We had a small but focused meeting on evangelism on Sunday night. In the course of discussion we identified two paths forward in community evangelism, which I'd like to share with you today.
Before we start, though, a definition. "Evangelism" means, in essence, "Good News Sharing". Whenever you share something, especially news, the direction is outward. It's ironic that the traditional definition of evangelism involves an inward motion: getting other people to come to church. That's not the definition we're choosing. It's the opposite, in fact. Our goal is to get the Good News of Christ out there to a community that needs it and a world for whom that Good News--and definitions like "church" and "evangelism"--have been sorely mis-defined. From the start we went away from the goal of trying to get more members for the church. It seemed self-serving and uncomfortable. Instead we focused on that outward flow of love, grace, and news. We want to send our members out to do wonderful things, not send them out to bring more people back in. We believe that in due course this outward flow of evangelism will bring more people into the church, but that's a side-effect, not the main purpose.
We identified two broad categories of action in order to make great evangelism a reality in our community: internal and external.
Internally the first step is simple to admit that we believe. We need to affirm that we believe in God. We need to know that we believe in our church and in each other. We need to commit to both, telling ourselves and each other that this really matters, that it's really important. If we don't feel this, we're probably fooling ourselves getting together like we do. If we do feel it, we need to put that forward and back it up with our words and actions. Personally I believe that our church is blessed right now. I've searched years to find Spirit, momentum, and creative gifts like we're showing. I don't think there's a church in the world I'd rather be at. I know plenty of other churches that are struggling like mad to do the things that are now coming naturally to us. We need to recognize that, realize the unique opportunity before us, and act to support, sustain, and grow it.
Once we've admitted that we believe the next step is to find common focus. This will probably take the form of a workshop offered a couple times in the coming year. We really, really need people to attend this. In the course of the workshop we will un-learn some of the definitions that hold us back from evangelism and re-learn the wonderful things that propel us outward in Christ's ministry. Without this step, even with the best of intentions, our efforts are going to fall into the deep ditch dug by previous (less helpful) definitions of evangelism.
Out of that workshop will come our way forward. The final internal step will be to see evangelism in everything we do. Evangelism isn't supposed to be something you do on a Tuesday for two hours with a friend. We need to make all of our gatherings, events, worship services, and moments outside of church more evangelical (in the best sense of that word). We need to look at everything we do through the lens of spreading the Good News so that people will know what we're about without having to be told in so many words. When this final internal step happens the external will begin to bloom.
We've already taken some steps externally. Our Angels on Call ministry delivers the message that help is always near. This blog allows people daily access to our church and some of the theology that drives it. We've done a few other things in the community as a group and many things as individuals. We need to celebrate and expand those efforts. Through words and actions we need to let people know the amazing Spirit that's alive in our midst.
I think we can do this fairly easily, but not until we've done some of the intentional internal work first. The exact shape of our external efforts will flow from the internal discussions. Without the common direction and definitions provided by the internal step, though, all we'll be doing is a series of disparate events. We need the glue of our common confession and time spent together to make this work.
Listen for the evangelical message in worship over the next few weeks. Watch for the Evangelism Workshop and participate when it comes. This is the Next Huge Step in our growth together as a church and one of the most obvious ways God will work among us this year.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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