Recently, the International Update from the American Anglican Council included an article titled “Evangelism Confusion” by Andrew Symes. Near the end of the article, Symes asks several questions, including, “How can the Archbishop expect to unite the Church of England in prayer and mission when there is such complete confusion in his own back yard about what we believe and whom we worship?”
One of the reasons we see a breakdown in basic beliefs of the Church may stem from shortcomings in our practice of evangelism. As Rico Tice, a chief developer of the Christianity Explored course says, “How you win them is how you keep them.” If what people are responding to in our evangelism is something less than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then promoting something less than the Gospel is how we will seek to keep them.
Rico says that unfortunately, evangelism is often the first vehicle for heresy entering the church. It is very important for our evangelism to be Biblical. A crucial text on evangelism in the New Testament is 2 Corinthians 4:1-6. There we learn that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.
If the problem is blindness, the solution is for the God of creation to shine the light of his glory into unbelieving hearts so that they see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That’s God’s work in evangelism.
What is our work? According to verse 5, we are to proclaim Christ and to serve others for Jesus’ sake. And according to verse 2, we are to do that with integrity and without distorting the Gospel. Our temptation, as Rico says, is to “cut the price so more will buy.” But we’re not meant to be salesmen, rather we are meant to openly state the truth, as we trust God’s Word and Holy Spirit to the do the work.
If we are not clearly proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then our evangelism can be a tool that keeps people in blindness to God’s glory. If we are not careful, our proclamation can become, “Lord, I am empty, fill me,” instead of “Lord my sin is an offense to you, rescue me.”
The Christianity Explored course uses the Gospel of Mark to present the gospel of Jesus. We do this to keep the Gospel at the center. We let the Gospel present the gospel. And we include the hard parts that are easy to skip, such as the reality of sin and the necessity of the cross. We are also clear about the call to follow Christ, to come and die … in order that we may truly live.
The Christianity Explored course is not the only way to clearly present the Gospel, but it does show that one can be creative, winsome, and relational, while also being thoroughly Biblical.
Alan Avera is Executive Director of Christianity Explored USA
