In the last blog I tried to draw a picture of our current society – very individualistic, and hedonistic but increasingly anxious and in need of the truth.
The way society is going is an indication that without Christ we are on our way to hell – a lost eternity. But through Christ and his cross there is salvation. How can we reach out to such a lost society?
My overall thrust here, is that the way forward is through an evangelism of attraction. People need to be tempted out of their shells of individualistic anxiety. Rather than trying to invade their defences, they must be charmed to venture out of their castle walls. There is a New Testament thread behind this strategy. Scripture speaks of the lives of God’s people provoking questions and Christians being ready to answer (Jn 3:2; Acts 24:24; 25:22; 1 Pet 3:15). This approach to spreading the gospel seems particularly appropriate for today’s Western society. Let me explain this in two ways.
Demonstrating the good news – the local church
If the way the world is going indicates coming judgment, then the local church ought to be a shop window for the coming salvation. Churches ought to be an indicator of glory, something of a foretaste of heaven.
We have previously noted that part of our sin is the commitment to self, or individualism (2 Tim 3:1-5). The local church by contrast is meant to show God-given community. The individual is important, but the individual is never meant to exist outside community. ‘It is not good for the man to be alone’ (Gen 2:18) – both in marriage and wider relationships. When the church is treated simply as a convenience store for us to get our spiritual supplies for our ‘personal Christian lives’ and then we go off to pursue a Christianised version of individualism, we do not do the world any favours. We fail to showcase salvation. Salvation is a family feast of love at the Father’s table in the Lord’s house (Ps 23:5-6). When local churches are disunited, joyless, and full of acrimony and complaints, we are a parody of what we should be and do more harm than good.
The new command of the Lord Jesus Christ is a ‘one another’ command. ‘As I have loved you, so you must love one another’ J(n 13.34). The sacrificial affection which Christ displayed for us must also be evident among Christians and therefore especially in the local church.
John takes up this command in the most astonishing way: ‘No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us’ (1 Jn 4:12). This verse is seen as remarkable when we set it alongside the only other verse which begins in the same way. ‘No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known’ (Jn 1:18).
Today many people ask ‘Where is your God? We can’t see him.’ To that challenge, John has two answers. The first is in John 1:18. No, you can’t see God, but if you had been around in first century Palestine you would have seen him in Jesus (Jn 14:9). But the second answer is breath-taking. The Lord Jesus is now in heaven until his return. But you can ‘see God’ today. Comparing John 1:18 and 1 John 4:12 the answer shocks us but is quite clear. The living God can be ‘seen’ today in a church where God’s people love each other. If we love one another ‘God lives in us’. God himself is ‘at home’ in such a church.
In many ways this is the forgotten strategy of the church. Programmes, preaching and plans have their place. But, on their own they will not take us very far in today’s hardened secular society. People need to encounter the living God. And John says they will do so in a gospel church where the members love each other. John is not saying there needs to be nothing else in the church. Of course, there must be Bible truth, and prayer and holiness and much more. But when Christians love one another as Christ has loved us (1 Cor 13:1-8a), it has an effect out of all proportion to what we might imagine, because God is there.
I ought to say as an aside, that these days a good church website is enormously important. It is not only Christians moving into the area who check our churches online. Very often non-Christians do the same before they decide to come along. It needs to be interesting, attractive and inviting. But the main thing is, what do they find when they turn up? They need to find a taste of heavenly community. They need to find the presence of God. And when they do, they will want to know more.
Communicating the good news – the Christian’s part
We switch focus now to Colossians 4.2-6:
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
You can see that this paragraph is concerned with evangelism. It is about opening doors for the message and interacting with outsiders (vv. 3, 5). Here we will find what may be termed both active and passive evangelism. But you can also see that the first move in evangelism is prayer. And not just prayer but ongoing devoted prayer – constant, continuous prayer.
