Several years ago, I visited a slum in Bangalore, India. After walking through the slum and trying to serve some of the people that lived there, the team I was with happened upon a beautiful brick church building, complete with steeples and stained glass. I was a little surprised to see such a building in the middle of such poverty, and asked several of the people in the slum about the church.

A Wonderful Church in the Slum

They had only good things to say about the church. It was a good church. The church tried to offer food, clothing, and basic healthcare to the people of the slum. Those who attended the church said that they liked going. The music was beautiful. The pastor was kind. And they said that the church was cool and clean, and attending the church gave them some reprieve from the heat and filth that surrounded them. Some said that the church gave them a glimpse of what heaven must be like. It was a little bit of heaven on earth.

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Is this the same preaching, when Christ says to the rich young man, “Sell all that thou hast, and give it to the poor;” and when the priest says, “Sell all that thou hast and… give it to me”?

— Søren Kierkegaard, Attack Upon Christendom

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Ultimately, evangelism is not about looking to heaven and to the afterlife as the cure for all of life’s problems. The central message of evangelism must not be “Get right with God because then eternity will be grand.” While the Gospel contains truth about heaven and eternity, it also focuses on life here on earth.

The Truth of the Gospel

The Gospel contains numerous truths about loving one another, taking care of our neighbor, looking after our family, and serving those in need. If we are ignoring these aspects of the Gospel, we are not living or obeying the entire Gospel, but are instead using the hope of heaven as a way to escape the responsibilities of life on earth.

In his book Naming the Powers, Walter Wink put it this way:

Christian evangelism has all too often been wedded to a politics of the status quo and merely serves to relieve stress by displacing hope to an afterlife and ignoring the causes of oppression.

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If evangelism is about all of life (as we saw yesterday), then evangelism is not a “one time event.” Evangelism never stops.

Just because someone “believes in Jesus” does not mean they have been “evangelized.” Again, if the Gospel is about how we live and act in all of life, then evangelism is also about how we live and act in all of life. Evangelism isn’t over with someone just because they believe in Jesus. Before a person got to that point, evangelism had been going on for a very long time, and will continue to go on for the rest of that person’s life.

You and I are Not Evangelized

Let me put it more bluntly. You and I are not yet evangelized. Sure, we may believe truths about the Gospel, but if the Gospel is about all of life, and seeing the rule and reign of God expand in our life, then we have not been fully evangelized until the rule and reign of God is complete in our lives, and that will never happen this side of eternity.

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I suggested yesterday that the Gospel is about all of life, and seeing the ever-increasing expansion of the rule and reign of God in our own lives. If this is true, in what we say, what we do, and how we act, then what does this mean for evangelism?

What is Evangelism?

Well, it might be helpful to note that in Scripture, the words evangelism and gospel are essentially the same words. Frankly, I wish our Bible translators had shown this connection better, as it would have cleared up a lot of confusion about what the Gospel is and how to do evangelism. Both words come from the Greek root evangel. Our word evangelism is not even a translation from the Greek! And as for the word “Gospel,” it is not the best translation either, but is a hybrid of Old English and German and means “good story” or “good message.”

So the problem with translating the evangel word family is that there are not any good English words to translate it to. In the days of Jesus and the apostles, evangel referred to a good message which had immediate and lifelong positive implications for those who heard it. It was an announcement of liberty to the captives and freedom for the oppressed. It was the announcement that the enemy had been defeated, the war had been won. It was the declaration that the old ruthless and evil king had died, and a new king of peace, righteousness, and justice now sat on the throne.

When someone heard this message, their lives would be forever different. The good message was so revolutionary that the simple act of telling it to others caused great joy and brought great freedom to all who heard it.

The Gutted Gospel

But the typical evangelistic message of today does no such thing. Why not? For two reasons. First, we are leaving out most of the message. The typical gospel presentation shares a few facts about a man named Jesus who lived 2000 years ago, and then a few facts about what happens to us after death as a result, but leaves out everything relating to our life here and now. As such, the Gospel has been gutted of most of its persuasive power.

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