As I suspected, my post on evangelism ruffled a few feathers. Well, it was meant to, so that’s good. But there’s also been a small degree of point-missing going on, so I need to clear a few things up. First of all, it might help if you read this article, which is what prompted me to write mine in the first place. It says broadly the same things as I do, but less provocatively 🙂

Okay. Jeni said:

I was going to write a comment about how evangelism isn’t about beating people over the head with a bible, how it isn’t about telling somebody to believe all the bits and pieces of what you believe, of how it’s just introducing someone to Jesus and letting them start their own journey, but am wondering if you’ll be cynical about that as well.

Um. I thought that’s what I had said? My problem with evangelism, as taught in the modern church, is that it’s approached as a hit-them-with-the-gospel quick-fix salvation-focused thing – what does it matter if they don’t understand the issues, so long as they’re saved? The thing is, I have seen, time and again, people who have become Christians this way, and they all follow the same pattern. They’ve been told that God will fix everything and make it alright; that God is the ultimate answer and that He will never let them down. And of course, a couple of weeks down the line, something goes wrong in their life and they lash out and either blame God for being inadequate or letting them down, or they believe they’re not “good enough” to be a Christian. And worse, they continue to do this: a continual yo-yoing backwards and forwards in faith, re-dedicating their lives to Christ with the promise that this time, they’ll get it right. Somehow, they manage to believe that somehow, God’s grace doesn’t always extend to them, and they feel miserable about their faith.

And, therefore, I’m not willing to sell the quick-fix, pre-packaged, believe-and-be-saved-and-everything-will-be-better Jesus any more.

Would you answer questions if you were asked? Or would you consider that evangelism and not answer them?

This makes me sad, and makes me think you’ve missed my point. Not only would I absolutely answer questions if asked, but I’d absolutely encourage people to ask them. What I wouldn’t do, however, is fall back on the “All you’ve got to do is believe and be saved” line. My statement that I dislike evangelism was deliberately provocative; I said it because of the associations evangelism holds in people’s minds today, and I wanted to challenge that. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to talk about my faith; I just don’t want to turn it into a powerpoint multimedia presentation teaching five easy steps to salvation. Because it’s not; it’s far more complex, subtle, exciting, beautiful and profound than that.

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