The Parish and Evangelism

 

This is the third of my series of blogs on Evangelism. In this, I want to lift up three things.

1.    How Evangelism fits today amid secularization and the end of Christendom.

2.    The Discipleship Movement.

3.    Two Programs that have enhanced the work of evangelism in congregations.

In my first blog, I shared TEC’s official definition of evangelism, its origins, and its unique emphasis on “within the fellowship of the Church.” To the credit of the Billy Graham Association, three decades ago they did research on the follow up with those who decided for Christ at one of their Crusades. What they found was that only about 25% of those who had come forward and made such a response had followed up with this decision.

This was so troubling that the organization made an important decision. Instead of just putting on these Crusades, they reached out to involve local pastors. They asked for their involvement and gave permission to pastors to pray for those who wanted to repent and receive Christ. They also gave permission to pastors to invite the new believer to their congregation for follow up if they did not already belong to a church. I even knew Episcopal clergy that did so.

In other words, the most well-known evangelistic group in North America embraced in practice the last part of our definition, “within the fellowship of the Church” because of the critical importance of giving support to the new believer. It was an important correction. According to the Association, the results were significant. New believers were given spiritual support, teaching, and fellowship on the local level. They more than doubled the number of people who followed up on their decision.

This underscores the relationship between evangelism and membership in the body of Christ. Of course, in the New Testament, the two were assumed to be the same thing. It was the decision by the emperor Constantine to make Christianity the official religion of the Empire that this changed in a dramatic way.  It was the victory of the Cross over the State that had for 300 years persecuted with various intensity believers. Unfortunately, it also gave birth to the possibility of “nominal Christians” or Christians in name or membership only. 

It made possible what we now called Christendom. And its existence comes down to us even today. It is membership without evangelism or discipleship. In the US, where we never had an official state church, The new nation’s constitution enshrined separation of Church and State, however, this did not change the many cultural benefits to being a church member in a dominant Christian nation. This changed after the second world war. With the decline of “Protestant Culture” and the rise of secularism, we have seen the erosion of the benefits of such nominal membership. However, I’ve met many Episcopalians over the years who were members in name only. This remains the reason that I believe we need to do evangelism among our members. This is especially true in all so called “mainline churches.” 

To underscore what I just said above, I want to point out that the major movement of the 1990s was without a doubt the “Discipleship Movement.” It was ecumenical and it touched many people. This was the Christian response to growing secularism and the end of Christendom. In my first 30 years of ordained ministry in TEC, I almost never heard the word disciple applied to individual church members. In my experience, the best method for moving members to disciples was Cursillo.  It was a four-day event of mostly lay teaching and witness done in an incredible environment of worship, love, and support. The summary testimony of so many participants at the end was “when I came, I knew not Christ. Now I know him and want to follow him.”

A popular program aimed at members and new people was Alpha. I had many reservations about the Alpha claim that it was basic Christianity, however it was effective where parishes followed the program. Often the Holy Spirit Weekend at the end was a powerful experience for new believers as well as long-time Church members. Unfortunately, the heavy emphasis on conservative biblical interpretation often brought in people who during the early 2000s were going to have predictable reactions against some of TEC’s decisions regarding gender. My fundamental objection was simple that I had never known a Christianity without the sacraments. Teaching baptism and the Eucharist as not “basic” to the faith already revealed the problem Anglicans and Episcopalians would have with this.

I believe the present theological state of TEC makes Alpha no longer compatible to our congregations and clergy. It also seems that Cursillo has waned for a number of reasons. This, however, does not change the need our congregations have for doing evangelism both inside our churches and between our churches and the increasingly secular society. It actually increases the need. It would be a very helpful thing to have congregations doing this kind of work share their methods for doing it. 

In my next blog post, I will be sharing what I have said to many congregations and clergy about creating two intentional paths in their communities. First, is the path toward full inclusion in the parish versus just making people members. The second path is that of discipleship. These obviously are closely related, but there is a need for both of them.