START WITH THE GOOD NEWS Day 3

Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove, speaker

HISTORY LESSON

Any evangelical renewal must take into account the darker history of American evangelicalism, rooted in the Southern Baptist affirmation that slavery was a beatified practice because it brought good news to the benighted, improving the slaves, but carried through with all the judgmental, divisive proclamations that have led to so much pain among those outside the church. The irony is seen in the living example of Rwanda, heralded in 1990 by the Southern Baptist Convention as the most successful mission field ever, only to see four years later, Christian turning on Christian in one of the worst genocides ever witnessed. The goal was simply to get someone to profess Jesus, nothing more, nothing less—a very thin gospel—that left no transformation nor transcendence of who we are as we are. It was simply the assumption that we have the knowledge and other doesn’t, so we can presumptively tell them what we know with no thought of engagement on any level. So, we can understand why so many people are afraid of the very term evangelism. 

CONVICTION

We take in this history to convict us—i.e., call us to a better conformation to Christ. We take in Jesus to transform ourselves so that we will, in turn, transform the world. The transforming principle is and will be always compassion. We have to take seriously the basic desperation of so many all around us. Justice becomes the means to righteousness—people need help, comfort, and care, which is no less than a hunger for the very essence of God himself. Thus, we confess the sin of turning the good news into the bad news as we thin the gospel to moralism. Ephesians 2 offers a paradigm—God brings together all sorts of people at odds with one another, reconciling them; and thereby reconciles the messengers to God—God is the evangelist! The church is simply the conduit for this evangelism, becoming sanctified and justified through grace as we are gracious. 

TRANSFORMATION

The powerful dynamic of grace is that one who is gracious becomes the recipient of grace—the guest becomes the host, to use the table analogy. As we become open and welcoming, we come to understand that as we listen to others’ stories, our own experience of grace expands and is enriched, more conforming us to Christ—we experience the welcome of God. For example, Project Turn (Duke Divinity) brings together prisoners and students to open eyes to what the real experience is on the other side from our own experience—each learns from the other. Bonds are forged that transcend life as it is, opening the possibility of it being something other. We taste the good news in the concrete reality of another person. 

THE TRUE WHY OF EVANGELISM

It is not about one who has knowledge sharing it with someone who doesn’t; but rather as we share the good news, we invite ourselves to have our broken narrative interrupted, redeeming both sharer and shared with alike as they come together seeing one another finally as all children of God.