Bible will arise and sweep all men into itself” (McGavran 1970:357). The second essential character istic is concerned with God’s men to execute God’s message. If the goal is “ to win the lost and to plant Baptist churches,” then it is of ut most importance not only to cast the net into the waters but also to pull in the net that is loaded with the precious fish. The success is determined by the catch. A wrong understanding of terms and the modus operandi may hin- her some churchmen. Misconcep tions and erroneous views concern ing evangelism are common; how ever, there is a correct view. Some churchmen define evangelism as “ presence.” Harvey Cox makes no distinction between evangelism and social action; just being in a given country is sufficient witness. A hos pital or a social concern of the Church may be looked upon as Christian presence. Where did this idea take root? “ The word presence has become an indispensable in-word in the contemporary discussion on mis sions,” says Colin Williams in Faith in a Secular Age. He traces the term back through the French Jesuit missionary, Charles de Foucauld, who believed that “ mission, rather than being conceptualized in verbal terms, should first be seen as a ‘being there'— a servant presence in love on behalf of Christ” (Tip pett 1969:49). Thus to be present is a sufficient form of evangelism. Success is measured in social terms. This form of evangelism might well ask, how much good can you do for people? Another approach to evangelism might be termed p ro c lam a tio n evangelism. Proclamation evange lism proclaims to all people pos sible the Gospel in terms that they can understand. The vast majority of missionaries and nationals be lieve that proclamation evangelism is all that they are called to per form. To evangelize means to an nounce. Merely to tell forth the message is our responsibility. No evangelism has happened until the THE KING’S BUSINESS
with a purpose b y J o e l E. H om e ro
T here is a mountain of material that can be read about evan gelism. Almost any good mission ary activity can be classified as evangelism. A simple definition of evangelism can be: Winning the lost to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit so that their trust in Him may be manifested in service and fellowship in and through a local assembly of baptized believers. It is the goal of my Mission in Argentina to win the lost and to plant Baptist churches in that land. In order to arrive at the goal, the missionaries of our Mission have organized into a field conference that has often formulated different plans in order to carry out their purpose. Whatever plan is proposed, it must have certain characteristics in order to be successful. We shall attempt to list three characteris tics and to distinguish between them. First, the message that is communicated is of vital impor tance. The “ glorious Gospel” must form part of the strategy of plant ing churches in Argentina. The def inition of the Gospel can be found in I Corinthians 15:3-4. "For I de livered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scrip tures." Without the Gospel there is no true evangelism. This is true because, the Gospel is the “ good news” of salvation. How that was 8
accomplished is in three parts: Christ died for our sins; He was buried, and He arose from the dead. Because He lives, we shall live also if we believe in what Christ has done for us. There is little Gospel preaching today. Peter Wagner in his recent book Latin American Theology rec ognizes the fact that a very vocal segment of the “ new radical left” probably does not believe or teach the “ glorious Gospel” of our Lord. The problem is also aggravated when both missionaries and nation als who believe in the Gospel are engaged in myriads of activities that do not essentially contribute to winning the lost and to planting churches. These activities may be necessary and good but if they are not producing church growth they should be se rio u s ly questioned. Donald McGavran speaks directly to this problem: “ The only way in which the Good News of Jesus Christ can possibly reach the myriads of earth is for fantastic church planting to take place. . . . The only way in which Christian values, economic justice, racial brotherhood, social better ment or democracy can spread is for multitudinous cells of baptized believers to be formed in which the Word is preached and the sacra ments are observed. It is incon ceivable that the Spirit of God will so operate on men in these tumul tuous and revolutionary times that some new religion which knows nothing of Jesus Christ and the
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker