PROMOTING THE GOSPEL THE WHOLE OF LIFE FOR THE CAUSE OF CHRIST
John Dickson
PO Box A 287, Sydney South, Australia 1235 Ph: (02) 8268 3333 Fax: (02) 8268 3357 Email: sales@youthworks.net
Promoting the Gospel: The whole of life for the cause of Christ Published June 2005 Copyright Blue Bottle Books 2005 © John Dickson Reprinted August 2006, July 2009 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without the written permission of the publisher. The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. ‘NIV’ and ‘New International Version’ are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark office by International Bible Society. National Library of Australia ISBN 978-1-920935-77-1 Index of Biblical references prepared by Jenny Glen Cover design by Rachel Heriot Typeset by Lankshear Design
For Glenda Weldon who taught me the gospel and showed me how to pass it on.
A note about notes I hate footnotes and endnotes. Apart from appearing pretentious and academic, they can easily become distracting to the reader. Those who read all of them can easily lose their train of thought (I know I often do). Those who never read them can begin to worry they might have missed something profound in the small print. But to give this book a wider audience I have decided to include endnotes for each chapter. We’ve thrown them to the very back of the book to make them as discreet as possible. If you are a ‘notes’ kind of person, I hope the extra information, technical references and finer arguments you will find there will satisfy your curiosity. If you are a big picture kind of reader—and I am sure that’s most of us—please, do not worry. I promise not to put anything in the endnotes that changes the ideas presented in the main part of the book.
Contents Foreword by Professor Alister McGrath
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Introduction: Confessions of an evangelist
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1. The One and the many Why get involved in mission?
19
2. The many and the One The challenge of pluralism
29
3. Following the ‘friend of sinners’ The missionary mind of the ordinary Christian
37
4. The hidden mission Promoting the gospel with our prayers
53
5. Partners for life Promoting the gospel with our money
67
6. Being the Light of the world Promoting the gospel through the works of the church
77
7. Being beautiful Promoting the gospel through Christian behaviour
89
8. The few and the many Evangelists and the local church
103
9. Heralds together Promoting the gospel through our public praise
115
10. The apt reply Promoting the gospel in daily conversation
129
11. A year in the life of the gospel Bringing it all together
147
Appendix 1: What is the gospel?
161
Appendix 2: Gospel bites
191
Appendix 3: A modern retelling of the gospel
199
Endnotes
209
Index of References 227
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Foreword
Alister McGrath, President of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, and Professor of Historical Theology, Oxford University.
I read this book with admiration and excitement. Rarely have I seen such a wonderful combination of enthusiasm and expertise, passion and reflection. John Dickson writes winsomely and elegantly, drawing his readers into his vision for the future of evangelism. It is one of the best books I have read on evangelism. A new star has clearly risen in Australia. Why is it so good? I think it is the way in which Dickson inspires the confidence of his readers, explaining the mistakes he made along the way, and how others can learn from them. Many, many readers will identify with his concern about techniquebased evangelism courses, which make evangelism into a human skill comparable to car mechanics. Dickson offers his readers something very different—a vision for evangelism, opening up the full riches of the gospel, and allowing its many facets to radiate through every believer, not just the gifted evangelist. It is a tribute to Dickson’s experience as an evangelist and skill as a writer that he manages to combine theoretical reflection and practical advice. Where some authors leave their readers wondering how on earth they are going to apply their ideas, Dickson offers wise advice, clearly based on experience, as to how best to do this. 7
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His emphasis on the importance of the local church is theologically astute, and immensely practical. Dickson’s approach will energize both individuals and churches to promote the gospel, while emphasizing the importance of the church at every level in sustaining the ministry of individual evangelists. His appeal to the worship of the church reminds us that the power of the gospel lies not merely in its words, but in its capacity to transform people’s lives. I warmly recommend this book. I have learned from reading it, and have no doubt that others will as well. It challenged me, encouraged me, and often inspired me. And at my age, that’s quite an achievement! Alister McGrath Oxford, March 2006
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Introduction
Confessions of an evangelist For the first couple of years of my faith I was a passionate promoter of the Christian message. I was 15 years old and spoke about Christ to everyone who would listen. Without any background in Christianity I just assumed everyone would want to hear what I had heard. I shared my new beliefs with my mother, my friends, my football team, strangers on the street and even the crowds of other teenagers I met on the holiday camps my mum used to send me on (regularly, for some reason!). In those early years as a believer I had absolutely no idea Christians could be coy about their faith. No one had told me I was meant to feel awkward about spreading the good news. That was something I learnt only after mixing with Christians for a while. But I learnt it soon enough. Because of my obvious enthusiasm for sharing the Faith with others, my church decided I should be trained in ‘evangelism’. I had never heard of ‘evangelism’; I just wanted others to discover what I had discovered. I did not know there was a word for it. So, off I went to special classes once a week for several months where I was trained in one of the popular evangelism training tools. There I learnt a carefully prepared gospel outline, a set of illustrations to explain the message, and a list of Bible verses to back it all up. At the end of the course I was turned loose on the public of Sydney. I took part in pre-arranged home visits, systematic
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door knocking, and even ‘cold turkey’ walk-ups at the local shopping centre. Suddenly, my joy and ability at passing on the Faith evaporated. I had previously delighted in sharing Christ with others, but now it seemed a burden: a burden on my emotions, on my memory and, perhaps most of all, on my poor unsuspecting evangelistic ‘targets’. This enthusiastic, natural promoter of Christ had been transformed into a nervous and unnerving ‘Bible-basher’. I do not blame the course itself. Many Christians around the world have been helped by this and other programs. But I suspect the way the course was run in my church, combined with my overeager personality, left me with several unhealthy perspectives on what it means to promote Christ to others. I have since discovered just how common these perspectives are in modern church circles.
