The Road to Missional: Journey to the Center of the Church
Sourced from Outreach Magazine Website: HERE
By Michael Frost
What Exactly Is Evangelism?
The mission of God is far wider than the evangelistic enterprise. Indeed, evangelism is one of the aspects or functions of the missio Dei, but not the only one. We alert people to God’s reign through Christ in a variety of ways, one of which is the verbal announcement of that reign. We must see evangelism in this broader context. But having said that, we need to be careful not to assume that unexplained action is evangelistic. As it’s used in the New Testament, the term evangelism describes a verbal announcement. It is a declarative activity. Words are required. As David Bosch points out, “This message is indeed necessary. It is unique. It cannot be replaced by unexplained deeds.” But as Bosch also pointed out, there is no perfect set of words that captures the gospel, and it is ludicrous to think that we can train Christians to present the gospel as a five-minute sales pitch.
Part of the problem with evangelism is that many Christians feel they need to get the whole gospel out in one conversation. The reason for this is many Christians are only ever in a position to “evangelize” strangers because all their friends are Christians. When the only “evangelism” we do is with strangers on airplanes or at dinner parties or business conferences, we feel an understandable pressure to get all the bases covered, because this might be the only opportunity we (or they) get. Evangelizing friends and neighbors, gradually, relationally, over an extended time, means that the breadth and beauty of the gospel can be expressed slowly without the urgency of the one-off pitch.
When we understand what it is to be truly missional—incarnated deeply within a local host community—we will find that evangelism is best done slowly, deliberately, in the context of a loving community. It takes time and multiple engagements. It requires the unbeliever to observe our lifestyle, see our demonstrations of the reign of God, test our values, enjoy our hospitality. And it must occur as a communal activity, not only as a solo venture. Unbelievers must see the nature and quality of the embodied gospel in community. And all the while, conversations, questions, discussions and even debates occur wherein we can verbally express our devotion to the reign of God through Christ. No more billboards. No more television commercials. No more unsolicited mail. If evangelism is like a meal, think of it as being prepared in a slow cooker and served over a long night around a large table. It can’t be microwaved. It can’t be takeout.
In 1986, Italian chef and provedore Carlo Petrini founded the Slow Food movement which has since expanded globally to over 100,000 members in 132 countries. Slow Food exists to “counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. To do that, Slow Food brings together pleasure and responsibility, and makes them inseparable.”
Well, that’s what missional thinkers are attempting to do with evangelism—to slow it down, to counteract the abuses of fast evangelism, to place evangelism back into community, to rediscover both the pleasure and the responsibility of announcing the reign of God. It shouldn’t be a one-off, hit-or-miss presentation. As Bryan Stone from Boston University points out, it is as messy and organic and communal as life itself:
The practice of evangelism is a complex and multilayered process—a context of multiple activities that invite, herald, welcome and provoke and that has as its end the peaceable reign of God and the social holiness by which persons are oriented to that reign.
Part of the problem is that so many of our models for evangelism are itinerant evangelists and pastors. These people rarely tell stories about being deeply incarnated into a neighborhood or host community. Rather, their examples are all about "evangelizing” strangers on airplanes. They tell us about how they managed to fashion just the right line at the perfect time that broke their subject open and allowed them to present Christ to them. They make these presentations to people they will never see again and for whom they feel no sense of ongoing responsibility. It is the equivalent of fast-food evangelism, and it’s not the way it was meant to be.
So, how is it meant to be? What exactly is evangelism? David Bosch defines it:
Evangelism is that dimension and activity of the church’s mission which, by word and deed and in light of particular conditions and a particular context, offers every person and community, everywhere, a valid opportunity to be directly challenged to a radical reorientation of their lives.
Since Bosch managed to pack a series of ideas into that one sentence, we need to do a bit of unpacking. We could parse his definition in the following way:
- Evangelism is a dimension of mission, not its sum total;
- Evangelism is part of the church’s mission, not just an activity for individuals;
- Evangelism involves both word and deed;
- Evangelism occurs within, and is influenced by, certain cultural and relational
conditions and in a certain context;
- Evangelism challenges people to a radical reorientation of their lives.
Sharing your faith with a stranger on a plane or some other form of public transportation is not a bad thing as such, particularly if the conversation veers in that direction. But it is not an exemplar of the things mentioned above. It is a solo activity, conducted between virtual strangers, outside of their particular cultural contexts, and if “successful,” it leaves the evangelized having prayed some sinner’s prayer that will guarantee them eternal salvation. Where’s the church community? Where’s the shared context? Where’s both word and deed? And, above all, where is the radical reorientation of which Bosch speaks?
