On Saturday, January 17th, we hosted a one day evangelism seminar called “One Step Closer.” Our leader was Lisa Orris, the new director of evangelism for the Evangelical Covenant Church. Our denomination offers this excellent seminar to help people (Covenanters--Christians!) better understand what evangelism is about, the latest thinking and practice on reaching people with the “good news” of Jesus, and the seismic changes happening in our culture that we must grapple with so our methods convey the gospel message in a way that people can receive it as “good news.”

It was a challenging, eye-opening, and exciting day! As Lisa shared with us and took us through the workshop, so much of what I have been reading, pondering, discussing, and learning about Christianity and culture today was affirmed and given fresh context. Right from the start, an exercise we did about what the word itself--EVANGELISM--conjures up in people’s minds clearly demonstrated the assumptions, stereotypes, and actions that many of us hold and expect to have happen. Words like “Billy Graham,” “Four Spiritual Laws,” “stadiums/crusades,” “asking Jesus into your heart,” “pressure,” “television evangelists asking for money,” and “faggot fires” showed the historical, cultural, and theological understandings that we evangelicals in America have regarding this vital component of Christian life.

But is this what “evanglism” is? The first thing Lisa had us do is look at the definition of evangelism--and what she offered was not what most of us have commonly understood it to be. Lisa reminded us how usually we have focused on “closing the deal” in our methodology of evanglism; of “getting people saved” by “asking Jesus into their hearts.” We have zeroed in on trying to get people to “cross the line” from damnation to salvation, and have made this a mental exercise about assenting to and believing a bunch of information, right ideas, and correct doctrine. We have also made it about us doing the work of evangelism; of us taking the responsibilty to “get people saved;” of us being persuasive enough with our logic and arguments and biblical knowledge to get people to “accept Christ.” Perhaps this comes from assuming too much personal responsibility for people, because we do take seriously the Bible’s admonition in Ezekiel 3:18-19: “When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin, but you will save yourself.”


The model, method, and image that has been normative in evangelical history to get people to “accept Christ,” and that most often comes to mind, is the “big event": arenas and rallies and huge “outreaches” where high-powered speakers and dynamic music and worship “present the gospel” and, hopefully, hundreds of people will “go forward” during the “altar call” to “ask Jesus into their hearts.” It is not relational in its approach. Emotion and crowd energy and public demostration are all part of the dynamic in this understanding of evangelism.

Lisa’s definition was vastly different: “To ‘evangelize’ is to 1. cooperate with the Holy Spirit 2. and others 3. to bring one person 4. one step closer to Christ. Yikes! Look at all the implications this has for us: 1. GOD is the evangelist, not us! 2. Evangelism is a team effort, not one individual’s responsibility. 3. Evangelism is highly relational (indeed, isn’t it all about a relationship with Jesus Christ?!); it is not about stadiums, cities, neighborhoods, etc. 4. Evangelism is a process. It involves movement and time and steps. It is not simply a matter of “closing the deal!”

This amazing seminar reminded me of the all-too-narrow view of evangelism that has become normative and standard for the evangelical Church. In our all-too-human tendency to want to organize and control, standardize and program our lives, we have done the same to the huge, vibrant, uncontainable, uncontrollable reality of entering into a relationship with the infinite, all-powerful, all-loving God of the universe! We have reduced this awesome opportunity and reality to a simplistic formula that only requires our mental capacities and a specific moment in time, not our entire being and the ongoing commitment and expectations that relationships require.