Prioritising Prayer
We are engaged in a spiritual warfare in evangelism and God’s power must be deployed if we are going to see anything happen. The blindfolds of sin and self, need to be removed and people convicted and brought to repentance and faith. This is a work only God’s Holy Spirit can achieve.
But having said that, I am continually amazed at the neglect of prayer in our churches and personally. Where are the men and women who will pray? No matter what programmes and schemes we put in place concerning evangelism, we are not serious about evangelism until it becomes a priority in prayer. We rely far too much on techniques than on God in prayer. And notice this is watchful prayer – understanding what is happening in society around us. And it is worshipful, thankful prayer – full of heartfelt expressions which say ‘thank you Lord for saving my soul’. This is prayer for evangelism which springs out of love for God. We think of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Father in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come’. That’s not just prayer for the Second Coming, but prayer for the spread of the gospel.
Here is what all Christians can do – and let me emphasize, are expected to do. You amy be a naturally fearful or shy Christian – but you can pray. You may be a frail older person – but you can pray. You are a busy mum – but you can pray. You have enough on your plate looking after elderly parents – but you can pray. You have a job which takes you travelling around the country – but you can pray. You have a large screen TV with the best video games available – but you can switch it off and come to a prayer meeting. We so often lament the lack of success for the gospel – but I think the Lord’s reply might be ‘stop braying and start praying’. And pastors and elders, of course, you must be the leaders and encouragers in this.
And, when we have spent much time in prayer – especially worship – we will be coming from the throne room of heaven with something of its sense of glory upon us and so we are in a much better place to tell others of the Lord, because we have just been with him. Glory makes an impact in any culture.
The second thing we see here in Colossians 4.2-6 about evangelism is…
Recognising Gifts
Paul says, ‘And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message’ (v. 3). Who is Paul? He is an apostle. He is someone specifically called and gifted to spread the gospel. And we find in the NT that the evangelist is a gift of the risen and ascended Lord Jesus (Eph 4:11): ‘some to be evangelists.’ Not every Christian is meant to be a front-line evangelist – and we make a dreadful mistake when we try to make them do this. But I will come back to that. There needs to be a recognising of different people’s gifts.
A). We are to prayerfully get behind those that the Lord has specifically gifted for this work. These are the active evangelists. These are those who can make the running, who are gifted to break the ground. That may be specified evangelists – gospel preachers. This certainly includes pastors. It is to be part of your work as a preacher and teacher (2 Tim 4:5). It is part of the duty of your ministry. So, congregations should pray for their pastors, for example, that the Lord will enable him to make his messages first of all to feed the flock, but in a way that is accessible to outsiders. Pray that when he is out on his visits to hospitals or to grieving relatives, the Lord would open up opportunities to share the gospel. Pray that the Lord would make him winsome, bold and clear.
But more than that, you know there are people in every congregation who are simply good at inviting people to church, making them feel at ease. They are outgoing in a relaxed and human way. Use these people to advantage. For example, when you have an evangelistic supper, don’t have those people in the kitchen while all the dear introverts who can hardly look people in the eye are on the doors to welcome people. Recognise gifts. And if the outgoing ones are the best cooks, bring in a catering company so that the naturally friendly ones can engage with the guests. Recognise gifts of evangelism among the congregation.
B). But let me go back to the other side of this. Don’t force into front-line evangelism people who are simply not suited for it. If you put them on a guilt trip and push them into door-to-door visitation etc., the usual outcome is that it does more harm than good. They are embarrassed and so are the people who answer the door. They simply don’t have the gift. The idea that every Christian must be someone who is a zealous evangelist (‘how many people have you spoken to about Christ this week?’) is a modern invention which actually discourages and depresses many Christians unnecessarily. It often brings an unhelpful fraught atmosphere to churches.[1]
This insisting that every Christian must be a ‘go-getter’, active evangelist is simply wrong. The idea that ‘personal evangelism’ must be part of discipleship courses is simply not there in the NT. There is a book fairly recently published by an academic, Alan Kreider titled The Patient Ferment of the Early Church.[2] It was in those early centuries that the church grew amazingly despite troubles and persecution. Yet Kreider shows that the catechisms which new converts went through when they became Christians in those years teach nothing about personal evangelism and button-holing people and pressing them to make a decision. Rather what happened in those years was that Christians lived such radiant, contented, loving and patient lives in the midst of trouble, that non-Christians were astonished and approached them. They asked what it was about them? – the reason for the hope they had. It was passive evangelism. People were attracted to them. There is a link we have often missed between sanctification (being aglow with the Spirit) and evangelism.