That radical reorientation should of course involve the decision to acknowledge the reign of God through Christ and submit oneself to live under it. It is more than saying a prayer that will provide you with the golden ticket into heaven when you die. It is the breathtaking and foolhardy risk to live every day under the assumption that the Triune God does indeed reign. Bosch went on to describe the outworking of this reorientation, involving as it does such things as:
- Deliverance from slavery to the world and its powers
- Embracing Christ as Savior and Lord
- Becoming a living member of Christ’s community, the church
- Being enlisted into his service of reconciliation, peace and justice on earth
- Being committed to God’s purpose of placing all things under the rule of Christ
Presenting the Gospel
If the mission of the church is the alerting of people to the reign of God through Christ, then it follows that those who reorient their lives to God would be committed to God’s purpose of placing all things under the rule of Christ. This is a core expression of faith in the biblical God, and it rarely finds itself in any of the church’s favorite tracts or Gospel presentations. Until recently, the missional responsibility of the believer was never mentioned in evangelistic presentations. One exception to this is the recent InterVarsity presentation The Big Story, sometimes referred to as the four circles because it involves retelling the gospel in four stages, each one represented by a circle. It was designed by IVP director James Choung, and its four stages are:
- Designed for Good—affirming that the world was created as a good, wonderful place where everything was right with each other;
- Damaged by Evil—describing the presence of sin and brokenness in this world, both personal and global;
- Restored for Better—outlining the atonement of Jesus and its power in bringing God and humankind back into relationship with each other; and
- Sent Together to Heal—commissioning believers, with the power of the Spirit and the community of God’s people, to be sent out together to heal the planet.
Stages (or circles) 1 to 3 are not that different from many similar tracts or rote presentations, but it’s the presence of the fourth circle—commissioning new believers into the service of the kingdom of God—that sets it apart and reveals the emerging recognition of the ethical implications of the Gospel. Evangelism then is more than a discussion about human sin and existential yearning and how Jesus can alleviate them. It is the announcement of God’s reign through Christ and an invitation to live under that rule, to place all things under the lordship of the Triune God. This has enormous personal, local and global ramifications.
More recently, David Benson, a friend of mine from Brisbane, Australia, has added a fifth stage (or circle) to Choung’s original design (with permission). Calling his presentation Epic Story, David’s fifth circle is called Set Everything Right, and he describes it this way:
For all our best efforts, we’re still broken. By ourselves, the world will never fully heal. [God] is patient and wants everyone to freely choose the role we were made for. But the day is coming when Jesus will return, judge the world and set everything right.
This, of course, sounds the eschatological note that Lesslie Newbigin cautioned us not to forget, that a belief in the coming reign of God is the framework for all missionary practice. While we do call people to follow Jesus and be sent together to heal a broken world, we remain conscious that it is ultimately Jesus’ work to set everything right.
This is as it was seen in the beginning by the first evangelists. When they “preached the gospel,” it was never as a condemnatory presentation about human sin. It was always anchored in the historical fact of the Jesus event and its significance for humankind. Consider the link between the Old Testament use of the term basar and the New Testament references to euangelizomai. There are very good reasons for believing that the latter derives in no small measure from the former, and in particular, from Isaiah 40–66, where in 40:9; 41:27; 52:7; and 61:1, the word “evangelize” (tell the gospel) appears several times (in Hebrew, it is basar; in Greek, it is euangelizomai). An analysis of their respective usages reveals a striking level of correspondence between the New Testament and Isaiah’s use of this word. Furthermore, on several occasions the New Testament directly quotes and/or alludes to passages in Isaiah that contain the “gospel” word (for example, Matt. 11:5; Mark 1:14–15; Luke 4:18; Luke 7:22; Acts 10:36; Rom. 10:15; and Eph. 2:17).
To cut a long exegetical story short, from the five passages in which “gospel” appears in Isaiah (40:1–11; 52:1–10; 60:1–7; 61:1–3), one of which I quoted in the previous chapter, the following conclusions may be drawn:
1. Important News: The simple stem angel denotes a message, messenger or reporting of a message. When the stem is prefixed by eu-, this essential meaning does not change. However, an air of importance appears to attach itself to the stem when the prefix appears. This importance may relate to the inherent goodness of the message, or perhaps the joy the message produces. But this is complicated by evidence elsewhere in the Old Testament which appears to suggest that “gospel” did not always denote good news. For example, in David’s lament over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, the king forbids a public proclamation (basar/euangelizomai—2 Sam. 1:20) of the tragic events. See also 2 Samuel 18:27. In view of this, it is better to understand the prefix eu- (in relation to angelion) as primarily denoting importance rather than goodness. The fact that the adverb eu on its own can mean “greatly” or “abundantly” supports this. The New Testament also uses euangelion in a way that clearly does not mean good news—Romans 2:16; Revelation 14:6.