Why have we done this? How could we ever have taken something so big and grand as EVANGELISM and think we could reduce it down to sound bytes, simplistic concepts (that aren’t really simple at all! e.g. atonement...), a formula, and a specific thing like “I decide!”? Who can dictate the ways that Christ draws people to Himself, and the ways people receive this relational gift from Him? I believe that people today, living in our postmodern culture, grasp this “bigness” of God intuitively and so our reductionistic, simplistic efforts and methods to get them to “close the deal” with Jesus smacks of gimmickry, shallowness, triteness, and manipulation. We know that people today are thinking a lot about spirituality, religion, and ultimate realities, so I think they are very savvy and aware that we are involved in gigantic issues and realities when we are discussing a relationship and connection with the God Of All. When we evangelicals package it in the ways we have in the past, it comes off as trivial, cheap, irrelevant, even meaningless. The assumptions we Christians too often bring to spiritual conversations are no longer part of the vocabulary and world view of non-believers. There is a chasm between the worldview of us who exist in an “evangelical bubble” and our culture at large. We see this over and over again in “man on the street” video interviews. We read about it everywhere in books, articles, and reports. We hear it discussed at conferences, workshops, and on panels. The statistics are clear--and yet we evangelicals tend to ignore, deny, or even remain clueless to what exists in our world today. We continue to hold onto what has been familiar, meaningful, and comfortable to us. (Although, if we are perfectly honest, I think 99.9% of us would confess that we are NOT comfortable with the more pointed, manipulative, formulaic, “close the deal” methodology of evangelism--and actually, few of us even practice it.) We get very defensive, reactive, and critical of fresh perspectives, ideas, and anything that challenges our beliefs, our habits, our past, even insights that are biblically and theologically sound.

For example, in our topic here, “accepting Christ” is certainly part of evangelism--indeed, it is a vital part! Having one’s eyes opened to the actuality of sin and of our need to be free of its debilitating, death-orienting energy is certainly a component of evangelism. The amazing fact that JESUS himself is the source of eternal salvation because of who He is and was and accomplished through His life, death, and resurrection is definitely the centerpiece of “the gospel” (the “good news”). But for many people, especially those totally unfamiliar with the lingo and concepts we utilize in our evangelism approaches, to appreciate the true depth and meaning and reality of coming to Christ takes time, thoughtful reflection, discussion, and concrete example (incarnation!) with someone they know and trust. I think that people today need and want the bigger picture of what a relationship with God entails because, unfortunately, the picture they have had too often instead is one of a Church that seems irrelevant, institutional, judgmental, religious, and horribly hypocritical. The relational reality has been obliterated by this other very detrimental image. We who are in the Church beg to differ, I know. We certainly think otherwise, looking from the inside out. The lenses we use to see the Church give us a very different picture. But the statistics are clear: when it comes to what and whom people trust these days, the Church is near the bottom of the list.

When we have zeroed in on one small piece of “evangelism” and made it all about one aspect or part of having a relationship with Jesus, without valuing equally the other parts and the total, overall reality of evangelism, we have in effect distorted what it is we are asking people to embrace: an ongoing, vibrant relationship with God Himself forever! It’s like we’ve taken a magnifying glass and enlarged one component of a bigger reality and then not given attention to the whole picture--sort of like zeroing in on our destination with “Mapquest” but forgetting the rest of the map that is necessary in getting us to our destination! We defend our approach of “closing the deal” by saying “It’s just the first step” or “Of course there has to be more follow-up.” But if this is so, why is there such a crisis in discipleship in our churches today? Our intentions may be good, but we have not followed through well when it comes to the lengthy process of molding believers into fully formed disciples of Jesus. John Perkins hits the nail on the head: “We have over evangelized far too lightly.” The weight and emphasis we have put on evangelism as “making a decision” has overshadowed the bigger truth of what evangelism is about, which includes discipleship. Because we have not kept a wholistic understanding and perspective on what is involved in evangelism and not made following up and following through as necessary as simply “accepting Christ,” we are now living with the unfortunate results of our narrowness of vision and understanding: lack of depth in far too many Christian lives. I know from my reading that this is a huge issue and concern in Africa, where Christianity has been booming. Church leaders there are sharply aware of the shallowness that has accompanied the mass conversions and “decisions for Christ” throughout that continent and they are perplexed by it. Again, “we have over evangelized far too lightly...”

