Evangelism

Evangelism, then, is whenever the Christian demonstrates or announces the risen and regnant Christ.  The Christian’s goal in evangelism is to expand God’s dissident new humanity, “through [whom] the world should be blessed and turned rightside up.”[1]  So instead of selling a free ticket to post-mortem eternal life, evangelism is more about bringing people into God’s healing movement for His broken creation by following the Way of Jesus.  This gets to the heart of the Great Commission: making not just converts, but cultivating disciples in the Way of the Revolutionary Rabbi.

Evangelism is done first in modeling Christ’s Reign.  Christians are signposts and sample trays of this Kingdom.  Their job is, having read of God’s revolutionary works in the past (centered of course on Jesus Christ’s ministry, death, resurrection, and present cosmic reign), and having these glimpses of God’s Future, we’re to receive and improvise that subversive Future in the present.  Like Joshua’s spies who came back from the Promised Land with firstfruits of what God had promised his people, they as new creations in Christ are God’s firstfruits of the coming New Heaven and New Earth.[2]

Only after living as one now under Jesus’ cosmic kingship does the Christian announce what’s really going on.  Like the imperial heralds rushing around the world to announce the good news of Caesar, Christians live as under this real Caesar of Caesars, announcing His Revolution of salvation and freedom, and so pass on His teachings.  Paul says they are His ambassadors, heralds of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19-20).  As Lesslie Newbigin notes of Acts, almost every time Christ and His Revolution are preached, it is because someone saw how Christians were living, and inquired about it.  They see disciples of Jesus living in a new way, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.  And their question in response to this was, “What is this new reality?” [3]  Evangelism is the work of answering this question, usually without it being asked so directly.

When asked why they share their wealth, Christians can talk about their equality-loving King.  When they’re committed to restoring relationships with those brethren whom they most dislike, they can talk about the God who gave his son up for those who had declared Him their enemy.  When advocating for the rights of the poor and the powerless and the plants, Christians should cite their all-loving and fully just Creator, the Ruler who will hold all rulers to account.

This is really another way of saying that the lost will know followers of Christ as such by their love for one another (John 13:35).  Just by being who they are supposed to be, the people of God will bring out the “God-flavors” and “God-colors” of the Earth (Mat. 5:13-14, The Message).

This method of spreading Yahweh’s reign is not limited to the New Testament.  Consider Isaiah 51:4-5, where God says that “my justice will become a light to the nations. … and my arm will bring justice to the nations.”  Thus, when God’s people are doing justice – taking care of each other with reckless sacrifice and a heartfelt and long-viewed reach toward reconciliation – it is then that the nations will behold the surprising glory of Yahweh God.  When neighbor-love is visibly practiced, justice is realized, and oppression vanquished within the Body of Christ, “then your light will break forth like the dawn” (58:8).   God’s revolutionary solution for a broken world will be radiant on His people.  The shared life of the community of God becomes an incarnated gospel.

“You shall be my witnesses” and Public Proclamation

This is consistent with Jesus Christ’s proclamation that His disciples shall be his witnesses “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  As the dispersed Body of Christ, they continue to flesh out the Revolution of God which was so perfectly demonstrated by Jesus.  David Augsburger writes that “encounters with persons who embody Jesus’ character … is more than encounter with story or belief or theology.  It is authentic witness to the Jesus who is now among us.” [4]  Christians faithful to his teachings, to the subversive new Way of being God’s light, show the world Jesus with skin on.[5]  They are a kind of ongoing and dynamic proto-parousia.  Thus Christians are only truly witnesses to King Jesus and His revolution when they are working out His most central teachings: loving God and loving one another.  As gadfly author Brian McLaren writes,

“unless disciples are following the Great Commandment, it is fruitless to engage in the Great Commission.  Discipleship in this sense … means being called to learn a new way of living, a way of life characterized by love for God and one’s neighbor and one’s enemies.  It positions one in the world as a servant, a doer of good works, and a friend to sinners, as was our Lord.”[6]

Thus, any announcement without authentic demonstration (witness) of this Revolution is unbiblical and out of sync with what it means to be the Body of Christ.  The good news of God’s holistic Revolution must be “visible in changed persons.” [7]