Meaning of Evangelism
In defining evangelism, it is vital first to understand the core beliefs of Christians. The Bible informs Christians that Jesus Christ died and was resurrected so that his blood could wash away the sins of humans and further reconcile humans with God (Pachuau et al., 2010). Additionally, only those who believe in Jesus and accept him as their savior shall be granted eternal life. This information is essentially good news to Christians and hence theologically termed as the gospel.
Therefore, it is a central belief in Christianity that the gospel has to be kept alive and known widely. This belief is also emphasized through the teachings and instructions of Jesus Christ, who called Christians to witness his existence and spread information about his work to others (Newbigin, 1989). There are several ways in which Christians fulfill these teachings and instructions. One of these ways is called evangelism. Evangelism started in the 18th century and became more decisive and radical in the 19th century. As such, it is crucial to deepen the understanding of evangelism.
Evangelism can be defined as sharing the gospel with people who may not know it or do not believe in it. As stated earlier, the gospel entails the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus for the sake of human salvation. It also covers the teachings of Jesus and his works as witnessed by early Christians (Brodie, 2020). This means that the main aim of evangelism is to persuade non-believers that Jesus is their savior so they can believe in him. The word evangelism originates from the Geek word ‘euangelizesthai,’ meaning preach the gospel (Newbigin, 1989). This shows that evangelism has existed for as long as early Christians in the nineteenth century. Hence, evangelism is a fundamental principle of Christianity.
Christians can fulfill evangelism through an activity known as a mission. This is when a group of Christians is sent to a specific destination for a particular period to preach the gospel (Tabletalk, 2008). However, there is usually confusion about the definition of evangelism and mission, as most people believe the two have almost the same meaning (Kight, n.d.). Some theological authors have differentiated evangelism from mission using the believers and non-believers aspect. For instance, Roman Catholics and Protestants define mission as an activity aimed at converting non-Christians to Christians.
In contrast, evangelism aims at bringing back people who used to be Christians but are no longer Christians (Bosch, 2011). This makes the mission appear wider in definition than evangelism. But the two terms have, in essence, two very distinct meanings. While mission means to send out, evangelism means to preach the gospel. In other words, the mission involves evangelism, where Christians are sent out to preach the gospel.
From the definition of evangelism, it is seen that Christians can teach and share the gospel of Jesus Christ widely. They act as messengers who preach, declare, proclaim, and announce the gospel to bring people to believe. Notably, evangelism can be achieved through mission, which means that evangelism is not equated to mission, but mission should be viewed as a means to achieve evangelism (Newbigin, 1989). Therefore, evangelism is when Christians make it widely known that humankind is saved from their sins through accepting and believing in God’s intervention, Jesus Christ.
Importance of Evangelism in Doing Mission
Having established that a mission involves evangelism, it is essential to dig deeper into how evangelism is vital in achieving it. During a mission, the church aims at inviting people to receive salvation and live in it (Bosch, 2011). This is because everyone, regardless of religion, needs saving. Most, if not all, human beings subconsciously believe in a superior being who will eventually save them from the pain and suffering of this world and take them to a spiritual world where there is joy.
Thus, religion’s fundamental basis is salvation and the basis of mission (Bosch, 2011). This means that missionary activities have to be centered on salvation, which appears about 440 times in the Bible (Bosch, 2011). Some of the stories involving salvation in the Bible include the Exodus story of how God saved Israel and sacrificed his son Jesus to save the world. Hence, the central basis of the mission is salvation.
Evangelism has a solid relation to salvation, making evangelism a critical aspect of the mission. Salvation requires a commitment to Jesus Christ and the church. But to be committed, one must first believe in and accept Jesus. In other words, through evangelism, people believe and accept Jesus and commit to him through salvation. Therefore, the mission uses evangelism to get people to salvation, its central basis (Bosch, 2011).
However, there are two scopes from two different Christian groups in which salvation can be understood, either from an ecumenical or an evangelical view (Langmead, 2012). An ecumenical perception focuses on a high quality of life for humans where pain and suffering are avoided. On the other hand, an evangelical view focuses on forming a good relationship with God. While ecumenical Christianity emphasizes poverty and social justice, evangelicalism emphasizes personal devotion to the Christian life.
Consequently, the activities of a mission with an evangelical view of salvation differ from those with an ecumenical outlook. An ecumenical mission will help people experiencing poverty and protect their rights without focusing on their belief in Jesus. However, an evangelical mission will prioritize individuals rather than society and prioritize spiritual salvation over physical well-being. Also, an evangelical mission focuses more on salvation in an eternal dimension than a temporary one (Langmead, 2012). This shows that evangelism is essential in mission as it strengthens the Christian lives of individuals and their relationship with God.
