Tag: Evangelism

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Every Thumb's Width

Deadness Also Smells Like Death

As is usually the case, there are ranges on a spectrum when it comes to the question of whether believers should speak and live in such a way that unbelievers would be attracted to the gospel of Christ.

There is one side—usually driven by the Bible and theology, even Reformed, Calvinistic doctrines such as the depravity of man and the need for irresistible grace—of those who argue that Christians and the gospel cannot be attractive to sinners and therefore any attempt to make ourselves winsome is naive at best and probably actually dangerous, you know, slippery slope and all.

On the other side—sometimes driven by the apparent callousness and unloving nature of the Bible-theology folks, and/or sometimes driven by the apparent gravity of Jesus demonstrated in the Gospels—are those who maintain that Christians and the gospel can be attractive to sinners and therefore any refusal to make ourselves winsome is at best immature and probably actually ungodly.

I am a truth guy. I think the Bible is the ultimate standard. My wife and I named our only son Calvin. I have served my time in very man-centered churches and can see with my eyes how compromised much of the Christian message is today because of those who try to win the world by being like it. One of my favorite books ever is Ashamed of the Gospel by John MacArthur, and I read it at a time when I was first learning the doctrines of grace. His book gave me categories to resist pragmatism along with the heroic narrative and quotability of Charles Spurgeon.

However, Solomon said it was worth gaining wisdom in order to increase persuasiveness of speech (Proverbs 16:21; 16:23). Wisdom works to be winsome. Paul told the Cretan slaves that they should “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior“ in their behavior (Titus 2:10), not on their book selling tours. Adorning makes it look good, appealing, desirable. Paul also said that “we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life” (2 Corinthians 5:15-16). Speaking about Christ and living lives for Christ is a smell, detestable to some and delightful to others. Don’t we want it to be delightful? And when does the delightful, life to life part start? Only after a man believes, or as God’s Spirit is sovereignly drawing him to believe?

Of course if no one can hate what we’re doing, we may be seeking the wrong kind of attractiveness. Do not be ashamed of the gospel, and don’t be conformed to this world. But if no one wants what we have, we may be an ungodly sort of unattractive. Life can smell like death to the dead, but deadness also smells like death to the dead.

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A Shot of Encouragement

Two Great Things

Two great things go together: the great commandment and the great commission. They do not compete with each other, they compliment each other (and they do so even better than peanut butter and chocolate). Obedience to the great commandment makes obedience to the great commission a no-brainer. Obedience to the great commission requires seeing others become obedient to the great commandment.

So evangelism and worship meet in the disciple-making process. That’s why worship can have an evangelistic impact. That’s why evangelism isn’t finished unless it leads to worship.

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A Shot of Encouragement

Organizing Answers

A couple nights ago someone asked me if I thought that believers are lazy in sharing their faith. I answered, without a doubt, yes. I don’t think, however, that believers are lazy in terms of learning the way to evangelize like the Master, giving directions down the road in Romans, or carrying tracts to leave with the tip after dinner at Denny’s. I think believers are lazy mostly by failing to cultivate their faith, hallow Christ as Lord, and grow in hope that would make others ask what’s going on (1 Peter 3:15). In other words, in our evangelical camp, most of us work harder collecting verses and arranging our apologetics outlines than we work at living with hope. I suspect that’s because organizing answers requires less effort than being Christians.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Theology to Justify Rebellion

There are at least two corrupt ways to witness about Christ to others that we must confess. The first sinful approach is thinking that witnessing depends on us. The second sinful attitude is thinking that witnessing doesn’t depend on us. Stated as such, we’re always in sin; so is there a way out after we confess?

It is sinfully proud to think that our timing, our tone, our terms make the difference in evangelism. Spiritual darkness and deadness are spiritual conditions that only God’s Spirit’s can overcome. God causes men to be born again, and we can no more make someone a child of God than a doctor can make a baby have life. God is not impressed when we act like we can do His job.[1]

Likewise, it is sinfully proud to think that we have no responsibility whatsoever in evangelism. This pride masquerades as humility, but this modesty poorly masks disobedience to God who commands His people to make disciples, to proclaim the gospel, to defend the eternal hope within them. God is not impressed when we use theology to justify our rebellion.[2]

Pride may open our mouths or keep them shut, but it must be confessed as sin either way. So how can we witness and not sin? How can we be bold without getting big heads? By believing Him.[3]

Belief is the problem in both. In the first case, belief is misdirected, put in a place He didn’t say to put it. In the second case, belief is partial, not held in all the ways He did say to hold it. As we call men to believe, we need to be examples of believers even in what we believe about our place and God’s place in calling them to believe.

