Reclaiming evangelism
Wait. What?
Aren’t we trying to escape evangelism?
I refuse to bang people over the head with the Bible anymore.
Well, fair enough. Me too. But let me tell you what happened to me last week.
A man asked to come and see me in my office. Let’s call him Will. He didn’t come from a big church background, mostly Sunday school and youth group as child care. He faced some really big challenges in his life. He had a whammy of a year, one thing after another. He even came close to dying.
Leaning on some of his childhood teachings (“Everything happens for a reason” and “God has a plan”), he said he was trying to figure out what lesson God could be trying to teach him by putting all these obstacles in his path.
Just because we learn and grow in our hardship doesn’t mean God gives us hardship to teach us a lesson. When Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray and ask God for what they need, he encouraged them like this:
What parents among you will give a snake to their child when the child asks for a fish, or a scorpion when the child asks for an egg? If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children good things, how much more will our heavenly Abba give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?” (Luke 11:11-13, The Inclusive Bible)
So here are 3 things I said in my conversation with Will:
You are a dad. If your daughter stopped talking to you, would you cause her to have a terrible accident in hopes of her calling you for help? Of course not! Neither would God cause you to come to harm just to manipulate you.
God does not want to see you in pain any more than you want to be in pain, and, in the same way you would not wilfully cause your daughter pain, God would not cause you pain, either.
God will join you in pain, be there to hear your cries, love you through it, and offer you ways to grow. God will not force pain on you, or force you at all. No matter what choices you make, God will not abandon you.
After a few more exchanges in this same vein, Will told me, “You know, people don’t know that this side of Christianity exists. If they did, a lot more people would be part of it.” I replied with my complete agreement. I told him that I think the message is getting out, pointing to clergy on the front lines against ICE, churches providing aid to protestors and immigrants, and introduced him to a few writers and thinkers I really like.
The Greek root word of evangelism is euangelion, or good news. I firmly believe that beliefs that we teach at Harbor—connecting people to God, exploring the way of Jesus, creating beauty and justice in community, and transforming ourselves and the world towards God’s peace—are far more reflective of the good news Jesus came into the world to embody than what the fascist leaders have to say about God right now.
So what am I reclaiming about evangelism?
I bring up God, Jesus, and the Bible more in conversation, not as evidence, but as hope. I regularly use feminine and gender neutral names and pronouns for God.
I call out teaching I know is wrong and harmful, ready to call it heresy, even from my pulpit.
I invite people to my churches, Harbor and in-person, not to boost numbers but because I think my communities can help others nurture hope and comfort.
I ask people if I can pray for them, and then, if I have their consent, I do, in words of love and encouragement. I ask if I can bless children, too, “in all their learning, in all their growing, and in all their playing.”
I don’t carry any expectations of reaction, I simply want to share that the force or spirit I call God is also Love, and that God is making a difference in my life as I face the world we find ourselves in.
And, let me tell you, it feels great, even when I get a skeptical glance or the table goes silent. I pick up the cues and carry on. More often than not, I hear, “I like that,” or “I never heard that before.”
I am doing my best to share good news, that there is a way through, that Love does make a difference. It is the kind of news that feels good to share, and good news is what a lot of us need to hear these days.
