Friday, 23 July 2010
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The Great Commission: Not Just Evangelism
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
- Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)
This passage, known as The Great Commission, is often cited as a Biblical exhortation that all Christians are called to evangelism. By no means do I mean to say that evangelism is bad or that this verse doesn't support evangelism, but I adamantly disagree with such a simplistic interpretation.
Paul writes:
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. [...] The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. [...] Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. [...] If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
- 1 Corinthians 12:4-26 (NIV; with some sizable, but redundant, omissions)
We see clearly in Paul's letter to the Corinthians that not everyone is gifted the same way. Not everyone can be pastors or preachers, and not everyone can do the behind-the-scenes organizing. In the same way, I don't think every Christian is called to evangelism.
To illustrate why I believe this, let's pull out all the imperative verbs from Matthew 28:18-20:
go, make disciples, baptizing, and teaching
Remember, Jesus was speaking to a group of people (the 11 disciples), so there is no reason that everyone must live out all these verbs. There are plenty of opportunities for divisions of labor, and indeed that's what we see happening throughout the book of Acts.
Peter goes throughout Israel preaching while John, by and large, stays put in Jerusalem and Antioch. Paul goes around the known world preaching the Gospel, but leaves others, such as Timothy, with these new believers to continue teaching them, and to make disciples out of converts. We see from 1 Corinthians 1 that Paul didn't actually do that much baptizing; rather, he left that to people of the city he was ministering in. Throughout Acts, we see all the apostles doing a bit of everything, but at the same time, they all specialize in doing one or two of those four verbs.
While the Book of Acts as a whole is certainly a better example of how to live out The Great Commission than any post I could write, I would like to note several ways I believe you can live out The Great Commission in today's society:- Apologetics. I've heard it said that people hear the Gospel an average of seven times before accepting it. I have no clue how this is calculated and question its accuracy, but it shows an interesting fact: most people don't accept the Gospel the first time they hear it. Before someone is willing to accept the Gospel, one needs to see it as reasonable, or at least not unreasonable. That's where apologists come in. Apologetics is the study of defending the faith through logic and reason; as it is a defense, most apologists aren't looking to convert, but rather to make slanderers of the church be ashamed of their slander as though hot coals have fallen on their heads (1 Peter 3:15; Proverbs 25:21-22).
- Evangelism. Evangelists, unlike apologists, have the explicit and primary purpose of sharing the Gospel and bringing non-believers into the fold of Christ. Some apologetics are necessary tools for the toolbox of evangelists, but their primary tools are Love and The Holy Spirit, because no amount of logic can bring anyone all the way from Atheism to Christianity. I like to think of intellectualism as asymptotic to God: you can get infinitely close with logic, but there will always be at least a small leap of faith.
- Teaching. Teaching can be divided into so many sub-categories that I could spend an entire post--or more--on just that. However, generally speaking, the purpose of teaching is to make disciples out of converts. Evangelism is a wonderful thing, but just because someone is now a Christian, that does not make them a disciple in the full sense of the word. Evangelists take unbelievers and make them converts; teachers take converts and make them disciples.
- Pastoring. Although the titles are often colloquially used as synonyms, I like to distinguish between the roles of preachers and pastors. Preachers are primarily teachers: they give the sermons, answer questions, and do the disciplinary instruction. Pastors are primarily care-givers: they are the encouragers, counselors, the ones who lend a dry shoulder to cry on, talk you through tough times, and pray for you in a nurturing sort of way. Granted, most ministers end up performing both roles, but they are very separate roles nonetheless. At the end of The Great Commission, Jesus promises to be with us as we live out this great exhortation. Pastors are thus the encouraging embodiment of this promise. They might not be out on the "front lines" so to speak with unbelievers or new converts, but they are the ones encouraging, building up, and training those who are.
What about you? Do you agree with my assessment of The Great Commission? Which of these four categories do you think God has gifted you to fulfill? What other things have I missed?
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- From: blacksheep
- About Me: I'm just a recent college grad with big dreams trying to figure out how this whole "life" thing works.
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Comments (10)
@Megan - I think your intent is what counts. It's not like you're unwilling to talk about faith period because you're ashamed of it. I can't remember it verbatim, but there's that proverb about how a fool is wise by keeping his mouth shut. If you think there's a chance you could lead someone astray by doing a poor job of evangelism, it's probably better to do it in a way that's not quite so blunt.
Not calling you a fool or anything, but you know what I mean, 'cause I'm the same way. I think I'm definitely more of the teaching type.
i tend to lean toward the view criticized here, and i actually find your points rather attractive. maybe while we all have different roles, there are some roles shared by everyone, not specifically of evangelism or teaching, but of discipling. the process of discipling is a long and arduous one that no one individual does on his own but does as a part working with other as they nurture new believers, so it seems we're all in on the discipling role, while we may evangelize, defend, teach, or pastor as different ways of accomplishing it. but the rest of the commands, like baptize and teach do seem too specific to require more than one individual, and so aren't carried out by everyone.
