This strong emphasis on the everlasting nature of the life that Christ makes possible for us in heaven is an appropriate focus for the theory and practice of evangelism. Christians should be motivated by a strong interest in helping persons live forever with Christ, and ministries that are effective in sharing this dimension of the gospel are to be encouraged. This is especially true of ministries that have a strong follow-up process to help new believers move from the getting-to-heaven focus toward a focus on a thriving life of discipleship. In this regard, one may agree with George Sweazey, who notes that as long as a congregation is effective in helping Christians grow in their experience of the many dimensions of life in God’s grace, they “can safely make their first appeal through just one aspect of the gospel.”14 Some congregations, however, may find it difficult to make their discipleship and follow-up ministries broader than their evangelism ministries. The dimension(s) of the gospel on which they focus in their evangelism may tend(s) to be the dimension(s) that take(s) precedence in the rest of their ministries.15
Evangelism in the U.S. American context, therefore, should not limit itself to the heavenly dimension of the good news of Jesus Christ. This is especially true when one considers that Christian evangelizing must attend to questions and issues that people are actually addressing, rather than those that Christians think they are (or should be) addressing.16 It is here that a stronger emphasis on the biblical theme of life can inform evangelistic efforts, for people today have far more interest in whether they can experience life now than in whether (or where) they will live for chronological eternity.17
Some of the questions we should attend to in evangelistic theory and practice are:
• In what ways are people seeking life today?
• How much does their battle against death take away from their experience of full life?
• If we assume that they are seeking life, do we make a corollary assumption that their daily experience is more akin to death?
• If so, who or what are the “thieves” that are trying to steal and kill and destroy their lives (based on the language of John 10:10)?
Christians, therefore, must continually discern ways of thinking about and practicing evangelism that honor the strong biblical theme that God wants God’s created humanity to experience life fully (abundantly, according to John 10:10), on this earth, prior to physical death.
When evangelism deals with sin, for example, mutual emphasis could be given to the life-forever benefits of being forgiven through Christ (e.g., access to heaven) and to the life-now benefits of Christ’s forgiveness (e.g., freedom from bondage).18 Likewise, evangelism could endeavor to discover appropriate means for expressing how deeply God is for humanity while at the same time honoring that God is against sin. Similarly, repentance could be accentuated as an important dimension of “getting right with God” in order to prepare oneself for life in the hereafter, but it could also be stressed as a contributing factor to reconciliation and full enjoyment of relationships with people here on earth. The same point could be illustrated in relation to other theological concepts, such as atonement, redemption, salvation, and justification. In evangelism, each of these concepts could be expressed in ways that would honor both the life-after-death and the life-before-death benefits of following Christ.
Current evangelism in the United States does not completely ignore the impact of Christ-following during this lifetime. However, some of the common ways that evangelism portrays the benefits of Christ-following during this lifetime fall short of the fully orbed life God intends God’s followers to experience. Two U.S. American portraits of Christian living in particular come to mind: the prosperity gospel and the “you’ll never have another problem” gospel.19
The prosperity gospel speaks to abundant living on this side of death; however, some of its proponents do so in biblically and theologically inappropriate ways. There is too much emphasis on financial well-being and too little emphasis on other dimensions of God-intended human fullness, such as servanthood, mutuality in helping other people thrive, and relational community. I will deal more fully with the prosperity gospel in a subsequent chapter.
The “you’ll never have another problem” gospel obviously communicates that following Christ brings blessings in this life, but it just as obviously promises something that cannot be delivered, something God neither promises nor intends.20 You need only consider the “hall of faith” in Hebrews 11 to discern that faithfulness in following God’s way does not guarantee problem-free living. An important issue that is addressed in this book, therefore, is that some evangelistic theory and practice do not sufficiently appreciate and incorporate the biblical theme of full life in Christ, particularly in relation to God’s intention for us to experience fullness of life here on earth, prior to physical death.
Second Perspective: Basing Evangelism on “Kingdom”
The foundational premise of this project is that evangelistic theory and practice should be grounded in the biblical theme of life. How, therefore, does the strong synoptic emphasis on the kingdom of God fit into this picture? One may consider, for example, the proposal from William Abraham that evangelism is best understood as “that set of intentional activities governed by the goal of initiating persons into the kingdom of God for the first time.”21 With his emphasis on initiation into the kingdom of God, Abraham seeks to honor the strong prevalence of kingdom language in the Bible, particularly in regard to the teachings of Jesus. Furthermore, he wants to distinguish between initiating persons into the kingdom and initiating them into the church. This helps us move from an anthropocentric focus on “what we do” or on “what is done to us” in the church’s initiation process to a theocentric focus “on the majestic and awesome activity of a Trinitarian God whose actions on our behalf stagger our imagination and dissolve into impenetrable mystery.”22
Grounded in this comprehensive kingdom-based understanding, Abraham extracts three principles that are vital for the ministry of evangelism. First, evangelism is inextricably linked with worship in the Christian community. Second, the good news of the kingdom must be proclaimed. Third, some form of the catechumenate should be reinstated in order to help kingdom initiates understand and embrace all the dimensions of kingdom initiation.23
Scott Jones offers a different portrayal of evangelism. He insists that evangelism should be theologically grounded in what has become known as Jesus’s Great Commandment, to love God and neighbor.24