I’ve emerged out of my first finals week in five years (fairly) unscathed! Though my brain is mush at this point, I thought I would post something in response to a comment on a post from a few days ago.

So a few days ago I pointed people to a post I wrote five months ago on deconstructing your faith. In it I tried to provide some practical means by which to do that, things which helped me in my own season of faith-deconstruction. One of those related to ‘evangelism.’ I encouraged people to count conversations rather than conversions and received some positive traffic and feedback. In responding to a comment by Mark Goodyear I mentioned how I really didn’t like the word evangelism. Mark pushed back and I thought I would layout some more thoughts in a post.

In short: I hate the word evangelism.

The word evangelism stems from the Greek euangelion for “good news”, which is a noun not a verb. The problem is you can’t build a theology on a word and the study of a word. It’s been turned into a verb, but the word was originally used by Jesus of the Kingdom of Heaven. He described the invasion of God’s Kingdom-movement in the world as good news, and called people to turn from their own Rhythm of Life and believe in this Kingdom by following Jesus into it.

After His resurrection He gathered The Twelve to commission them as agents of this new Kingdom-movement. Because all authority in all of Creation, both on Earth and in Heaven, has been given to Jesus, He has sent His agents of His Kingdom to share the good news of the Kingdom. So, yes, there is an element of sharing, but Jesus goes far beyond simply verbal communication. Instead of using a verb version of the noun for good news, Jesus later uses a real verb to command His motheytace’s (disciples) to motheusate: He calls those who were discipling/following after Him to “go and make disciples.” This verb literally means, “to cause one to be a pupil or disciple.”

So I say that not to impress you with my Greek, but as prologomena to my word for “evangelism”: discipleship.

christian spirituality, christianity, discipleship, emerging church, evangelism, jesus, kingdom of heaven

We are called not to evangelize, but to influence someone in such a way that they pattern their life and lifestyle after another. In our case, our goal should be to influence people to follow Jesus as Messiah, Redeemer, and Restorer. Now in the process we will proclaim and explain the amazing news that is found in Jesus and His teachings on the Kingdom of Heaven, but the point is to step into someone’s life and show them a better way of living and being Human, not simply to talk at them about their sin, Jesus’ death and resurrection, and future heavenly bliss. (As an aside, I wouldn’t call this thee gospel, anyway. It’s a piece of it, but Jesus’ gospel is quite different and wholly unoffensive. Confused? Read my series on The Unoffensive Gospel of Jesus.)

While evangelism is monological, discipleship is dialogical. Evangelism seeks to win people, discipleship seeks to shape people. When we evangelize, we posture ourself as a sage on the stage, with discipleship our posture is a guide on the side. Evangelism is an ephemeral event, discipleship is an on going effort.

I liken evangelism to Colonialism and discipleship as Sustainable Development.

Wikipedia defines Colonialism in this way:

Colonialism is the extension of a nation’s sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler colonies or administrative dependencies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled or displaced. Colonising nations generally dominate the resources, labor, and markets of the colonial territory, and may also impose socio-cultural, religious and linguistic structures on the conquered population.

Wow if this doesn’t often sound like Christian efforts at evangelism I don’t know what does! Through evangelism tactics don’t we often feel like we are crossing borders into enemy territory to settle and claim people for our kingdom? When we enter the conversation with another don’t we usually dominate all of the emotional, intellectual, and verbal capital in an effort to make that individual our own? And like Colonialism was often based on the ethnocentric belief that the morals and values of the colonizer were superior to those of the colonized, don’t we often believe that we hold the trump card to all things spiritual, that our morals and spirituality are more superior to the friend or co-worker to whom we’re “evangelizing”, ultimately thinking they have nothing to add to the conversation?

Rather than colonizing, we are called into Sustainable Development: we are called to step into the cultures and languages and customs and LIVES of real people to show and tell them a better way of being human by showing them Jesus and telling them of His Kingdom-movement. In other words, we are called to disciple.

In the same way that those who are committed to sustainable efforts at economical development are enter into the lives of people groups indefinitely for the purpose of showing them a better, more sound way of growing food, filtering water, or organizing an economy, we are called to step into the lives of people indefinitely to show them a better way of being Human in Jesus. In the same way that sustainable development is about the individual (rather than the group thats doing the developing), efforts at discipling non-followers are about them and their life, not us and our church or group. In the same way sustainable development equips people to better grow food or better manage a local economy, discipling non-followers must be about equipping them to follow Jesus and obey His teachings, not get to heaven.

The hope for the world is found in Jesus and His teachings, I fully realize that. We are called to proclaim a message of hope and see people restored to relationship with God and live as they were intended to live in the Way of Jesus, which I also fully affirm. May the Church, though, shed all impulses to colonize others and win them to our kingdom. May we move from from an arrogant ethnocentric posture that demands allegiance to our ideas without even listening to the journey of the Other. Instead may we humbly enter into the stories of the people around with the intension of being Jesus to them and telling of a better way of being Human. May we also enter into the lives of others to cultivate and develop them into followers of Jesus who pattern their lives and lifestyles after Him, not our church or group.

Rather than colonize and conquer through evangelism, may we sustainably develop people through discipleship.