@sarahzthoughts@xanga - Oh, there is no question that if I tried to openly evangelize people I would make them run the other direction. I am pretty much inept with strangers in the first place, so talking about anything but the weather is a bad idea :-/
All Christians are called to be evangelists. Why? Because Jesus said so. It was the last thing he said while he was on this earth. Using the words of Saint Paul to contradict the words of Jesus is a misuse of scripture.
Both priests of my parish have been speaking on this topic for the last few months; the deacons too. They say the same thing: "Be a living Bible."
You don't have to say a word. In fact it is preferable that we not speak because talk is cheap. Live the Gospel.
So if we live in ways that express our gifts we are evangelizing in the most powerful way possible.
@nyclegodesi24@xanga - hmmm...I think we're edging close to just semantics, but if I understand you correctly, I would tend to agree. And thank you for voicing criticism!
If I understand you correctly, I should have added another role, discipler, which does all of those things, but on a much smaller scale--maybe one or two people--rather than en masse. A sort of mentor.
I think in this regard "discipler" would overlap heavily with "teacher," but the distinction would be the level and degree to which it is carried out with one person. Furthermore, as part of a discipler, you would need to help mentees grow in their gifts, which would entail pushing yourself to grow in those areas as well along with them. So if I were to mentor someone at some point in my life, I and their niche of the great commission was evangelism, then I would have to do evangelism with them as a way of helping them grow.
Am I in the ballpark?
@TheNewSeminarian - I've never been a big fan of this "evangelize with your lifestyle" movement. It seems like a cop-out to me; I would know I've used it as one for years. Furthermore, I can't say I've ever seen it work. First of all, Christians aren't perfect, so wow-ing others with our gracious love is unlikely at best. Secondly, there are enough alleged Christians out there--all of whom the media loves to follow--who do such egregious things as WBC, Former President Bush, etc. that you and your life is one of many, many examples of Christianity non-believers see. No matter how good your example is, it's an exception to the rule that society has made: Christians are pricks. It's therefore easier to write off your testimony as an anomaly rather than a testimony towards Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, I didn't use Corinthians to contradict Matthew, I used it to clarify and qualify. In the same way that we need Isaiah to clarify Matthew and Daniel to clarify Revelation, we need (or at least it helps) the Book of Acts and Paul's letters to see Jesus' teachings lived out. I also drew heavily from Acts, given they were led by the spirit and heard Jesus' words first hand (and then wrote them down for us) I'll assume their actions are good examples of emulation just like I'll assume the Authority of Scripture.
A few thoughts.
I want to point out, that "Go" is not actually an imperative verb in the underlying greek text. It's a participle, and the implication is "as you are going" then the three imperatives. While it doesn't change the general drift of your point, just be aware, it's not an imperative. Rather, it is an assumption that we are all going.
Secondly, I think St. Francis was actually incorrect, or rather, his quote has been misused.
http://www.evangelismcoach.org/2009/did-saint-francis-of-assisi-get-it-wrong/
We live in a culture where people cannot and likely will not interpret our actions, or people will give meaning to our actions that we don't intend.
For example, an artist paints something, and I'm supposed to figure it out. I don't have time to figure it out. I want someone to tell me why this painting is valuable -- someone to tell me what I'm supposed to know or feel.
Essentially, are our good works any different than the good works of the Red Cross, Red Crescent, or some corporation's clean water foundation? Do people want to know about our Christianity when we are just as morally normal as many people around us?
I still think it is necessary that we use words to explain ourselves and our actions, but do so in a way that is
*not obnoxious
*comfortable
*natural
To simply hide behind good works and hope somebody gets our drift and gets curious enough to ask I think is way too short of what we are called to do.
Chris W
EvangelismCoach.org
Chris is right on the money - the quote I've heard for years about sharing the gospel and if necessary use words really isn't theologically correct. It's not found in Scripture. Jesus used words AND loving kindness to bring people to The Truth. I've lived much of my life as a Christian trying to be a "witness without words" and no matter how "good" I am, people never ask me why.
The only verb that is imperative in the original language is one word (translated into two words in English). That verb is matheteusate - "Make Disciples." Therefore the imperative of the Great Commission is to MAKE DISCIPLES. Jesus explains to us How we are to do this with the participles Baptizing (baptizontes) and teaching (didaskontes). One does not baptize one who has not put his/her faith in the redemptive work of Christ upon the cross. Therefore, the emphasis is to proclaim the gospel message to those who have not yet received forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:46-47; John 20:21). This command finds remarkable fulfillment in the activities of the early church (Acts 1:8; Acts 14:21-22). In the early church to believe in the gospel message was to become a disciple (eg Acts 6:2). The roots of the great Commission can be found in Isaiah 49:6 'I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach the end of the earth." Let's not forget that Jesus also demonstrated this emphasis - Matt 4:23; Matt 9:35. Jesus WENT through all the towns and villages (Galilee) TEACHING in their synagogues, PREACHING the good news of the Kingdom (Evangelism), and healing (ministry) every kind of disease. We Christians like the apostles are called to be fishers of men. We too often look at that as we are to be the people weilding the fishing pole. We are to be the bait. If christ is truly living in us, should people not be attracted to us as they were to christ when he was incarnate here on earth?