A few months back<\/span><\/span>\u00a0I counted it a privilege to have the up and coming Evangelical scholar, Owen Stachan<\/a> offer a guest post <\/a>on The Revangelical Blog<\/em> about his new book Risky Gospel<\/em>. 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\u2019s 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\u2019s perspective on how Evangelism should be carried out.<\/p>\n Owen\u2019s post begins with a critique of our \u201cpost-Christian\u201d 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, <\/em>that it must also always be preceded by \u201cbad news\u201d- a word of criticism of all humanity. Owen states, \u201cwe are all sinful. We have lost our way. We have dishonored God. We are under certain threat of his judgment\u2026I<\/em>f fellow sinners are going to be saved, they have to hear this bad news.\u201d <\/em>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\u2019d 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<\/em> someone was first receptive to this news, then we would move on to the \u201cGood News\u201d- that God sent his son to die in our place and bear God\u2019s wrath so that if we believed in him, God\u2019s wrath would be deflected onto Christ and we could be saved. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Now, when I hear that, that doesn\u2019t really sound like good news at all.<\/em> In fact, that whole method\u2026that whole message <\/em>sounds like we have all been dealt a really bad <\/em>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<\/a>, \u201cThat sounds like someone you wouldn\u2019t by a used car from\u2026\u201d (Quoted from Hellbound?<\/em><\/a>) But the point of this post isn\u2019t to combat Owens view of the atonement- if you would like to read a \u201cRevangelical\u201d perspective on the atonement, click here.<\/a> Rather, I want to offer a challenge to Owen\u2019s arguments\/presuppositions that:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We begin with the claim that \u201cit is necessary to tell people that \u201cbad news\u201d before we tell them the Gospel.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong> Actually, while this statement sounds <\/em>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 <\/em>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: \u201cI have come to call not the righteous but sinners.\u2019\u201d What?! Jesus says that the people he is calling to be his followers are sinners. <\/em>Jesus is chilling at the dinner table with sinners, not judging them, not telling them that they\u2019re hell-bound, but rather spending time with them. Loving them. Yes, he acknowledges here that the people at the table are \u201csinners\u201d. 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<\/em> their sin. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I think again to other examples of Jesus interacting with \u201csinners\u201d- the woman at the well, the woman at Peters house who washed Christ\u2019s 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 <\/em><\/strong>proclaiming judgement on peoples sinful state, like Owen suggest that we do in point number two,<\/strong>\u00a0 but rather practically loving them, restoring dignity to them, and offering them grace and forgiveness freely <\/em>in their sinful state. Because the reality is that everyone <\/em>has a profound awareness and understanding of our brokenness. We all <\/em>have a sense that things are not the way they are supposed to be in the world. The last thing we need is some \u201cholier-than-thou\u201d person waving the 10 Commandments in our faces to let us know, once again, that we\u2019re screwed up, damaged, broken, not good enough, and deserving of judgement. Despite what Owen (and most other Evangelicals) may think, everyone <\/em>knows that they have issues. Whether they use the language of \u201csin\u201d or \u201cdepravity\u201d is utterly irrelevant. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Now understand, I am not suggesting that repentance <\/em>is not a necessary response to God\u2019s grace in the Gospel. Of course it is! <\/em>Jesus even make that clear, for instance, in Matthew 4 when he proclaims, \u201cRepent! for the Kingdom of heaven has come near!\u201d But notice that even this call from Jesus to repent is not because judgement <\/em>is at hand. No, it\u2019s because the Kingdom of God<\/em> or the restoration of all things<\/em> or abundant life <\/em>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 <\/em>is being revealed in our midst and offered to us. That, to me, sounds like a proclamation of good news <\/em>not<\/span> bad news! This message doesn\u2019t sound judgmental, offensive, or all that \u201crisky\u201d. At least, not for the reasons that Owen suggests in his post. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It seems to me, then, that the Jesus Method <\/em>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\u2019t running from us. He is condemning us. He is offering restoration and new life to everyone<\/em>, regardless of our shortcomings and struggles. That\u2019s <\/em>very<\/strong> good news. And it\u2019s not <\/em>primarily word\u2019s to be proclaimed, as we can see, but rather a reality to live into. It\u2019s an experience. It\u2019s a mode of living. It\u2019s the transformation of our lives. This is radically <\/em>different than the message of \u201cjustification\u201d that is preached as \u201cGospel\u201d by most reformed Evangelicals today. No, instead, the Gospel seems to me to be the ever-expanding reality of Christs\u2019 Lordship and Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Not as set of doctrines to \u201cbelieve in\u201d but a reality to walk in. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n At the end of the day, I want to come back and agree with Owen on one major point- doing evangelism is a very <\/em>risky thing to do. But not because it involved offending, judging, or pronouncing God\u2019s wrath on sinners, but rather because it involves welcoming, forgiving, and pronouncing God\u2019s love on the worst of sinners. <\/em>That, believe it or not, is wildly offensive. <\/em>For we cannot often fathom that God would love and desire to eternally dwell with Adolph Hitler or the Boston Marathon Bombers (btw\u2026if you want proof of just how offensive pronouncing God\u2019s grace and love is in this way, I encourage you to read the comment sections of my post here<\/a>)\u2026but the Gospel reality is that God desires that so much, that he left heaven and came to earth for them.<\/em> For us. All of us. Wow. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n
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