Moreover, this relationship underscores evangelism’s significance in the context of the mission. It shows that salvation is the center of humankind, whether physical or spiritual. However, when it comes to Christianity, salvation in the spiritual aspect is central to Christian life. And since salvation in Christianity is brought by believing and accepting Jesus, Christians must spread this information through evangelism (Bosch, 2011). This means that evangelism is a significant aspect of the mission.
Even so, it does not mean that the physical well-being of humans is not essential, as ecumenical Christians believe. Instead, it only insinuates that a church’s primary mission should include the spiritual well-being of individuals. This is because the church is associated with the Christian life, which involves spiritual salvation. Spiritual salvation represents a deeper meaning of life. Hence, evangelism is essential to carrying out the Christian church mission.
Nature of Pluralistic World
In the history of humanity, conflicts, and rivalries have always existed. These stem from the inevitable differences between social classes, races, beliefs, and interests. For instance, a particular continent like Asia has many different cultures that co-exist (Suchocki, 2003). Asia is known to accommodate eleven other religions. These include Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, Daoism, Christianity, and Shintiosm, to name a few (Suchocki, 2003). With such differences, pluralism arises. Pluralism can be defined as accepting different beliefs, values, interests, and cultures within a given community. The attitude of accommodating a plural society consists of substantial differences.
This means that a pluralistic world accepts the possibility of diversity and allows many different practices in the same world. For example, in the world today, there exists feminism, racism, colonialism, and gender equality beliefs (Suchocki, 2003). These movements and beliefs may be viewed as ones that cannot co-exist because while some believe in gender equality, others believe in feminism, and the two movements fight for their rights separately. This shows that there is no single fixed belief that everyone is expected to have or one that has been approved. The world can be viewed from different angles by different people in an acceptable manner. From this explanation, it is clear that the world is inevitably pluralistic.
Regarding religion, pluralism can significantly cause religious conflicts, criticisms, and attacks. Various faiths have emerged since ancient times due to different beliefs and doctrines (Suchocki, 2003). For example, while Christians believe in Jesus Christ, Hindus believe in worshiping other gods. Religious pluralism is also evident in religious events where Christians celebrate Christmas and Muslims celebrate Ramadhan at different times.
Besides, many scientists have challenged religion using modern science that logically explains humanity, unlike the mystical way religions are believed. Religion spiritually looks at life, while modern science uses observable physical evidence to explain life. The rise in contemporary science and various religions has made Christians want to defend their faith vigorously, considering that the Christian worldview is significantly dominant. However, scientists scrutinize belief by considering reason and logic. For instance, scientists find some inconsistencies and absurdities within the stories in the Bible (Suchocki, 2003). Hence, a religious conflict exists in a pluralistic world.
As religious conflicts emerge, a pluralistic world strengthens within different geographical areas. It becomes even more challenging to establish the one true religion as Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, among other faiths, all worship different gods. However, no particular God is acceptable across all faiths, yet every religion expects that the salvation of humanity will come from one dogma. This leads to a significant problem when it comes to Christian evangelism.
Evangelism faces the challenge of convincing people to believe that the Christian God is the one true God without insinuating that the gods of other religions are false. Considering that the nature of a pluralistic world requires that people within a community allow and accept each other’s beliefs, cultures, and values, it is easy for other religions to overturn an evangelical mission (Suchocki, 2003). It is also easy for religions to form rivalries and major conflicts. For instance, Christians and Muslims are the most significant religious rivals. From this analysis, it is seen that the nature of a pluralistic world allows a variety of religions to co-exist within the same society.
Evangelism in a Pluralistic World
Essentially, evangelism in a pluralistic world faces multiple difficulties. This is because Christianity may be seen as just a view in a pluralistic world. Meanwhile, Christians who are doing evangelism want people to see it as a true religion. However, the significant question is how an evangelist in a pluralist world can maintain an inclusive view of other religions without dissolving the Christian worldview that Jesus is the true and only way to salvation (Suchocki, 2003).
This question has shown that practicing evangelism in a pluralistic world is complicated. Several theologians like John Hick, a Protestant Christian, and Paul Knitter, a Catholic Christian in the twentieth century, debated the issue of pluralism (Suchocki, 2003). In their works, the two theologians established that there is an irreconcilable difference among religions. As such, a pluralistic world makes evangelism difficult.
