Throughout my life, I have been trained in many evangelistic methods:
- The Romans Road
- Evangelism Explosion
- Four Spiritual Laws
- Steps to Peace with God
- Wordless Book
- ABC Method
- One Verse Method
- Prayer the Prayer Billboard
- Lifestyle Evangelism
- Bad News/Good News
The common trait for all of these methods is they are transactional.
One image that comes to my mind about a transactional evangelistic method is the idea of punching subway tickets. As an evangelist, I am to present you with two options of destinations. One option is bad. The other option is good. My role as an evangelist is to persuade you to get your subway ticket punched for the good destination. If you respond positively to my persuasion, then I guide you in prayer (transaction) to get your subway ticket punched by God. Once you do this, you have the proper credentials to go to the good destination after you die.
One of the first books that challenged this transactional gospel was Recovering the Real Lost Gospel: Reclaiming the Gospel as Good News by Darrell Bock and Rick Warren.
In this book on page 89, the authors say:
- Faith, by its very nature, underscores the fact that the gospel is not fundamentally about a transaction but about a sustained relationship.
- What we see in practical terms is that responding to the gospel is not just a momentary action but the embracing of an attitude of trust and gratitude that connects us to God and moves us to respond to Him. In short, faith is what causes us to love God.
This started me thinking about evangelism in a new way. I started to see evangelism as an invitation to join Jesus in his Kingdom. What he requires is allegiance to be part of his Kingdom. To me, the emphasis on a good or bad destination cheapens the relationship.
Matthew Bates and Scot McKnight use this concept of allegiance in their books.
I just finished reading reading Klyne R. Snodgrass’ book, You Need a Better Gospel: Reclaiming the Good News of Participation with Christ. Klyne uses the word, “participation,” where I use the word, “allegiance.”
Here are some highlights from my reading of Klyne’s book.
- The gospel is not merely about a declaration or a transaction that satisfies God and secures the future. It is about God drawing us into a relation that is nothing short of participation with God and God’s purposes now, and this astounding assertion gives life value, direction, and hope. Page 98
- The church seems to have lost its voice and any ground from which to challenge such thinking. It has failed to understand and take seriously its own gospel and, worse, has often denied its gospel by its actions. Christian lives are often no different from those of non-Christians. In the name of Christianity people have practiced racism and injustice and have thrown off all guidelines for Christian ethics. Those who are supposed to be models of the faith are too often abject failures at Christian living. We are weary of hearing about failed leaders. So much done in the name of Christ is an embarrassment to Christ. As Ernst Käsemann put it, the biggest obstacle to the mission of the church is the church, but the church will never be what it is supposed to be without a recovery of its own gospel. We do indeed need a better gospel. Page 132
- We have offered a deficient, inept, and inert gospel that in the end is not even a gospel, not good news. The church offers merely an anemic voice in the wind. What is said is neither compelling nor taken seriously. It is not attractive, and it hardly changes anything. The church has failed to address crucial issues like racism, poverty, arrogance, sexual misconduct—and sin. We hardly even mention sin. This is not to say all churches fail or that the church does not teach and do good things, but it surely does not do justice to its gospel. Page 149
- The church of the simplified gospel has collapsed, and the only question is why it took so long. Page 157
- If we have to give a short explanation of the gospel, what would it be? My answer is this: God is for us and loves us, and God intends to have a people, a “family.” Even when people ignore God, go their own way, and do what is wrong, God will still have a people. God grieves over the world, filled as it is with suffering, sin, and evil. That God is for us is demonstrated—revealed—powerfully through Jesus, the promised Deliverer. In Jesus, God identified with human suffering and evil, confronted sin, demonstrated how humans should live, in his own being took on our sin and dealt with it, and gave his life for us, demonstrating just how much God is for us. God is the God who creates life in the midst of death. Jesus’s resurrection is the good news. With Jesus’s death and resurrection God has defeated both death and evil, offers forgiveness, and engages us with meaningful action. God gives his transforming, life-creating Spirit to us to give life and purpose now, to create a community of Spirit-endowed people who reflect God’s character and purposes in the world, and to give hope of ongoing life with God in a new earth and a new heaven. In a real sense the gospel calls us into being and into life engaged with God. This is a gospel of participation and power, good news indeed. Page 179
- You are not a Christian because you said the sinner’s prayer, go to x church, hang out with people called Christians, or do “spiritual” things. Page 192
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