Imperishable Inheritance

Most Chris­tians today have grown up learn­ing and know­ing rela­tional evan­ge­lism as the only truly effec­tive method of evan­ge­lism. Open-​air preach­ing is seen as “dated” and “not how Jesus would’ve done it.” Move­ments such as the Willow Creek and Vine­yard move­ments have pressed upon much of evan­gel­i­cal­ism the rela­tional method­ol­ogy to evangelism.

There are many ques­tions we could pose, but I want to really dig down and define what “relational evangelism” should be, but first I want to out­line what this arti­cle is not about. I will then give, what I believe to be, a bal­anced perspective

The Baby Is Still Useful

I don’t want to give the impres­sion that I am com­pletely dis­re­gard­ing the merit in truly get­ting to know some­one. My quar­rel exists in the rela­tional model that puts the Gospel only after cer­tain steps. In inter­na­tional min­istry I learned first hand the value (and neces­sity) of bridg­ing cul­tural chasms to effec­tively convey the Gospel (hence “Bridges” Inter­na­tional). I did also see how easily the Gospel can become less impor­tant while trying to con­tex­tu­al­ize every­thing; often times this is not done intentionally.

The ques­tion is not whether being rela­tional in the evan­ge­lis­tic process is a good thing, but I do want to talk about instances where the rela­tional aspect down­plays the ora­tion of the Gospel.

The “Back Nine Gospel”

I once flipped through a book that caught my eye enti­tled Irre­sistible Evan­ge­lism by the former pastor of the Cincin­nati Vine­yard. I was flip­ping through and found a hor­rific graphic that sum­ma­rized their phi­los­o­phy of evan­ge­lism.¹ Basi­cally, the anal­ogy is between golf hole and evan­ge­lism. When you golf you don’t just shoot it straight into the hole (unless you’re insanely good²), but instead you take one shot into the fair­way, then up to the green, then finally in the hole. And each of these steps cor­re­lates to the rela­tional process you move through in their method of evan­ge­lism. You don’t start off with the Gospel, because you need to first “get it up to the green.” This method­ol­ogy clearly shows their Arminian/decisional regen­er­a­tion theology.

This anal­ogy, I think, most clearly shows what rela­tional evan­ge­lism can go to taken to an extreme. We must first ask: Did anyone in the whole Bible present the truth of God only after the tee and fair­way shots? Jesus calls his dis­ci­ples from the very begin­ning to repen­tance, and Peter and Paul both giving stir­ring Gospel pre­sen­ta­tions to the masses. I would imag­ine that if there was a model to clone it would be these gen­tle­men, but each of these men also con­tex­tu­al­ized the Gospel to their audi­ence.³

The Proper Balance

I do believe there is a bal­ance to be had on this issue, and I actu­ally found the clear­est thoughts on this from a Campus Cru­sade talk.⁴ The point was made that there needs to be a bal­ance between bold­ness and clar­ity, and I couldn’t agree more. Some­times it leans one way or the other, but nei­ther side is sac­ri­ficed for the other.

In my own per­sonal oppor­tu­ni­ties for evan­ge­lism I tend to favor the bold side of things, and I myself need to bal­ance more. The essen­tial truth is that the Gospel must always be the high­est pri­or­ity. Being up front, yet loving and respect­ful, early on I’ve found actu­ally gives a good foun­da­tion to con­tin­ued friend­ship due to hon­esty and open­ness. This is espe­cially true for some­one who claims the name of Christ yet is not regen­er­ate (both nom­i­nal and those in cults), and I think this is Jesus’ empha­sis in Matthew 7:15-23. Being deceived seems far worse than bla­tantly deny­ing God.

Stand Up

It impresses on me more and more as I share the Gospel that it and it alone is the cen­tral­ity of every­thing we live for. Jesus is infi­nitely worthy of wor­ship from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Shar­ing his vic­ar­i­ous work with a bal­ance of bold­ness and clar­ity is both hon­or­ing to him and encour­ag­ing for us.

“Therefore every­one who con­fesses Me before men, I will also con­fess him before My Father who is in heaven. But who­ever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” – Jesus

1. In the fore­word, the author actu­ally says that the title would get “theological Christians” going by the title’s obvi­ous ref­er­ence to irre­sistible grace. [Back]
2. The anal­ogy uses a par 4/5 and not a par 3 which could in fact be com­pleted in one shot. [Back]
3. Jesus did so to the Samar­i­tan woman (John 4), Paul to the Greeks (Acts 17; cf. 1 Cor 9:20-21), and Peter did so to Cor­nelius (Acts 10). [Back]
4. I found the graphic in a Pow­er­Point pre­sen­ta­tion, and it is on slide 24. [Back]