Even with pluralism, Christians believe that God is for the world, and His work aims towards the good of the world. Despite the different cultures, traditions, languages, and religious backgrounds, all creation originates from God. Thus, God loves the whole world and not only a particular religion. To illustrate, Christians believe that the manifestation of God’s love is not only evident in Christian-dominant areas but in the whole world.
As such, when evangelism is performed, Christians affirm that God can reveal Himself even through other cultures or other ways. Evangelism trusts that the hand of God will also reach different cultures (Newbigin, 1989). Also, evangelism takes the approach of friendship to achieve its aim. When Christians meet people from other religions, they can talk to them as friends and realize that despite their differences, they also have some things in common. Therefore, as much as evangelism can be difficult in a pluralistic world, it is still achievable.
Digging deeper into how evangelism can be achieved in a pluralistic world, the word of God is considered. Christianity is essentially born from a primary concept of authority. God authorized Christians to proclaim His word and minister to others about the world’s salvation. As documented by Paul in the Bible, he was given authority by God to be a messenger of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Similarly, evangelism in a pluralistic world should be approached as Paul did (Newbigin, 1989). This way, Christians start their evangelism by proclaiming that it is an invitation to believe in the truth and not to experience an opinion. Christians also affirm that the gospel truth cannot be rationalized through thoughts and reflection. But it is something that can be accepted as a gift through faith.
Evangelism in a pluralistic world is tricky because it is natural that human beings will question other faiths and beliefs. Numerous authors criticize different religions through reason and logic, which humans pride themselves in, the dire human need to find answers and seek the truth (Suchocki, 2003). But evangelism fulfills its mission by encouraging people to be humble seekers of the truth. Hence, people should be willing to listen to all the beliefs of the pluralistic world and dialogue with others to find the truth. Additionally, having an open mind means people can share their religious experiences and find common ground within their beliefs. Thus, evangelism in a pluralistic world is achievable if people unite to find the truth rather than to oppose and conflict.
Globalization or Modern Pluralistic World
Globalization has managed to bring different communities and cultures together. This is because the world has witnessed dramatic changes since one hundred years ago, and it is only standard that the pluralistic world of long ago is not the same as the pluralistic world of today (Pachuau et al., 2010). In the ancient pluralistic world, many religions all over the globe have contradicted each other. These contradictions remained within their geographical regions and did not spread to others.
For instance, the Christians of the Western European countries did not move to Indian countries. Hence, Hindu-dominated countries remained as such, while Christian-dominated countries remained. However, religions spread and mix in the modern pluralistic world, giving rise to mixed beliefs within different geographical areas (Pachuau et al., 2010). It is expected to find Hindus, Muslims, and Christians living in the same neighborhood, which seemed impossible in the ancient pluralistic world.
More importantly, divisions have even emerged within religions. In other words, as globalization creeps in, a multiplication in religions and within religions continues to occur (Pachuau et al., 2010). For instance, many churches, denominations, movements, and confessions exist today in the Christian faith. To illustrate further, the evangelical, Pentecostal, ecumenical, and protestant movements attest to Jesus differently. This difference occurs during a mission, where these movements have different agendas or bases. Some have a humanistic plan, some have liberation as their basis, and some have individual salvation as their mission agenda.
Moreover, in the complex landscape of world missions in the 21st century, the diversity of agendas and bases among these movements highlights the dynamic nature of global efforts to address pressing societal and spiritual challenges (Blöcher, n.d.). This causes a conflict in the meaning of mission and also brings difficulties when trying to evangelize successfully. This also means that the modern pluralistic world brings out different understandings and analyzes of the Christian faith, even though all the divisions belong to the same religion.
Even with Christian divisions, other faiths have continued to emerge within the last one hundred years. With this many religions worldwide, some people seem confused and may have no formal religious relations. These groups include freethinkers, agnostics, humanists, and secularists (Pachuau et al., 2010). However, this does not mean that the other global religions become suppressed.
It is widely agreed that Christianity and Islam are the dominant religions with the most prominent followers. The large number of Christian followers is based on a geographical contest where missionaries move across the globe to practice missions among other faiths. Of course, as ministers are allowed to enter different countries, it is seen that migration is a cause and effect of globalization, further strengthening the co-existence of numerous faiths within the exact geographical location (Pachuau et al., 2010). Therefore, as more missionaries settled in many different regions, Christianity grew.
