Executing Ideas

On Sunday, Carl Medearis wrote a blog post for CNN titled “Why Evangelicals Should Stop Evangelizing.” A lot of people have been reading—it’s been shared 10,000 times on Facebook and has 3,400 comments.

I write this as I sit at the World Assembly of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Christians (IFES). I work for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an unapologetically Christian organization. I rarely say it this way, but I am evangelical. I want people to hear and receive the good news of who Jesus was, what he did, and what his death and resurrection offer each of us. I help lead the Urbana Student Missions Conference, which calls young adults to give their whole lives for God’s global mission, whether based in the US or overseas, in whatever sphere of society. I have spent years as a “missionary” on three continents, though I often don’t use that word, either.

I know and have steeped in the tension Medearis explains. Some friends love it and think I’m like the apostle Paul (in fact, someone said that to me in an elevator today). Other friends are very skeptical about “all that Jesus stuff,” though they’re generally happy that I try to serve people in hard places.

Medearis points out that some people view missionaries as “pious heroes performing good deeds that are unattainable for the average Christian.” Maybe so. But the Church today has started to realize that living for Jesus and his priorities is not a part-time job for anyone. Jesus said you had to give up everything in order to follow him. It seems we thought he didn’t mean that part, but it’s changing.

As for those who think of missionaries as “right-wing extremist who destroys cultures, tears apart families and paves the way for neo-colonialist crusaders to invade, occupy and plunder the resources of local populations.” He’s right (at least in many historical cases). But missionaries have built a lot of schools and hospitals and wells (both in other historical cases as well as today, through organizations like World Vision and a slew of others). And besides, everybody thinks their worldview is right—that’s why it’s their worldview.

Evangelism itself has come on hard times. I don’t usually use the word myself, partly because of the associations that it brings for many people. Medearis says it carries an “us-versus-them mentality.” At its worst, yes. But the word comes from euangelion, Greek for “good news.” Ought Christians tell one others good news? Of course. And I think the same for orthodox Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and the rest. If you hold to any of these faiths, you believe there is something true and something false and what you believe (and thus how you act) matters significantly, now and after you die. How dare anyone not offer that to others if one truly believes?

I’d say the same thing to the crowd of atheists commenting on Medearis’ piece. If you’re my friend and you think I’m wasting my time and life on something terrible and missing out on what is truthful and good, then I sure hope you tell me! However, I think how we converse about serious and personal issues is incredibly important, and it’s key for the next couple decades.

I agree with Medearis that we are not trying to convert people just to some new system or “religion” but rather to an actual connection with a supreme being. But he seems to think that can happen without a fundamental identity shift.

Nope.

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die,” wrote Bonhoffer. The call to be a Christian is to give up all of one’s self and to attempt to live for Jesus and his priorities, by God’s grace and enablement. That’s a big deal for everyone, even if you’ve grown up in a family that does just that, though it’s certainly a bigger deal if that runs counter to all those closest to you!

“Jesus the uniter of humanity, not Jesus the divider,” Medearis writes. I do think that Jesus transcends cultures and works within them. But he did come to bring division, as I’m sure Medearis is aware. I wonder how he reads Matthew 10:34.

He goes on:

“Encouraging anyone and everyone to become an apprentice of Jesus, without manipulation, is a more open, dynamic and relational way of helping people who want to become more like Jesus — regardless of their religious identity. Just because I believe that evangelicals should stop evangelizing doesn’t mean that they should to stop speaking of Jesus… Instead of trying to figure out who’s “in” and who’s “out,” why don’t we simply invite people to follow Jesus — and let Jesus run his kingdom? Inviting people to love, trust, and follow Jesus is something the world can live with. And since evangelicals like to say that it’s not about religion, but rather a personal relationship with Jesus, perhaps we should practice what we preach.”

It doesn’t sound at all to me like Medearis thinks evangelicals should stop evangelizing, he just wants those words defined differently or carefully. Why the misleading title? His book steps in the same direction: Speaking of Jesus: the Art of Not-Evangelism. He still wants to tell people the good news about Jesus, and he would be thrilled at a friend becoming a Christian. My concern is that we’ve been duped by Medearis or by CNN or by publisher David C. Cook. Medearis does think some changes are needed in how we think about (and do) evangelism, but it doesn’t seem like he actually wants evangelism per se to stop. So why the title?

To get 10,000 shares on Facebook and 3,400 comments on the blog and who knows how many hits on his own site, that’s why. That makes me feel icky.

So, as I’m spending the next week and a half with evangelicals from 155 nations in at this World Assembly of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, I continue to chew on Medearis’ points and the ensuing maelstrom of discussion.

But I’m pretty sure I’m going to keep telling other people good news and living in such a fashion as to demonstrate it.

Anybody with me?