“Evangelism.”  It is a loaded word.  When we say “evangelism,” it brings to mind for many of us a familiar image: an individual standing at a door with an unbeliever, tract and Bible in hand ready to win this wretched sinner to Christ by walking him through the ABC’s of salvation and move on to the next house on the block. I have been there and handed out the tracts.  I have met with individuals and walked them through how to accept Christ.  And I have been frustrated.  Frustrated with how artificial the meeting feels.  Frustrated with with the lack of response from the individual.  Frustrated that my presentation of the gospel didn’t work.

Is there more to evangelism?  Is there more than just handing out a tract, asking a few pre-packaged questions, and walking away frustrated when someone doesn’t immediately accept Christ as their personal Savior?  Is there more than knocking door-to-door and meeting people who hesitate to allow us into there homes without a prior invitation?  Is there more?

I think there is.  Consider the following situation:  John, a Christian who just finished a class on evangelism and is pumped up to share the gospel,  goes to a door and knocks.  The door opens to a forty-year-old man who was not prepared for someone to knock at his door.  He is wearing sweatpants and a grungy shirt and does not look happy to have uninvited company.  John, Bible in hand and gospel tract ready, greets the individual and almost immediately jumps into a gospel presentation.  Our forty-year-old stranger puts up with the presentation, accepts the gospel tract and a free Bible so that the Christian will leave him alone and let him get back to his TV show.  After the door is shut, the stranger sighs in relief and tosses the Bible and tract into the trash.  On the other side of the door, John sighs and walks away, feeling defeated.

Now consider a second situation.  John has been working with Mark for three months.  Mark knows that John is a Christian, but he has never felt pressured by him to attend church or felt like he was being preached at.  One night after work, John invites Mark out for a steak dinner and while they’re eating John mentions that he and his friends are having a barbeque the following week.  Mark hesitates.  He knows John fairly well, but he doesn’t know any of his friends and doesn’t want to feel out of place.  But as John continues to talk about his friends and the barbeque, Mark is intrigued and accepts the invitation.  A week later at the barbeque, Mark arrives and is greeted warmly by Mark and his friends.  There are several people who are first-timers, and Mark doesn’t feel as out of place as he thought he would.   As the night wears on, he realizes that several of the people there are Christians.  They are not at all like he imagined Christians should be, and they are having a great time.  Throughout the night Mark is exposed to several Christians whom he has much in common with.  A few weeks later Mark calls John and tells him that he is about to start a Bible study with Steve and Bill, two friends he made at the barbeque, but he wants to make sure it’s OK with Mark.  Mark, of course, tells him it is fine.

If you are anything like me, you would be quick to call the first event evangelism, while the second event seems far less so.  But why is this?  Why is it more acceptable to view a lone Christian going door to door as doing the work of evangelism rather than a group of Christians inviting unbelievers to their home to have burgers and play games?   Tim Chester and Steve Timmis in their book, Total Church, have this to say about a more community-centered evangelism:

By making evangelism a community project, it also takes seriously the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in distributing a varitey of gifts among his people.  Everyone has a part to play–the new Christian, the introvert, the extrovert, the eloquent, the stuttering, the intelligent, the awkward.  I may be the one who has begun to build a relationship with my neighbor, but in introducing him to community, it is someone else who shares the gospel with him.  That is not only legitimate–it is positively thrilling![1]

So if we adopt this vision of making evangelism a “community project,” what will it mean for how we do evangelism?  What will we have to change in our own thinking?  What must we change in how we treat one another?  Is this model of evangelism viable?  Can it be done?  Should it be done?

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[1] Chester, Tim and Steve Timmis, Total Church, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 62.