The curse of self-consciousness Firstly, I had become self-conscious about reaching out to others with the news of Christ. When I first became a Christian, promoting Christ was a perfectly natural orientation of my whole faith. It was similar to the way I felt about football (or what Australians used to call ‘soccer’). I loved football. I played it almost every day. I watched every televised Premier League match. I talked about it and asked friends to come up to the local oval for a kickaround. I never dreamt that football-lovers might be self-conscious about mentioning it or coy about inviting others to play it. But after attending this evangelism course, that is exactly how I felt about my faith. Suddenly, mentioning God and inviting people to church had become a specialised compartment of the 10
Introduction
Faith. It had its own name—evangelism—its own propositions and jargon, and even its own multi-week courses. Whereas I once talked of God as freely as I talked about my favourite TV show, now I found myself switching into ‘evangelism mode’—where the heart beats faster, the palms get sweaty and you feel the pressure to steer the conversation in a most un-conversational manner. What was once a natural outflow of faith, something requiring very little concentration, now felt like a cross between a theological exam, an acting class and a knife-edge rescue operation. Like David Beckham’s string of missed penalty shots a couple of years ago, the pressure to perform something that used to come naturally forced my evangelistic opportunities right over the crossbar and into the stadium. Let me reiterate: evangelism courses per se are not the problem. Many Christians undergo such training without ever feeling self-conscious; others feel self-conscious without ever being trained. Nevertheless, I suspect many would agree that this evangelistic self-consciousness is very common amongst modern believers (with or without the help of evangelism training courses). Thankfully my own evangelistic self-consciousness soon passed. After months of trying to ‘perform’ as I had been taught, I decided to relax. I forgot about getting it ‘right’, getting it ‘in order’ and getting my conversation partner ‘over the line’. Instead, I decided to approach my gospel opportunities as if they were friendly conversations about my favourite topic. It was not long before I realised again that this is exactly what sharing the faith is. Part of my hope in writing this book is that a fresh, biblical look at the topic of evangelistic mission will go some way toward dispelling Christian self-consciousness. 11
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The gospel ‘download’ The second outlook I inherited from my days as a budding evangelist was equally unhelpful. I began to think that if I had an opportunity to say something about Christianity I ought to say everything about it. I had spent months learning a gospel outline, complete with analogies and Bible verses. I somehow got it into my head that it was my duty to download the whole thing no matter how passing the conversation about Christianity might have been. I don’t know how many poor souls had to endure my sermonettes before I realised the glazed look in their eyes was not the look of spiritual wonder! In reality, most of our opportunities to speak about Christianity will occur in passing, in the to-and-fro of daily conversation. It should not surprise us then that the two clearest passages in the Bible calling on all believers to speak up for the Lord urge them simply to ‘answer’ for the Faith—to respond to people’s comments, questions or criticisms with a gentle and gracious reply (Colossians 4:5-6 and 1 Peter 3:15). Most Christians are not ‘evangelists’ (in the technical sense of the word, anyway) and should not be made to feel the pressure to be something they are not. The Scriptures certainly urge us all to be open about our faith whenever opportunity allows, but doing ‘the work of an evangelist’ (2 Timothy 4:5) is something God’s 1 Word asks of only some of us. Of course, if you have a chance to explain the whole message of Christ, go for it! Evangelists don’t have a monopoly here. My point is simply this: far more frequent than the full gospel opportunity will be the passing opportunities to offer brief nuggets about the Faith to those around us—a relative at the Christmas lunch, a friend at the pub, a parent on the sideline and 12
Introduction
so on. On occasions like these a gospel ‘bite’ will usually prove more useful to your hearer than a gospel download.
