'All the statistical evidence goes to show that those within our secularised societies who are being drawn out of unbelief to faith in Christ say they were drawn through the friendship of a local congregation'.
So writes Leslie Newbigin. A statement like this is easily passed over. It seems rather obvious at one level.
Yet, on closer reflection, it is, I believe, one of the keys to effective thinking and strategic action about evangelism in our churches today. What we need is not a new technique but a more thorough examination and application of this basic insight. Four observations from my own work would seem to bear it out.
1. Relationships
We need to take more seriously the stories of people who describe the way in which they came to faith.
My observation is that we often act pragmatically on a misreading of the evidence. Very few people actually reason their way to faith. On the other hand, what does figure again and again in the testimonies of young Christians is the kind of language which describes a process in which a person gradually comes to share and adopt the outlook of a group of Christians whom they have got to know. It is often within this process of relational dialogue and witness that evangelism takes place. Rarely is this the up-front proclamation type: usually it is at a much more basic level in which the seeker is confronted by, and begin to question why it is that the Christians with whom he or she has become involved, are different.
This process leads, under God, to the desire for a change of perspective, in which the non-Christian transfers his allegiance and begins to desire to live from a 'God-perspective', as this has been seen incarnated in the life of Christian friends. This may seem rather clumsily put, but it catches the language so often used. It emphasises that lives count as least as much, if not more than, words. It is also, of course, profoundly biblical in its orientation. Most of the opportunities for verbal evangelism in the New Testament are expected to arise out of the witness of Christians in their daily lives, and from a desire on the part of the seeker to have answers to the questions that this different way of living raises (e.g. 1 Peter 2.11-12; 3.15; Col. 4.6, etc.).
2. Friendship
We are in danger of losing the art of friendship.
The kind of process described above depends, of course, on whether Christians can actually maintain real friendships outside the Christian circle. It has become axiomatic to me that churches whose members have made real and effective friendships within the local community and have prayed for their friends, are the churches which are most effective in evangelism. But what has struck me more recently is that people actually need help in making friends. It is becoming a lost art.
On a recent mission a lady quite openly explained to me that nearly all the relationships she had were those which she lived out through the television. The whole drift of society towards more introverted and passive forms of entertainment and socialising (nearly all fed by the latest technologies) is reaping its own harvest in the decline in human relationships. By the same token, however, the increased desire for 'community' in our society means that our opportunities for creating real relationship bridges are all the greater.
This is where the sort of community projects in which many Christians are involved are so important: school PTAs, action for local issues, legal advice and so on. These are not just means to an end of making friends. They are authentic expressions of what it means to live out the gospel in all areas of life. As we have seen, the very credibility of the message in the world's eyes is so often dependent on such action. But in the particular context of friendship, it is often those Christians who are involved in projects outside church 'territory' who have least difficulty in bridging the friendship gap.
3. Sunday by Sunday
Ordinary church worship is an evangelistic opportunity.
Another facet of this idea (that evangelism is essentially a relational process) is the observation that we often focus all our attention on certain 'set piece' evangelistic events, to the detriment of others which are, if anything, more significant.
Judging from church practice generally, we tend to adopt some variant of the 'guest service' approach. To use the jargon, the form of communication to the outsider of such events is most definitely hot. He or she will feel, understandably, that everything has been put on just for them. As a means of communication it is straight, and aims to persuade the mind and move the heart. I have no intrinsic problem with this, and have preached at dozens of services like them. But it is worth reflecting that for many new Christians, the route to faith came via the ordinary non-guest services. It was here that the evangelising of the outsider had actually taken place. My hunch is that the reason for this is along the relational lines that we have been considering. For in an 'ordinary' church service the outsider's question is not so much: 'How am I responding to all this overtly evangelistic stuff which is coming thick and fast at me?', but 'Why is it that all these people believe what they're singing and are being encouraged to live out what they're hearing?' This is the sort of evangelism which raises the worldview question rather than seeking some sort of immediate response to Christianity. Once again, it lives and breathes by the testimony of the gospel incarnated in the lives of Christians. It's not surprising that John Finney's recent survey found that one of the most effective evangelistic questions is simply 'Please will you come to church with me on Sunday (Finding Faith Today, Bible Society, 1992).
4. Training for work
Churches usually under-equip their lay people for the work of evangelism at their place of work.
Another of Newbigin's insights is this: 'The primary action of the church in the world is the action of its members in their daily work'. It is here ('living such good lives among the pagans' as Peter puts it in 1 Peter 2.11-12) that most day-to-day opportunities for evangelism take place. This broadening of the idea of where the church functions as the church is greatly needed today. Many church evangelistic strategies seem to stop at the church porch, and ignore what most people do most of their lives.
At the workplace, once again, the primary witness will be through the life of the believer. In fact, this is where most people will develop important friendships. But what about words? Isn't evangelism about speaking? Yes it is. But how? So often the idea of 'sharing the gospel' in the work context is alien to most Christians' experience. Opportunities simply do not arise in the normal course of business. Yet many are made to feel guilty for not doing so, because their pastor's expectation is that this is the kind of evangelism which should be happening. This sort of pressure can force the issue of evangelism either into a kind of proclamation which becomes almost Martian in its inappropriateness, or else forces the whole issue on to the back burner.
What I believe we need to work at more realistically is the whole are of making connections between the gospel and the place of work. I was recently chatting to a Christian who had discovered that there were opportunities for evangelism, but in his line of work, they were arising in ethical contexts which arose out of the concerns of the business itself.
I believe that work-related questions like these will increasingly be the major entrance point for talking about faith at work. One of the most important things that pastors and ministers should try to think through and act upon, is how to help Christian people to see and put into words the connections between the gospel and the issues raised at their place of work.
This will involve a two-way process of experience and reflection. Ministers need to learn from lay people the points of contact which will inform the application of the preached word. People should be encouraged to talk through and share the biblical connections with the issues they handle day-to-day. So often the preached word on Sunday does not connect with the coal face of Monday morning. The vision is very much in line with the sort of evangelism that Jesus demonstrates in the Gospels. It's about starting where people are. It's about raising the right questions. It's about making the right connections.
The Rev. Paul Weston teaches Evangelism, Mission Studies and Preaching at Oak Hill College, London.
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