Evangelism
The term “evangel” is a rendering of “gospel” that is in turn a rendering of “news,” “good news.” The most succinct usages of the term in the Old Testament are in Isaiah:
Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
(Isa. 40:9)
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
(Isa. 52:7)
The phrasing that occurs in these texts — “Here is your God” and “Your God reigns” — is
Chilcote, P. W., & Warner, L. C. (Eds.). (2008). The study of evangelism : Exploring a missional practice of the church. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Created from amridge on 2022-10-21 04:02:18.
C op
yr ig
ht ©
2 00
8. W
m . B
. E er
dm an
s P
ub lis
hi ng
C o.
. A ll
rig ht
s re
se rv
ed .
gospel talk. The two statements assert that the God of Israel whom Babylon had silenced and voided is back in play. The evangel asserts the revivification of this God long dormant:
The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
(Isa. 40:28)
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:14-15)
The talk of gospel is an announcement of new governance. The walk of gospel is to act as though the new rule of God were in effect, though there continues to be much data to the contrary. Thus the talk and the walk of the news constitute an act of resistance and the embrace of an alternative, even when the ground for the alternative is readily doubted in dominant culture. The “as though” proviso is an act of defiance and refusal, as the prophet notes:
Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in the God of my salvation.
(Hab. 3:17-18)
As discipleship is not simply church membership, so evangelism is not simply church recruitment of new members. Evangelism is the invitation and summons to resituate our talk and our walk according to the reality of this God, a reality not easily self-evident in our society. The call of the gospel includes the negative assertion that the technological- therapeutic-militaristic consumer world is false, not to be trusted or obeyed, and the positive claim that an alternative way in the world is legitimated by and appropriate to the new governance of the God who is back in town.
We should not be too grandiose about the alternative. There are indeed occasional times appropriate to spectacular evangelical assertion. On most days and in most places, however, the talk and the walk of good news become the slow, steady engagement with and practice of God’s will for generosity, compassion, and forgiveness in a world organized against those practices. Such practices are undertaken in the conviction that such acts on the spot make an important difference to the condition of the world and on the further conviction that the effect of such testimonial living is cumulative and will prevail, because such practice is rooted in the reality of the Messiah of whom we confess: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”
Chilcote, P. W., & Warner, L. C. (Eds.). (2008). The study of evangelism : Exploring a missional practice of the church. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Created from amridge on 2022-10-21 04:02:18.
C op
yr ig
ht ©
2 00
8. W
m . B
. E er
dm an
s P
ub lis
hi ng
C o.
. A ll
rig ht
s re
se rv
ed .
God’s call is a summons, but a summons away from a world too hard. God offers a genuine alternative to life in a distorted world, an alternative that will produce joy and well- being:
