule of God has appeared in Jesus’ life.” (p24). Abraham cites the work of the early apostles, the imagery of feasting in the form of the Eucharist as all part of the realisation that the kingdom of God is already here, not in its fullest meaning, that is yet to come, but it has started. For Abraham, the power of God has broken into history in a quite unique way, and is a pledge of the full eschatological kingdom which is yet to dawn. As he puts it “God’s kingdom has come in the past; it is here in the present; it will come in the future” (p32) is a clear statement of what it is we are proclaiming. This is, to Abraham, what the early church believed, and what we should also believe today. This coming rule of God creates a profound crisis for the individual states Abraham; “It calls for a death to the old life and a resurrection to the new life in the Spirit; it involves a radical re-working of one’s self-understanding and a decisive turning from a life of idolatry to one of service to one’s neighbour”. (p34) For Abraham, evangelism is “at the very least a continuation of vital elements in the work of the early apostles, prophets and martyrs who found themselves dramatically caught up in the reign of God in the world” (p39)
So here is the Good News about Jesus and the kingdom of God which we as evangelists today preach, and proclaim. We are about telling people about the kingdom that has arrived, and the kingdom that is yet to come, and all driven by a combination of the grace of God, the death and resurrection of Jesus and the gifts of the Holy Spirit – not a bad message at all, indeed this must be the best message any messenger can ever have been given!
And so we are charged with proclamation and Abraham highlights a key distinction between mission and evangelism, the former is focused on the outflow of the love of God in and through our life, word and deed, evangelism is the spreading of the good news by proclamation. Abraham then goes on to make an important statement, he states “The task of the evangelist is to proclaim the gospel, to announce the good news of the kingdom, and to communicate the message to as many people as possible; others, such as teachers, priests, pastors and the like are to be responsible for the work of instruction within the church”. (p46) This makes a clear distinction abut the respective roles of people within the body of church. Clearly the various roles have to work together, they have to know the common goal, they have to dovetail their activities so that the overall message remains the same. This does not absolve either side from responsibility – they both must understand the causal relationships between all these roles, no room here for people to furrow their own plough.
The evangelist focuses on the message, and it must remain at all times true to the content of the Gospel, thus it “focuses on what God has done in Christ, on the offers of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and on the need for repentance” (p47). According to Abraham this also means that the evangelist is not focusing on a numbers game, once the listener has heard the message they are free to choose, or deny, that message. It may be that God will bring the listener into the kingdom at some later stage – this is not for the evangelist to worry about – he/she must simply proclaim the message. One further point that Abraham makes here, amongst many others, is that evangelists are not necessarily drawn from the clergy, many will be lay people with a real calling for the role, of course it can be argued that anyone who proclaims the essentials of the gospel is an evangelist, and Abraham accepts this fully, but the real issue here is that the church recognises that evangelists will come from many walks of life and will comprise both clergy and lay people.
If people are operating successfully as evangelists then it is reasonable to expect that the church will grow. Indeed many churches have evangelical activity simply to boost numbers. Now this is not necessarily wrong – but evangelists do not have to have church growth at the top of their agenda. Much recent research has suggested that people come to church, and join, more as a result of friendship that some overt evangelical activity. Abraham considers this to be a difficult area for evangelists. However he does argue for research about the whys and wherefores of church growth, and decline. How people come to church is a complex mix of various notions and ideas, and no one person fully understands this complexity. Various models exist but all fall short of a real explanation or description of church growth. One point that Abraham does make concerns the initiation into the church. He feels that the entrance to the kingdom of God has lost some of the meaning it should have. He feels that there are fundamental aspects that, if they are not captured, will impoverish our conception of church. He works his way through most of these aspects (p83) and asks the question, if we do not understand the significance of all of these elements then the conception of church is diminished, is essentially inadequate when set against the message that the evangelist has proclaimed.
It is the vibrancy of the message that Abraham focuses as he argues that “..the coming rule of God through the work of the Holy Spirit is not confined to Pentecost and the early history of the church but is a dynamic, awesome, mysterious, active reality that sovereignly enters history again and again. It can sweep people along like a flood or fall gently like the morning dew. Either way it transforms lives, creates a new community of forgiveness and compassion, brings new hope and joy into the world, and fosters a deep commitment to offer oneself in service to the body of Christ. The church ultimately lives by such power and it ultimately grows by such power.” (p100) This is dramatic stuff! Equally it is easy to see how often this clarity is missed from the activity known as evangelism. If the focus is simply numbers into a dying church, then this power is simply lost, which is not why we are called to be evangelists in the first place. We are called to bring people into the rule of God, and that demands a process, a path of discovery, which lays down a sound foundation, not just a numbers game.
Abraham describes four key agents of this process of evangelism, the first is the triune God, Goad the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the second agent is the church itself and the third agent is the evangelist, the final agent is the person being evangelised. These four agents are all part of a single process which is focused on the kingdom of God. The process starts with the proclamation of the gospel but does not end there. It also includes the initiation of the individual into the church, this is where such events as conversion, baptism and the undertaking of the commitment to love God and neighbour as key stages in the Christian life. This then extends through receiving the Christian creed, for owning the gifts of the Holy Spirit and for embracing the disciplines of eucharist, prayer and fasting. This process offers a wide interpretation of what usually passes for evangelism, and one which I find particularly welcome. Now the role of evangelist becomes clearer, and one that is not restricted as it so often is in many churches.
This is therefore a powerful contribution to the understanding of the role of the evangelist and what evangelism means to the church. Although written from a Methodist perspective it is clearly a message to any church seeking to understand the role it has in these times. The process described goes way beyond the usual evangelistic activity that many individual churches engage in. It demonstrates the integration of the evangelistic activity into the core of the church, and how the practice of seeing many of these activities as independent is flawed. Mission, evangelism, pastoral care and so on are not independent, discrete, entities to be chosen at random or in line with the whims of the clergy or the congregation, they are central to the whole message we as Christians are tasked with proclaiming. They are one, one message, one faith, one church, and we are under a duty to keep to that. Abraham offers this insight “..God is irrevocably committed to achieving His purposes for creation, and he is ingenious enough to find some way to gather the sheep into His kingdom.” (p181) and if we do not rise to the challenge, if we do not find where God is already at work and join in with Him, then we will be left behind. The kingdom of God is the primary focus of the work of the church, which exists only for this purpose argues Abraham, which places our responsibilities into a clear perspective. This is the contribution that Abraham seeks to make, one which I think he achieves with great credit.
