Nomad
A few months back I counted it a privilege to have the up and coming Evangelical scholar, Owen Stachan offer a guest post on The Revangelical Blog about his new book Risky Gospel. Here at Revangelical, I have always tried to maintain a balance between discovering and promoting progressive ideas and honoring some of the more traditional Evangelical ideas. So after reading Owens post, I felt that it was good to have his position represented on Revangelical, while also feeling myself disagreeing vehemently with some of the points that Owen suggested in his post. Now, to be far, Owen’s post was not intended to spark a debate but rather to promote his book. But after reading and rereading his post (and skimming through his book), I feel compelled to offer a renewed Evangelical perspective on Evangelism to counter Owen’s perspective on how Evangelism should be carried out.
Owen’s post begins with a critique of our “post-Christian” culture views any form of critique or criticism as negative or wrong. From this notion, he moves forward to point out that though the Gospel of Jesus is good news, that it must also always be preceded by “bad news”- a word of criticism of all humanity. Owen states, “we are all sinful. We have lost our way. We have dishonored God. We are under certain threat of his judgment…If fellow sinners are going to be saved, they have to hear this bad news.” Oh, Really? When I hear this type of lingo, I immediately think back to my days as a fundamentalist Baptist preaching on street corners in downtown Baltimore. Our message was simple: Tell people the bad news. Tell them that they were headed to hell. Tell them that no matter who they were or what they’d done, they were disgusting in the sight of God because of their sin and therefore only deserved one thing- eternal damnation at the hands of their creator. If someone was first receptive to this news, then we would move on to the “Good News”- that God sent his son to die in our place and bear God’s wrath so that if we believed in him, God’s wrath would be deflected onto Christ and we could be saved.
Now, when I hear that, that doesn’t really sound like good news at all. In fact, that whole method…that whole message sounds like we have all been dealt a really bad hand in life. That God is really pissed off and angry because we are all sinners (a condition that we were all born with?) and the only way his anger would be appeased would be through my burning in hell forever or him killing his only innocent, perfect Son on my behalf. In the words of David Bruce, “That sounds like someone you wouldn’t by a used car from…” (Quoted from Hellbound?) But the point of this post isn’t to combat Owens view of the atonement- if you would like to read a “Revangelical” perspective on the atonement, click here. Rather, I want to offer a challenge to Owen’s arguments/presuppositions that:
- That the Gospel is preceded by “bad news” and that it is necessary to tell people that “bad news” before we tell them the “good news”.
- Evangelism is a risk because it involves “judging” non-Christians.
- Evangelism is primarily proclaiming a message.
We begin with the claim that “it is necessary to tell people that “bad news” before we tell them the Gospel.” Actually, while this statement sounds like it makes a lot of sense from a reformed/Evangelical theological perspective, it severely lacks Scriptural precedent. Especially in the Gospels. As Jesus goes about proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom, he rarely spends time calling out sinners and instead spends time with sinners as a friend. Take the instance in Mark 2 when Jesus has a meal with tax collectors and sinners at Levis house. When Jesus was criticized for hanging out with these low-life sinners, his response was: “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’” What?! Jesus says that the people he is calling to be his followers are sinners. Jesus is chilling at the dinner table with sinners, not judging them, not telling them that they’re hell-bound, but rather spending time with them. Loving them. Yes, he acknowledges here that the people at the table are “sinners”. But from what we can tell, it seems that Jesus Evangelism method was not to tell these people that they were wicked and unclean, but to show that God deeply desired and loved them, even in their sin.
