This is part 1 of a 4
part series based on a question which was asked dealing with my blog on “When
Did We Start Confusing Community Service With Evangelism?”
16 But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee,
to the mountain which Jesus had designated. 17 When they saw Him,
they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. 18 And Jesus came
up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and
on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 18:16-20 (NASB)
Several years ago I knew a man who believed that actions spoke
loader than words. His pastor had been
preaching that sharing the gospel was meant to be done verbally. To prove his pastor wrong about needing to
verbally witness he decided he would live a morally superb life in front of
everyone he knew. One day a young man at
his office came to him and said that he had a very personal question to ask
him. He seized the opportunity and
invited the young man to dinner that night.
Before the young man showed up at his house he carefully selected a
group of tracks to lay on his table, spent time in prayer, and made sure
everything was just right. His wife
patiently waited with him. Finally the
doorbell rang and he answered it. It was
the young man. While his wife finished
dinner he sat down and talked to the young man about football and the
office. After dinner, they sat in the
living room and my friend asked the young man what it was he wanted to
know. The moment was heart wrenching as
he waited for the question. The young
man looked around and moved in close to my friend and asked, “How is it that
you can eat the same sandwich every day for lunch?”
Back on March 13th, 2012 I posted an article
where I asked the question if we had confused community service with evangelism
(http://www.bedevotedministries.blogspot.com/2012/03/when-did-we-start-confusing-community.html#links
). A couple of weekends ago I had the
opportunity to experience what I had talked about. I and the youth ministry from Friendship
Baptist, Mesquite went out to help our mission work, The Refuge in Terrell,
TX. It was exactly what I described in
my earlier article. Since we were
working at a city sponsored event, out and out evangelism was not allowed. If someone asked us about The Refuge we were
allowed to take that opportunity, but if not all we could do was help people at
the event. There were several church
groups there doing the same thing.
According to our missionaries several people did ask about The Refuge. But overall at the end of the day I still
felt a walking billboard for the mission effort. While there was nothing wrong with what we
did, my question still stands: Are we
confusing community service and helpfulness with being a true witness for Jesus
Christ?When we read Matthew 28:16-20 I get the feel from both the Greek and the English that doing good works for the sake of doing good works in hopes of being recognized is not what Jesus had in mind. The feel of the passage is personal and long term because of the command to “make disciples.” But if we look at the idea of doing good works while sharing the gospel, that is not out of line with the idea from Acts, Leviticus 19:18, or any number of passages about loving our neighbor and sharing the eternal truth we hold. Everything we do should be with the intent of sharing the gospel. Again don’t get me wrong about the event where we helped the mission. God can and will bring good from it, but He also does the same with disasters, diseases, and other forms of calamity.
A response to the article from March 13th was posted and asked the entitled question: Why is it that people are more comfortable inviting people to church or just doing a good work than in sharing their faith in Christ with others? I have thought long and hard about that question and have come up with the following responses. On this posting we will deal with Response 1.
Response 1-Culture has pressured us into thinking we don’t have the right to share the gospel.
Anyone who does a study on our religious history will see a sudden down turn that starts about the 1920s. In fact I have a theory that the years 1630-1920 and again from 1948-1968 are more anomalies in church history than anything else. They are not true to the way Christians have had to live in regards to pursuing God and building His Kingdom through the local churches He has established. Regardless, in the 1920s we can see a sudden decline in church attendance and activity.[1] [2] Something happens between 1890 and 1920 which changes the land scape for the churches. Starting around 1920 up until 1948 churches slide into a deep decline where membership of the local body is only about half of what it was previously. In reality even with the revivals of 1948-1968 there is no real recovery that occurs. Whereas at one time in American culture Christians and churches had great influence in law and culture, by the revivals of the mid-twentieth century that influence is almost non-existent.
So the question that needs to be asked is what happened between 1890 and 1920? Three things occurred under the two umbrellas of religion and education. In the area of religion two theological issues would rise up taking Biblical trust by storm. The first was building since the 1840s under the leadership of Charles Finney. The other would start in the 1880s under the leadership of Walter Rauschenbusch (I will blog about him on a deeper level later). Both of these men interpreted the idea of evangelism through the eyes of morality and social justice.[3] [4] Finney had been in the thicket of battle dealing with slavery before the American Civil War (1861-1865). [5] Rauschenbusch believed and taught in the Social Gospel while serving as a Baptist Pastor in the “Hell’s Kitchen” providence of New York City in the 1880s until his death in 1918.[6] Both men shaped the theology and evangelism in ways that where never recorded before. Finney had his “new measures” that treated evangelism more as a project than a way of life; while Rauschenbusch helped move the idea that evangelism would occur as a community effort.
At the same time that this was going on men like John Dewey met to discuss an America without religion. This group of educators, philosophers, socialist, and politicians produced a document now known as The Humanist Manifesto 1 which was finalized in 1933.[7] The idea was to build a secular society and not one based on the religion of anything but the deity of man. With this several other manifestos would follow in 1973, 1980, 1993, and 2003. Presently there is one under work. Each of the following manifestos would help further define the intent of these groups and the steps which needed to be taken to secularize the society. According to the first manifesto education was the first step.
With both of these contending forces at work within and without the church walls decline was going to be the sure result. On one level the churches would begin the process of relying on programs such as the “new methods” rather than relying on God. The second level is that sharing the gospel would become more of social and group thing rather than an individual responsibility. And the final level would be the pressure from secularist to push religious views out of the public square by which Plato’s Republic would become more of a reality. All of this would cause the churches to become more self-reliant and at the same time become more inward. The churches in the United States would suddenly introvert and outreach would become truly non-existent.
Join me in our second discussion on this matter next week.
Your comments and thoughts are welcomed.
Steven Swaim
President and Founder, Be Devoted Ministries
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