So, recognise and support and deploy those God has specifically gifted. But for Christians without those specific evangelistic gifts concentrate on living a Christ-filled, loving, patient life.
Which brings us to the third aspect of what we have in Colossians 4:2-6.
Tenderising conversation
A few years ago, Ann and I visited Northern Ireland on a speaking engagement. Our host met us at the airport and then drove us into the suburbs of Belfast to a cafe just to touch base with us and get to know us.
Now there was something there in the cafe which astounded me, indeed shook me terribly. On the walls of this elegant cafe were various well taken black and white photographs. They had a real artistry about them which customers would have appreciated. But among those photos was one from I suppose the 1950s or 60s of two men holding up a big poster declaring ‘You must be born again!’ Now why would a secular cafe be happy to be displaying such a photo? The answer was the look on the men’s faces – so grim, so joyless, so aggressive that their demeanour not only neutralised the message completely, but actually did the very reverse of encouraging people to seek Christ. The message had become, ‘be born again and become like us – hard, accusatory and harsh.’ It spoke volumes for secularism! I know that is an extreme example – but you get the point. We may be declaring the gospel, but do we make it attractive?
Folk in our congregations will be known as Christians at work, at school among their families and neighbours. But how do we package our Christianity? We are to do it like this says Paul: ‘Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.’ Notice a couple of things.
A). It is not the ordinary Christian’s job to force the pace evangelistically, but to look out for (and there is nothing wrong with praying for) opportunities to say something about the Lord Jesus. Our people are not to be uptight Bible bashers – pushing their point of view all the time. Rather let the non-Christians ask the questions. 1 Peter 3.15 reads ‘But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.’ Notice that connection again between evangelism and true sanctification.
B). ‘Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.’ Christians need to be a tender people – not just in their conversation but in how they are. They need to be those who are gentle and gracious. Not spikey and sullen, but caring, loving and forgiving. They are to be like this even when the non-Christians they encounter are derisive and unfriendly. They are to be like this because that is their true character in Christ and they can afford to be like this because they are held in the loving arms of their heavenly Father. This makes the gospel attractive to the ‘anxious generation’ of our day. Gracious – more interested in them than they are in themselves. And not just gracious but full of grace. (Where can that possibly come from except through a close a trusting walk with Christ filled with his Spirit). And yes, there will be a place for gospel salt, for God’s covenant word, when the opportunity arises. But don’t overdo it – seasoned with salt – make them thirsty for more. And that being thirsty for more will be the sign that God is doing the evangelism. This is not just you in your strength. And that’s what we want. Now, the Christian is in a position to ask their friends to church or to think about a Christianity Explored course or whatever.
Outreach in our society? I suggest we must pursue the NT’s ‘strategy’ of attractive evangelism. We must demonstrate salvation in the love of the churches and begin to communicate the gospel through the grace of our lives.
[1] Indeed, taken to extreme I have come across cases which turn churches into oppressive cults. They may be doctrinally relatively orthodox, but this oppressive Arminianism brings their members into a legalistic view of evangelism which becomes a terrible spiritual bondage and damages Christians deeply. I have even known of it breaking up marriages.
[2] Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: the ImprobableRrise of Christianity in the Roman Empire (Baker Academic, 2016).
