Reimagining Evangelism

When I think of my favorite books on evangelism I immediately think of Jim Henderson's Evangelism Without Additives (I did an interview with Jim about this here). Next I think of Brian McLaren's More Ready Than You Realize.

There's others that I've liked as well, but most don't do much for me.

However, I'm very likely going to be adding Rick Richardson's new book Reimagining Evangelism to my list of favs. I'm not through with the book yet, but so far I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Richardson asks us to reimagine some changes in evangelism. To begin with, he asks us to imagine the image of "evangelist as travel guide" and the "definition of evangelism as conversations with people on a spiritual journey". He says that this will then shift our picture and practices in the following ways:

• Collaboration versus Activism

Here we look to clues where God is already at work.

• Community versus Individual

Rather than a salesperson approach to evangelism, we build witnessing communities.

• Friendship versus Agenda

The old model of evangelism has an agenda, which is about downloading content and closing the deal. The reimagined model has a friendship.

• Story versus Dogma

Not merely dogmas and beliefs, but storytelling about God's reality in our life.

• Outside the Box Jesus versus Cliche Jesus

Rather than sharing with people a Jesus they think they have figured out, we share a Jesus people have yet to discover.

• Good News About God's Kingdom versus Good News About the Afterlife

This involves not merely talking about being forgiven and a one-way ticket to heaven, but God's rule and reality in this life.

• Journey versus Event

It's not so much about who made a one-time decision; not so much about who's in and who's out. Instead it's about who is journeying toward being a wholehearted follower of Jesus (other's might say "Jesus-follower", but we don't want to be anal about that--smile).

I've only briefly summarized the big themes of the book, so don't push these points too far. But what are your thoughts on these themes? Anything you'd add or subtract?

Comments

[sally]

Sold- just ordered a copy!

[Christy]

I have pondered this idea of evangelism lately and how that plays out in my life. I am leaning toward what you have written here. Living out the love of Jesus is an act of evangelism--you don't have to be preaching on a street corner to spread the good news of Jesus. Just living it out will speak volumes.
That's what I'm thinking anyway...

[Luke]

That DOES sound like a good book! And lucky me, my library has it! Thanks for the summary.

[cindyH]

Well, since the word EVANGELISM is one of several words of christianese I dropped during my detox period, I'm up for re-imagining it.

A lot of the church certainly needs to clean out the 'ole religious ear wax in order to hear the message in a book such as this....but it strikes me as a bit, um, sad that we even need to have books about 'how' to do evangelism. I have been discovering all this all by my lonesome, just by living my life. It's nice to see it all bullet-pointed in front of me, so I can go, "Like wow. So that's what I've been doing. Cool." It seems to me things like this go down a bit easier once there's a frame of reference in one's own life.

I always joke that it's a good thing Jesus didn't sit the disciples down about 4 weeks before feeding the crowds with the kid's bagel and lox and say "Ok guys. In about a month we're going to do something 'missional'. For the next several Sabbaths, I will explain to you what this is, and we can have discussions and debates about what the best way might be to really bless people." Nah, he just cut to the chase. Finding a rather restless crowd, he simply goes with the flow..."Hey, everyone's hungry. Let's eat!"

(my comment got all rambly, so I took the opportunity to post more about this on my own blog.)

[blind beggar]

You know I like that Reimagining word :-).

I'm going to have to add that book to my list. A good honest conversation about evangelism is sorely needed in the emerging/missional movements. Multiplication should be a core value, yet how we were taught to do this in the past certainly isn't going to work now -- and I'm not sure it worked then either.

[John Smulo]

Sally,

I wonder if Rick will give me a commission? :-)

[John Smulo]

Christy,

I think the talking part is important too, but it just flows from the living and relationship naturally rather than in a forced or gimmicky way.

[John Smulo]

Luke,

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. You must have a great library with books like that in it!

[John Smulo]

Cindy,

I guess much hasn't changed since Jesus walked the earth. His disciples didn't seem to get it on their own very often either, even when he explained things repeatedly. Most of us like me aren't much different :-)

[John Smulo]

Rick,

Yes I know how you like that reimagining word. Thanks for encouraging me to use it :-)

I think that the emerging/missional movement needs to not only have a conversation about evangelism, but apologetics too. I fear that the baby has been thrown out with the bathwater to an extent with both. We're in trouble if we don't reimagine and implement both.

[Paul]

Trouble with these books (from what you just described) is that they go for a smack down with a "versus" approach... now don't get me wrong I like the points he makes I just don't like the way its set as an and/or - i could be wrong but a lot of these strike me as a both/and...

Yes let's react and learn but let's not over react and polarise ourselves out of some good stuff - we've all been guilty of tacky evangelism in the past but that doesn't mean we should ditch the ways we did it before? Maybe we should learn and add?