The final words of Jesus to his disciples were to make disciples, and invite them from all nations. As so much of the program of God with the human race related to Israel from the time of Moses, the future was for all nations. Jesus disciples were ordered to reproduce themselves. The world is to be their parish. This was not really new. Jesus had spoken sternly about the missionary effort of Israel. Representatives from Israel (Pharisees) had gone everywhere (sea and land) winning proselytes (converts), but they had warped the message from God to their own amendments for the message of God to the nations through Israel. (Matthew 23:15) Jesus would have his disciples go forward to all peoples teaching them what he had taught his cadre of laymen. So it was that Jesus ordained his disciples to invite disciples. It was a lay movement for all peoples. The field for mankind and God on earth has always been level and universal.
This process has come to be known as missionary, as evangelism, as the calling of all peoples by the church, which is the body or community of all Christians finding their faith in Christ of Scripture and history, and importantly but secondarily from their institutional churches, sects, or denominations, or the socially oriented organizations (lay) to which they may belong. The Christian is a child of God and a missionary.
Society, generally, finds evangelism somewhat objectionable for various reasons. It implies, or asserts to them, that whatever sincere persons believe that may be contrary to the evangelist’s redemptive message is wrong, and may be so wrong as to invite hell (God rejection) for the unbeliever. The secularist dislikes the process, as declaration of something that is not true – for their preferences. There are other objections, but they tend to fall because the world has discovered the success of evangelism for its causes. Other religions, recognizing the success of Christian evangelism have joined human objectives with persuasion for their ideas. There are evangelists for democracy and other political contexts that may include warfare; or, for Islam and others that may also occasion armed conflict. There are other contexts. World news is strewn with the stories of evangelists for sexual freedom including same sex marriage; for liberal or conservative government; and so the story enlarges. Evangelists (peaceful activists through persuasion for a cause) may be television personalities, or diplomatic professors, or ordinary folks. The illustrations are too numerous to list. Those movements that do not engage in evangelism (in league with advertisers) are not likely to grow, to gain acceptance from outsiders. Many of these efforts create conflict in general societies.
With all the objections there is also an underlying respect for Christian evangelism when it is well done, in the light of Jesus’ contextual settings. For a half century, Billy Graham ranked as one of the ten most admired persons in the world. He was nothing if not a Christian evangelist. His message was simple and straightforward. It could not be misunderstood for the normal listener. And, he lived what he preached. There was no known hypocrisy in his person, or way of doing business in a materialistic (secular) world. He worked hard at keeping the message straightforward, but interesting enough to hold attention.
I reviewed a program of a family of persons, parents and six children, taken with drug addiction. Those who wanted to gain healing for the members of the family were more confrontational than evangelists for Christ I have known and observed. They were admittedly in intervention, and demanded a verdict from the members of the family. They ultimately succeeded with five of the children, but continue firmly with the holdout. The matter of our accountability to God is far more vital than any addiction to drugs, with eternity’s verdict on the future horizon, and no other recourse except a negative ending. This is dramatic enough to gain attention, but each Christian is to be a missionary, finding a way in which to influence others in everyday life to accept Christ’s redemption, with the most magnificent retirement benefits. Christ is for all, no matter the circumstances, culture, language or other variants. One believing in the biblical message of redemption must have missed the command of Jesus, and the logic of it, if that person is not related in some meaningful way to evangelism and missions in loving and acceptable ways. Where the Christian gospel is sincerely advanced, human context is improved for both earth and heaven. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020