However, in ancient times, some parts of the world did not have religious belief as a choice. This means that people were not free to choose the religion they wanted to belong to but were forced to be in the dominant religion within the geographical area. This also means that any mission was not tolerated, and the number of Christians would remain as it was.
But in the modern pluralistic world, globalization has allowed people freedom of worship (Pachuau et al., 2010). One’s faith depends on one’s personal beliefs, and they can change from one religion to another, which is why Christianity is dominant. Globalization has brought about many divisions within different faiths, but Christianity continues to grow significantly, having the highest percentage of followers globally.
Problems and Challenges of Doing Evangelical Mission
In the modern world, doing an evangelical mission has proven challenging. This is due to the problems faced by a pluralistic attitude in general, which puts Christians in a dilemma of accepting all the other religions and still advocating for Christianity. In a modern pluralistic world, the contemporary understanding of an evangelical mission switches between ecumenical, Pentecostal, and orthodox (Wong, 2003).
This means that mission is viewed as either a way to liberate humans from suffering or institute a dialogue where different people inspire each other to convert their faith. As such, the main challenge in the evangelical mission is that there is no consistent mission agenda within the different churches, denominations, and movements (Adams, 2009). Diversifying Christian understanding in a pluralistic world seems problematic when forming unity and establishing one Christian mission agenda.
Consequently, four main challenges and problems of evangelism stem from pluralism. The first challenge is that a foreign evangelical missionary may be dismissed. This is because God is seen as one with wealth, so He is only interested in the soul’s salvation without considering an individual’s social justice (Wong, 2003). Secondly, the evangelical mission may be viewed as selfish and self-righteous because it maintains that they worship the only true God and others are false gods. This exclusivism can be considered quite arrogant and is likely to be rejected.
Hence, evangelical missionaries may be discouraged. Thirdly, evangelism may experience a sense of restriction in expressing its sole purpose. If an evangelist describes the statement that the good news requires repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ, it means that he is openly declaring that non-Christians should reject their gods and accept the Christian God. This may sound appalling to some people and may lead to resentment from people.
Lastly, another challenge is that evangelism may be seen as an attempt to conquer the world. Because evangelists spread the gospel and expect everyone to turn to God, it insinuates a mission to dominate the world religiously (Wong, 2003). Most people have accepted a pluralistic world, so it is questionable for evangelists to view Christianity as the truth. People expect evangelists to understand that their view is only one among many others. Hence, there is the problem of wanting to conquer the world, as may be seen by other faiths. But all in all, the Christian evangelical mission should be viewed as bearing witness to God rather than sharing a personal religious experience (Piatt, 2016). This way, it will not be perceived as a self-proclaiming or self-glorifying mission.
Evangelism can be approached in manners that demonstrate authenticity. For instance, salvation from God is witnessed through how people relate with each other despite their differences (Wong, 2003). Being able to forgive and accept each other is good news that manifests as God’s saving grace. This also shows that evangelism is not only about God but also about one another.
God’s love spreads to all humans as they can love God and still love each other. As such, evangelism should be viewed as a call to focus on the promises of salvation and liberation and the happiness and well-being of each other as humans (Piatt, 2016). Ultimately, the problems and challenges of evangelical missions can be solved once non-Christians are made to believe that God’s salvation is for the good of all people, not only Christians.
References
Adams, C. (2009). Evangelism – 8 common problems. Unashamed. Web.
Blöcher, D. (n.d.). World mission in the 21st century. DMGint.de. Web.
Bosch, D. J. (2011). Transforming mission: Paradigm shifts in theology of mission (No. 16). Orbis Books.
Brodie, J. (2020). What is evangelism? Christianity. Web.
Kight, C. (n.d.). What is evangelism? Cru.org. Web.
Langmead, R. (2012). Approaches to salvation. Myanmar Institute of Theology.
Newbigin, L. (1989). The gospel in a pluralist society. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Pachuau, L., Seminary, A., & Papageorgiou, N. (2010).Christian mission among other faiths. In D. M. Balia & K. Kim (Eds.), Witnessing to Christ today (pp. 34–60). OCMS.
Piatt, C. (2016). Five problems with Christian evangelism (and what to do instead). HuffPost. Web.
Suchocki, M. (2003). Divinity & diversity: A Christian affirmation of religious pluralism. Abingdon.
Tabletalk. (2008). What is evangelism? Ligonier Ministries. Web.
Wong, A. C. (2003). Challenges of mission in a pluralistic world. World Council of Churches. Web.
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