[1] Pelagian and semi-Pelagian/Arminian evangelizers should confess their sin.
[2] Hyper-Calvinist non-evangelizers should confess their sin.
[3] There is only one other soteriological paradigm for evangelism that honors God’s sovereignty and man’s responsbility.

Categories
A Shot of Encouragement

Blowing Smoke

When unbelievers blow smoke, it is not our task to try to weave something out of that smoke. It is our task to set up a big industrial-sized fan to blow it all away.

—Doug Wilson, Thinks I Have Thunk

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Every Thumb's Width

Fantastic but Subordinate

Doug Wilson responded to Derek Thomas’ recent article in Tabletalk regarding where evangelism rates on the ladder of importance.

One of the glories of the Reformation was that it restored the glory of God as the foundation of all things. It is infinitely more important that God be glorified than that I be saved. Fortunately for us, He is glorified in the salvation of sinners, but for us to put evangelism front and center is one of the best and surest ways to dilute the gospel itself. We have seen this precise trajectory in the evangelical world over the last half century. To make the salvation of sinners “the most basic question of all” is a good way to lose the right answer to that very important question. This is the way to pragmatic evangelism. This is how we got all the technique-meisters. Very important question? Amen. The most basic question of all? Not at all. (Wilson, Eck Rises to Defend the Reformation)

Wilson is right. That said, there’s no way Thomas believes that the salvation of a sinner is more important than God’s glory. But the gospel-first rather than God’s-glory-first way of speaking has seeped into the church’s collective communication and some other really good subordinate ends have been smothered because of it. Glory-first:

  1. explains suffering and the Christian pilgrimage better.
  2. encourages vocations other than vocational ministry alone.
  3. emboldens evangelism more.

Salvation is a subordinate end. It’s a fantastic end, but still subordinate to the ultimate end of God’s glory.

Categories
He Will Build His Church

Target Level One – Evangelizing

Disciple-making starts here. This is the first and broadest circle on the target, meaning it encompasses the most people and is the initial step to present every man complete in Christ (Colossians 1:28). Helping others follow Christ begins with Evangelizing.

The Bible reveals that the God who created everything is holy and requires holiness from His creatures. But the first man, Adam, disobeyed God and every man since is by nature a sinner who also disregards and defies God’s law. The consequence of man’s rebellion is death–physical and spiritual–and there is nothing he can do to escape on his own. That’s the bad news.

But God offers forgiveness and righteousness for all who repent and believe. He sent His Son to bear the punishment for our iniquity on the cross. Those who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead will be saved. Then God begins to deliver them from the power of sin and promises to conform them into the image of His Son. That’s the good news!

Proclaiming this gospel–evangelizing–is where disciple-making starts and takes different forms. For example, there is lifestyle evangelism; an implicit communication of the gospel. A Christian’s conduct should stand out in such a way that others see our good works and glorify God. Our transformed lives are to shine for Him and make others ask why we’re so hopeful (1 Peter 3:15).

However, all the lifestyle evangelism in the world cannot communicate Jesus as Lord, the sin/death problem, and the cross/faith/salvation solution. Those things require words. So evangelism must include verbal, explicit communication of the gospel. Why is it that the feet of those who bring good news are so praiseworthy? Because faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Therefore the gospel must be clearly stated or a person cannot become a disciple.

Jesus obviously expected us to start with evangelism since He commissioned us to make disciples from all the unbelieving people groups. So this broad target is determined by the King Himself. To this outer circle on our bullseye we model and proclaim the gospel. We desire men everywhere to believe the gospel. That involves more than getting someone to pray a prayer. We want them to meet and know Christ, to learn to observe everything He’s commanded.

In other words, we want regeneration. The people in this outer circle are spiritually dead. We proclaim the gospel and pray that God will create new life. This is where we start in our disciple-making and shepherding.

One of the reasons I’ve spent so much time on this is because evangelism is just as important in our churches and small groups as it is to the nations. John MacArthur painted this stark picture:

Our main mission field in America today is within the church. (Hard to Believe, p.101)

Our congregations include crowds of spiritually dead people, after all, the wheat and tares mix until Christ’s coming. So churches need to evangelize. Small groups can’t take the gospel for granted. Personal discipleship shouldn’t assume anything. Like every part of the yard needs to be covered equally and evenly with seed so we must broadcast the gospel thoroughly and individually. That is the first step toward Christlikeness and therefore the first target level of discipleship.

On a personal note, perhaps nothing is more frustrating in disciple-making then trying to help a person follow Christ when they don’t truly know Christ. No one bypasses this level of the bullseye. Never suppose anyone’s salvation, always and carefully evaluate their spiritual condition. Then we help those who are ready move to the second level.