I think again to other examples of Jesus interacting with “sinners”- the woman at the well, the woman at Peters house who washed Christ’s feet with her tears, Jesus words to the 5,000, Jesus an the Syrophoencian woman, Jesus act of kindness to the Centurion. The list could go on. In all of his interactions, we see Jesus not proclaiming judgement on peoples sinful state, like Owen suggest that we do in point number two, but rather practically loving them, restoring dignity to them, and offering them grace and forgiveness freely in their sinful state. Because the reality is that everyone has a profound awareness and understanding of our brokenness. We all have a sense that things are not the way they are supposed to be in the world. The last thing we need is some “holier-than-thou” person waving the 10 Commandments in our faces to let us know, once again, that we’re screwed up, damaged, broken, not good enough, and deserving of judgement. Despite what Owen (and most other Evangelicals) may think, everyone knows that they have issues. Whether they use the language of “sin” or “depravity” is utterly irrelevant.
Now understand, I am not suggesting that repentance is not a necessary response to God’s grace in the Gospel. Of course it is! Jesus even make that clear, for instance, in Matthew 4 when he proclaims, “Repent! for the Kingdom of heaven has come near!” But notice that even this call from Jesus to repent is not because judgement is at hand. No, it’s because the Kingdom of God or the restoration of all things or abundant life is at hand. Repentance in this context is turning from our way of death to a way of life. It is an offer of good news, that the Kingdom is being revealed in our midst and offered to us. That, to me, sounds like a proclamation of good news not bad news! This message doesn’t sound judgmental, offensive, or all that “risky”. At least, not for the reasons that Owen suggests in his post.
It seems to me, then, that the Jesus Method of Evangelism is living a embodiments of grace, being the presence of God to and with the most broken, wicked, and marginalized people, and offering them an invitation into the Kingdom of God- abundant and eternal life through following Jesus. That in our eff-ed up world, God is doing a new thing. He isn’t running from us. He is condemning us. He is offering restoration and new life to everyone, regardless of our shortcomings and struggles. That’s very good news. And it’s not primarily word’s to be proclaimed, as we can see, but rather a reality to live into. It’s an experience. It’s a mode of living. It’s the transformation of our lives. This is radically different than the message of “justification” that is preached as “Gospel” by most reformed Evangelicals today. No, instead, the Gospel seems to me to be the ever-expanding reality of Christs’ Lordship and Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Not as set of doctrines to “believe in” but a reality to walk in.
At the end of the day, I want to come back and agree with Owen on one major point- doing evangelism is a very risky thing to do. But not because it involved offending, judging, or pronouncing God’s wrath on sinners, but rather because it involves welcoming, forgiving, and pronouncing God’s love on the worst of sinners. That, believe it or not, is wildly offensive. For we cannot often fathom that God would love and desire to eternally dwell with Adolph Hitler or the Boston Marathon Bombers (btw…if you want proof of just how offensive pronouncing God’s grace and love is in this way, I encourage you to read the comment sections of my post here)…but the Gospel reality is that God desires that so much, that he left heaven and came to earth for them. For us. All of us. Wow.
So it seems to me that the Jesus way of evangelism is more rooted in a message of faith, hope, and love than it is judgement, condemnation, and wrath. It seems to me that Jesus proclaimed good news- and that there was no bad news needed. Because we all are already aware of the bad news. Maybe, then, if the Church strived to be more like Jesus, loving the hated, wicked, and excluded, then we would begin to offend the right people (self-righteous) and see the transformation of all people. Maybe that is the real challenge for us. Because I still believe those first advent words of the herald angels to the shepherds in the fields in Bethlehem:
“”Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”
Luke 2:10 NIV
Grace and Peace-
Brandan
_______________________________________________________________________________________I do however, honestly encourage you to check out Owen Stachans newest book, Risky Gospel: Abandon Fear and Build Something Awesome from Thomas Nelson Publishers here. Here is a brief summary of the book: How do you access a real, thriving, vibrant faith? You trust a big God, and you start living like he’s real. It’s time to put our comfort and ease and false security on the line. If we know God is real, let’s pray as if he’s actually listening. If we know he’s good, let’s reflect that goodness in the world. When our problems feel big, let’s lean on the One who is bigger. Is that risky? “Sure,” says Owen Strachan. “Embrace it anyway. It’s literally the only way to live.”
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