2. News of Events: In every instance in which the word appears in Isaiah, the “gospel” announced is a report of events that are to occur in history—the gathering of God’s exiled people, victory over foreign enemies, exaltation of the Jerusalem temple, and so forth. It is not like the word “teach” or “dialogue,” which refer more to the communication of ideas. This is consistently borne out in the Greco-Roman usage of the term as well, where it may refer to the announcement of a birth of a child, a military victory, a marriage, etc. The word “gospel” is very much like the modern media term “news flash.”
3. News of Salvation: The words and ideas of “salvation” are always attached to Isaiah’s use of euangelion. God as the rescuer of His people is at the core of the term’s connotations.
4. News of God’s Rule: At every point, the important news of the events relating to God’s salvation are framed in the context and language of God’s kingship over the world. In Isaiah 52:7, for instance, the precise content of the gospel proclamation is “Your God rules as King!”
5. News about the Future: In each of the Isaianic passages in which euangel- appears, the announcement is eschatological. That is, it concerns the coming reign of God in which He will reverse the fortunes of His oppressed and condemned people. This eschatological connotation is an important feature of the New Testament use of the term “gospel,” in which the idea of fulfillment appears to be significant. I am thinking specifically of Mark 1:15 (“the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” [ESV]) and Romans 1:2ff. (“the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures” [ESV]).
My point in all this comparison is to suggest that the gospel, as it was understood by the earliest evangelists, was not simply about a four-point presentation of certain doctrines, particularly those about human sin and the atonement. I’m not suggesting these doctrines weren’t important, but I believe the earliest evangelists, influenced as they were by the Isaianic usage of basar,saw evangelism as the announcement of an event, the description of a salvation-bringing event in history—the incarnation, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. They were more concerned with announcing the Jesus event than they were with detailed descriptions of doctrinal belief. In many old-school “gospel presentations,” Jesus only appears toward the end of the presentation, the answer to the dilemmas raised in the early phase of the presentation. But Jesus isn’t point four of a five-point presentation. Jesus is the gospel. At least that’s how the earliest evangelists saw it.
The Gospel According to Paul
Take Paul, for example. If we explore Paul’s understanding of the gospel, you might be surprised it isn’t full of detailed explanations of the doctrine of justification by faith. It is all about the Jesus event, notwithstanding his marvelous explanation of justification by faith in Romans 3:21-26. But that passage isn’t an evangelistic treatise. In Romans 3, Paul is reminding the Romans of the meaning of the cross, not preaching the gospel to them. When we turn to all those passages that explicitly reveal the content of the apostle’s missionary kērygma, or preaching, we find something slightly but importantly different. Let’s look for those places where Paul self-consciously reminds his readers of the “gospel.”
While Romans 3:21-26 does not fit this above criterion, two other passages in Romans do. In the opening verses of the letter, Paul provides for his readers a summary of the “gospel of God.” In what scholars hold to be an early creedal formula known to both Paul and the Roman congregations, the apostle writes:
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 1:1-4)
Here is Paul’s gospel, and it is almost entirely news about the historical event of the incarnation and the resurrection as foretold by the prophets in the Holy Writings. It is about his Son, who, being a physical descendant of David, was installed as the mighty Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness from the moment of His resurrection from the dead. He is Messiah Jesus, our Lord. For Paul, the “gospel” consists of a proclamation of Jesus and His messianic credentials: his physical descent from King David, his vindication/validation by the Spirit of God, and his resurrection from the dead. This looks very much like the “gospel” given to us in Matthew’s Gospel, with its focus on the kingly rule of Jesus as displayed in his birth, life, death and resurrection. And note how the emphasis is on historic events rather than systematic theological ideas. As Peter Stuhlmacher writes concerning this passage: “Verses 3 and 4 contain the history of Christ told in the Gospels in short form, and emphasize that the entire way of Jesus, from his birth to his exaltation, stands under the sign of the promises of God.”
Later in Romans, Paul offers an even briefer summary of the missionary message. Romans 10:8-9 reads: “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
This is like the Reader’s Digest version of the Romans 1 passage, distilling the Jesus event down to its core essentials: his lordship and his resurrection. Paul indicates that his central missionary message concerns the event of Jesus’ resurrection and, in particular, how this event proves him to be the true Lord of the world, exalted above all earthly masters and rulers.
But Romans 1:2-4 also has a striking parallel in 2 Timothy 2:8, another passage that, according to most scholars, relies on an early creedal formula. In this passage we hear the older apostle handing over the baton to his faithful co-worker Timothy, reminding him of his role, life, doctrine and “gospel.” The apostle writes: “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel.”
