In my fundie days, I usually insisted that "evangelism" wasn't one of
my "spiritual gifts". In all honesty, I couldn't see myself as standing
on street corners, giving out pamphlets, or initiating conversations
with complete strangers by asking them, "Have you been washed by the
blood of the lamb?" Moreover, I will not initiate conversations about
my faith if I suspect that someone may not be interested, already is
secure in happy in their own religion, or simply has other things on
their mind. According to the fundamentalist/evangelical world, I'm
indeed a poor evangelist, because I don't care about all those lost
souls supposedly headed straight to eternal damnation. Some would
accuse me of "being ashamed of the gospel" - another
quoted-out-of-context phrase that lost meaning over the years.
Truth:
I'm not ashamed. I openly say to anyone asking me about my long-term
vocational goals that I would like to be a pastor. I invite anyone to
come and check out paper cup and volunteer. So far, I've extended
invitation to agnostics, buddists, muslims and atheists to check out
paper cup and help out. It doesn't "bother" me that a muslim may be
helping us with grant writing, and that a buddist may be helping out
with coffee, and an agnostic may provide addiction counselling. On the
contrary, it makes me THRILLED that people are interested, and that
Christainity isn't a deterrent to their involvement with us. It makes
me humbly hopeful that we are, in fact, relevant, and attractive to a
wide variety of people, just like Jesus was relevant and attractive to
diverse groups of individuals.
"But what about evangelism?
Don't you want to evangelize? And how can you invite non-Christians to
work for a Christian cause, before they are converted?"
Well,
first of all, we need to decide who the expert on evangelism is. Does
example of Jesus matter, or do we follow someone slightly more
reputable and systhematic, say, St. Paul, or Billy Graham, or whoever
else is out there these days?
Second, we should probably decide
what the point of evangelism is. Is it to build a lasting committment
to Jesus Christ, to his teachings, to the values he promoted, to his
mission, and to the philosophy he brought, or is it to get people to
admit that they are imperfect (duh), scare the shit out of them with
eternal damnation, and get them to parrot out 4 spiritual laws?
Back
to #1. How did Jesus evangelize? He met people where they were at, and
simply invited them to join him. He didn't insist that they get their
theology straight, confess Trinity, or recite a creed. He invited them
to join him, and get to know him by walking with him, journeying with
him. That's how he built committment and lasting relationships, and
that's what enabled people to grow in their theology/understanding of
who God is: the journey they undertook. Out of their journeys and
walks, grew theologies, creeds, and confessions. So, why do we do it
backwards? We preach at people for years and decades, while insist that
they sit on their butts and don't do anything "christian". We repeat
over and over that they are excluded from God and His community, until
they believe/do/confess A, B, C, D....X, Y and Z. Once they reach a
certain point in their "theology" that we arrogantly benchmark as
"salvation", we graciously allow them to "journey" with us, and "serve"
- i.e. wash dishes, serve dinners, clean toilets, and so on. And we
don't even stop to think that that's the exact opposite of how Jesus
"evangelized". He threatened by inclusion. He was universal in his
invitation and inclusion. People journeyed with Him first, served him
and alongside with him first, shared lives with him first.... and then
their belief systhem/theology/committment/philosophy/r
Now, for #2:
What is the point of evangelism? If it is to get people to recite our
own dogmas and creeds? Or is it to help them appreciate who Jesus
was/is, and what his teachings mean? If we, for one minute think that
salvation lies in our dogmas, creeds, and constructs that we ourselves
create about God, then we are more lost than we can ever hope to
realize. If, on the other hand, we keep remembering that our creeds,
dogmas and theologies grew out of our collective and communal
journeying with Jesus, then we can stop coming across as know-it-alls
who have never been wrong about anything. If Jesus, who he was and who
he is, his teachings, his character, his example, his story, his
mission, his hold on our lives is central to us - then the best way to
"evangelize" is to invite people to join us and journey with us,
however much they are willing, and in whatever capacity it is honest
for them to do so. They may discover something new in their own
religions and begin more and more lean towards the parts of their own
faiths that are in line with teachings and mission of Jesus. They may
want to follow Jesus, and appreciate his specialness, even while not
quite knowing how to believe in him, or what to believe about him. We
typically label such people as "unsaved", "pre-Christian" or "seekers".
Jesus called them "disciples" and "friends". Maybe we shouldn't presume
to know better than He did.
Oh, and by the way, it's time we
gave up this word, "evangelize". It's snooty and arrogant, because we
REALLY don't know everything, and it's meaningless, because it came to
mean "bad news" instead of "good news". If we really want to deliver
some good news, we can start by being quiet about how right we are
about everything, and how wrong everyone else around us is. We can
threaten by inclusion rather than rejection, and hope that we can be
worthy of the honor of people joining us and journeying with us.
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