Christians are called to share the Gospel. This can be difficult when the message is sure to offend some.
This calls for a balance. Evangelism is telling people that they need Jesus, with as much conviction and as little coercion as possible. There is a nonchalance, too easy to slip into, that takes the bite out of our message, that makes it seem like we really don't mean it, or it isn't all that important. God is honored by our efforts to be wise, but I don't think he is honored by our efforts to be cool or liked. God calls us to be peacemakers, but we are not to do that by being cowards or doing away with a love for and duty towards truth.
How must evangelism work in the modern world? First, I think it must be said that it doesn't work in a way fundamentally different than any other time. We don't need innovation for the sake of innovation. People are people, and people are lost. God works where he will, and he awakens faith in people's hearts, and the Gospel message is news about something that has decisively happened. We preach the sufficiency of the resurrection of the Son of God yesterday, today, and until he comes back. And God is pleased to awaken faith through the preaching of this message.
Nevertheless, we are called to bring the message into our time among the people we are with. That requires some thought.
The secular pull in our world, in our country, in our time is powerful. I imagine that to the average secular person, if I tell them the Gospel, they probably will not feel that they need it. They probably will have questions and assumptions lurking in the back of their mind that are roadblocks to taking the Gospel seriously. It is hard to feel that you need a God that you don't really believe exists.
How do we work towards making the Gospel seem at least plausible when it is heard? I have three thoughts. They come from the conviction that, while God may sometimes work through a single conversation or relationship to bring another to faith, more often it happens over time, over wrestling, in a web of various relationships.
1) We need to cast our net wider. There are plenty of Gospel conversations to be had outside of one that includes a "You need Jesus. Would you pray this prayer?" If we let the culture drift without showing that God is real and relevant, we are making our job in evangelism harder. I do not mean that we need to shoulder the burden of making the wider culture Christian or perfect. Rather, I think we ought to have the courage to speak the truth winsomely at different points. To point out the absurdity of the world's way of thinking where we find it. These don't need to be fights to the death; they are not the main thing. We want to put a pebble in the world's shoe, one that is at least a small reminder that there is another Way. Though we will probably convince few people in these conversations, we want them to be aware that there is a real, self-consistent, intellectually rigorous, and existentially satisfying solution and explanation to things. And that more than an explanation, there is a Person. We, with patience and grace and courage, take every thought captive for Christ.
2) We need to live in a spirit of love. Jesus says that love is the most important thing. Jesus says that love for each other is how they will know that he was sent from the Father. Love is the greatest apologetic. Love is what will let people know that all the conversations we had pursuant to #1 above was not a mere moving of our lips, a running of our mouths. How we love is the dish that we serve our message on. If it stinks, our message will be a stench as well. Authentic love will show people that there is something real here, something worth investigating, something worth having. I think there is also a social aspect to the way people think and make decisions, and the Gospel will seem more plausible when we invite others into a community that has been truly shaped by the Gospel. And the evidence of whether it has been shaped by the Gospel is whether there is love.
3) Salvation is supernatural. There is a Holy Spirit. He has a lot to do with all of this. There is a spiritual battle to be fought. We ought not to think we can win people simply with the persuasiveness of our arguments, or with anything really, if Christ is not in the midst of our efforts. He must do a work. We are dependent on Him. And this ought to drive us to prayer. The unbeliever will not admit this - they will claim intellectual neutrality - but in evangelism there is a battle for the heart as well as for the mind. The unbelieving heart is in charge of its own destiny and it likes it, and it does not want to admit a God that could have control over it. The heart will put the mind to the service of preserving this status quo. And such an unseating will be difficult. Satan will not want it to happen. The other person will not, at the time, want it to happen. The world will not want it to happen. God is the only one powerful enough to make it happen.
These are my thoughts. I don't know why they were on my mind. I haven't had much blogging time lately, but I hope you are edified.