Have we evangelicals ever considered that maybe this step of “closing the deal” is supposed to happen at the end of an evangelistic process of moving “one step closer” to Christ, rather than pushing it to the forefront of the process? I have to say that in all my growing up years in church, I never heard evangelism presented in this way. Evangelism has always been commonly assumed and understood as “accepting Christ into your heart”--with all of the expected terminology, emotion, behaviors, and other accoutrements surrounding this salvation event. Certainly, these perspectives and methodologies did bring people to Christ too! They were effective at the point in history when they were developed and, no doubt, prayerfully engaged by people. However, can we admit that they are time-worn, outdated, and less effective today?


And can we also confess that these understandings and strategies of evangelism have even done damage to many people over the years? That too often this approach has entailed arm-twisting, guilt, fear, peer pressure, and calculating results from a human perspective rather than God’s, and turned people off to entering into a relationship with Him? That the words we’ve spoken, the canned approaches we’ve used, and too often the haranguing judgments of too many well-meaning “evangelists” (the Billy Grahams and everyday people in the pews, like us) have actually driven people away from God--and from salvation? This is a hard pill to swallow, especially if we “came to Christ” through these methods and understandings.

All I’m trying to say here is how refreshing and enlightening and true I found Lisa’s understanding and approach to evangelism to be. There is biblical and theological support for it. There are sociological and cultural bases for it as well, which are extremely relevant to the times we are living in now. I am convinced that RELATIONSHIP is the key to effective evangelism today, more than ever--for relationship is what people are craving more than ever. Our world is so fast-paced, so isolating, so individualized, so technologized that people are searching for deep, honest, meaningful connections with others. If we are intentional about building relationships with people who do not yet know and follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit will be able to do His amazing transformative work in people, others will be brought into the picture as we expand the circle of our relationships--and, one person at a time, people will take one step closer to Christ! To be honest, we are all taking steps either closer to or farther away from Christ constantly, daily. The only difference is that some of us have embraced the grace of God and established an eternal relationship with His Son, our Savior. Again, this is one of the steps--a beautiful, exciting, transforming step--that we can help prepare for, pray for, and guide people toward, through our spoken and lived-out witness to the reality of Jesus present in our lives. The “One Step Closer” seminar reminded us that this is actually the process of evangelism: PRAYER, CARE, and SHARE! With SHARE as the end of the process, not the first step.

Unfortunately, this fresh approach to evangelism will be difficult for many to embrace. Most of us who are evangelicals are firmly entrenched inside our churches, secure in our friendships and relationships with Christians only, and ensconced in spiritual patterns that are too comfortable and familiar to give up. Perhaps we are even unwillling to see evangelism in this broader light. It will cost us something to accept this approach, because it will force us into new behaviors, attitudes, and relationships that we have never experienced before. It will be painful, disorienting, and messy. No doubt it will be challenged and criticized by others.

However, it could also be the most transforming and invigorating change in your relationship with Christ since you first “asked Jesus into your heart!” You will certainly grow in your faith, for you will be stretched and enlarged in every aspect of your life! Isn’t this more exciting than the status quo you might be finding yourself in right now? Isn’t this more intriguing than the tired routines and conventional understandings you’ve been holding for too long? Aren’t you ready for a fresh wind of the Spirit to blow through your life and show you new things you never thought possible as a Christian before? You know that in order for something new to be birthed in you, other things have to die. The Bible says so! It’s true in nature too. What is it that needs to die in your life in order for your life in Christ to grow in fresh new ways? What is our Lord trying to offer you, but your customary seeing and hearing and behavior are blocking His exhilarating gifts to you? Understanding evangelism in this “one step closer” view is so freeing, and can help us see that the fullness of our lives is included in helping people take “one step closer” to Christ. The pressure is off! There are no canned phrases to memorize, no simplistic, pat answers to remember, no stress in saying words that too many people don’t understand anyways. And then, YOU just might be given the awesome privilege of being the one person at a given point in time to share the rich reality of salvation with another person--and actually see them take that transforming step into the arms of Jesus!


Matthew 28:19a: “Go and make disciples of all nations...” NOT “go and convert people” or “go and make people ask Jesus into their hearts.” Evangelism--”good news”--make disciples. Hmmmm....

(I'll be back after the Midwinter Conference in Chicago, where it was 4° yesterday morning. Ahhhh!)