Reducing the gospel The third unhelpful perspective I picked up in my early evangelism training concerns the gospel message itself. The particular course I studied summarized the gospel in the theological concepts of sin and grace. The goal of the presentation I had to memorise was to convince my hearers (a) that they were unworthy of God’s acceptance because of their rebellion and (b) that God’s acceptance was offered on the basis of faith alone, not good works. The gospel, in other words, was condensed to two doctrines with little attempt to connect these ideas to the flesh-and-blood story of Jesus’ birth, teaching, miracles, death, resurrection, appearances and return for judgement. Some gospel preaching today—including some gospel conversations we have with friends—forgets that, at its heart, the gospel is the news about Jesus as narrated in the Gospels. This is why the four Gospels are called ‘Gospels’—because more than any other part of Scripture they tell the gospel. This is why the apostolic preaching in the book of Acts generally narrates the entire story of Jesus, including his birth to King David’s line, baptism by John, miracles, arrest and so on (Acts 2:22-39; 4:8-12; 10:34-43; 13:16-41). This is why when Paul explicitly summarizes the content of the gospel in his letters he does so by outlining the key events of Jesus’ life from birth to exaltation, including of course his death, burial and appearances (Romans 1:2-4; 2 Timothy 2:8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8). Of course, sin and grace are central to any true gospel presentation (as they are in the four Gospels themselves) but the 13
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gospel cannot be reduced to these themes any more than it can be reduced to a simple retelling of Jesus’ ‘biography’. I will say much more about this in the ridiculously long Appendix 1, ‘What is the gospel?’. For now, let me just say that the gospel is not a theological idea or two. It is theology grounded in the actual events of Jesus’ life. The gospel and the Gospels are one. Let me offer a concise summary of what I mean by the ‘gospel’ throughout this book: The gospel is the announcement that God has revealed and opened up his kingdom to sinners through the birth, teaching, miracles, death and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus who will one day return to overthrow evil and consummate the kingdom for eternity.
Underestimating the mission There is a fourth unhelpful perspective I developed in those early days. This one was probably the result of my personality as much as any training I received. Somehow I came to assume that the only important means of promoting Christ was talking about him. Reaching out to others became for me an entirely verbal activity. But perhaps the best-kept secret of Christian mission is that the Bible lists a whole range of activities that promote Christ to the world and draw others toward him. These include prayer, godly behaviour, financial assistance, the public praise of God (in church) and, as already mentioned, answering people’s questions. All of these are explicitly connected in the Bible with advancing the gospel and winning people to Christ. They are all ‘mission’ activities and only a couple of them involve the lips at all. I do not want to diminish the role of speaking. As I have said already, the New Testament urges us to be open about Christ in 14
Introduction
our regular conversations. To push our faith below the level of daily speech is unnatural and a sure sign of Christian ill health. At the same time, downplaying the range of mission activities listed in the Bible creates its own set of problems. It can make those who do not have a flair for speaking feel inadequate in their contribution to God’s work in the world. Perhaps more worryingly—and this was certainly so in my case—it can make those who do have the ‘gift of the gab’ feel they are fulfilling God’s plans just by talking. The Lord wants more than our lips in the grand task of taking his mercy to our friends and neighbours. To think otherwise, as I did for years, is to greatly underestimate what God’s mission involves. In light of this, I want to make a distinction throughout this book between the specific activity of proclaiming the gospel, or what is properly called ‘evangelism’, and the broader category of promoting the gospel which includes any and every activity which 2 draws others to Christ. This broader category is sometimes called ‘mission’ or ‘outreach’ or ‘witness’ but the expression ‘promoting the gospel’ reminds us that at the heart of our mission to the world is the news of Christ, the gospel. The concept of promoting the gospel obviously includes evangelism but it also tries to give a proper place to things like prayer, godly behaviour, and answering for the Faith, all of which are explicitly connected in the New Testament with God’s plan to save his people. Such activities are not separate from the work of the gospel; they are supportive of it and vital to it. Praying that your friends and neighbours would come to know Christ is no less a promotion of the gospel than speaking to them about Christ. Both activities are evangelistic, even if only one of them is evangelism in the strict sense. This does not mean that those who pray for their 15
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friends need not worry about speaking to them, any more than it means that those who speak to their friends need not worry about praying for them. My point is that both activities are full contributions to the promotion of Christ in the world. For years, both as a public evangelist and as a personal encourager, I urged other Christians to evangelise (announce the gospel) as if this were the only significant thing they could do to promote Christ. In a sense, I was projecting my own ministry and personality onto believers in general. I was an evangelist; everyone else should be as well. That was the logic. The problem is: God’s Word does not quite put it that way, and attempts to argue otherwise usually involve stretching biblical passages beyond their plain meaning. I used to do it myself both 3 in sermons and (I am embarrassed to say) in my first book. The motivation was honourable—I wanted more Christians to be more involved in the work of the gospel—but, as with so many other issues, a worthy goal does not give me permission to handle the Scriptures poorly. We are involved in God’s mission, and so we must allow his Word to shape our part in it. The slogan ‘everyChristian-an-evangelist’ has a noble purpose but it is an unbiblical way of speaking. For Christians in general—as opposed to evangelists in particular—telling the gospel to others (evangelism) could be described as the icing on the cake of mission. It is certainly the most conspicuous part and, once tasted, it will often be the sweetest part too, but for the typical Christian it is not the bulk of the task. It is not where most of our opportunities to promote Christ to others will be found. A central aim of this book, then, is to show just how allencompassing is the Bible’s call to be involved in God’s mission. 16
Introduction
I hope and pray that what follows will inspire you to see everything you do in life as a tool in God’s hands for the benefit of those who don’t yet know Christ. Before we explore the Bible’s multifaceted approach to the promotion of the gospel, we should stop to ask the most obvious question: why get involved in God’s mission?
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