This is my gospel. It couldn’t be any simpler. Paul’s gospel is not so much focused on the doctrines of salvation but on the historic events of Jesus’ messianic credentials—His resurrection from the dead and Davidic lineage. Note again that this summary corresponds precisely to the portrait of Jesus found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke: beginning with Jesus’ Davidic, kingly credentials and concluding with his vindicating resurrection. These two events (birth/resurrection) are like two bookends holding the story of Christ together.
Another of Paul's gospel presentations is found in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5, where he reminds the church of the message he first preached to them, and by which they were converted:
Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
This paragraph reads like a plot summary of the passion narrative found in any one of the Gospels. Again, its emphasis is on events—Jesus' death, resurrection, and appearances. These events from the core of what Paul called the "gospel I preached to you." This is not to say that an interpretation of these events is not part of the gospel. Indeed, in the above formula, the historic event of Jesus' death is linked to the doctrine of sin and atonement. The point, however, is that theological significance is rooted in historic event, and in proclaiming the gospel, this is where it belongs. This passage also reveals Paul's emphasis on the death, resurrection, and appearances of Jesus as the core of the gospel. Interestingly, this emphasis is found in each of the Gospels as well. On average, an impressive 20 percent of the material in the Gospels focuses on the events of Jesus' death, resurrection, and appearances.
The importance of the above creedal statements should not be underestimated, for they are rare glimpses into the missionary proclamation of the first Christians, and of the Pauline missionaries in particular. In his letters, Paul (and the otehr apostles) had no reason to repeat their missionary preaching at great length. The gospel tends to be a shared assumption throughout the epistles, always in the background but rarely brought to the fore. Thus, the few hints we have about what was "first delivered" are of paramount importance to anyone interested in missional proclamation, or evangelism.
Another passage in which Paul explicitly articulates something of the gospel is Romans 2:16, where he writes: "This will take place on the day when God judges people's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares." In this passage, Paul gives us one more piece of the gospel puzzle. Jesus' life does not end with his resurrection, appearances, and ascension into heaven. The story of Jesus reaches its climax when, as the Messiah, he returns to judge the world on God's behalf. This completes the story of Christ. This completes the gospel. This is the climactic demonstration of the universal reign of God through Christ.
The passages we have just looked at were all written to believers to remind them of the gospel Paul had preached to them. But in Acts 13 we have an example of Paul's evangelistic preaching, a presentation of the gospel aimed at unbelievers. It is so informative it is worth quoting a large portion of the passage:
After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: "I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do." From this man's descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised. Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel. As John was completing his work, he said: "Who do you think I am? I am not that one. No, but he is coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him, they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people. We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers, he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus.(Acts 13:22-32)
"We tell you the good news," says Paul. This is his gospel presentation, anchored entirely in the Jesus event. The sermon concludes: "Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him, everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:38-39).
Three things are particularly worth noting about this sermon. First, the focus of Paul's message is on the events of Jesus' life (it is a virutal summary of the Gospel narratives, particularly Mark and Luke). Second, the connection between the speech and the creedal summaries we looked at earlier in Romans 1 and 2 Timothy 2—with their emphasis on the Davidic, kingly rule of Jesus—is striking. Third, the passage contains an explicit reference to the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith and does so by rooting the doctrine firmly in the historic events of Jesus' Messianic rule, his life, death, and resurrection.
This brief study of Paul’s use of the term “gospel” highlights his peculiar approach: He preaches the lordship and the resurrection of Jesus as revealed in the events of his life, thus anchoring Christian proclamation in the story of Jesus, not the doctrines of the church. Indeed the doctrine of justification by faith flows out of a presentation of the Jesus event rather than the reverse. Evangelism is then much more about announcing the lordship of Jesus than the sinfulness of the unbeliever.
Sourced from Outreach Magazine Website: HERE
Michael Frost is an internationally recognized Australian missiologist and one of the leading voices in the international missional church movement. His books are required reading in colleges and seminaries around the world, and he is much sought after as an international conference speaker. Frost is the vice principal of Morling College and the founding director of the Tinsley Institute, a mission study center located at Morling College in Sydney, Australia. He is the author or editor of 12 popular Christian books, the most recent of which are the highly successful and award-winning The Shaping of Things to Come (2003, co-authored with colleague Alan Hirsch), Exiles (2006) and Re:Jesus (2009). Frost is also a church planter, having launched the missional community Small Boat Big Sea in Sydney in 2002.
This excerpt is taken from The Road to Missional: Journey to the Center of the Church (Baker). Copyright © 2011 by Michael Frost. Used by permission. All rights to this material are reserved. Material is not to be reproduced, scanned, copied or distributed in any printed or electronic form without written permission from Baker Publishing Group.
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