the new heaven and the new earth. Creation is an act of God’s evangelism.
Today’s Reality
For centuries, Christians have spoken of their burden to convert the world. Although many generations of faithful people wanting holiness have participated in this burden of converting and done so with sincerity and love, I am glad that we in the Episcopal Church have moved away from this paradigm of colonizing the world with Christianity. Though the gospel was often shared and embraced by people who have made Christianity their own, the colonial conversion model has also come with moral disasters, war crimes, and cultural failures. Those who interpreted (and continue to interpret) the Great Commission as permission to subdue the earth with Christianity have driven as many people away from Christ as toward him. The increasing pluralism of America in recent decades has exposed the shallowness and arrogance of this model.
The twentieth century in America brought a crisis of membership in organized religion. And that century continues to leave us in difficult times. It is hard to describe the present and the future of the post-institutional and post-Christian century that we are living. So many institutions in the public square are collapsing. Membership trends for every kind of voluntary association in America are going downward, everything from the Rotary Club to bowling leagues to bingo nights. There appears to be a decline in organized association or religion of any kind.
In fact, statistics1 tell us that the whole globe is experiencing a decline in the participation in any religion at all. At the same time, extremist groups, perhaps fueled by the anxieties and fear that come from this global decline of religion, have taken up vitriol and violence against neighbors or migrants, making it even harder for people who are not religious to take the whole enterprise of organized religion seriously or even morally compelling.
And so we have extremes, and with a shrinking moderate and faithful center. Membership in mainline Christianity in America is falling off the cliff, for both Protestant and Catholic communities. There seems to be no version of Christianity in America that is not experiencing a period of decline.2
Beginning in the 1960s, today we continue to depend on a broadcasting mode. Television, print media, internet . . . these have all been places where people are posting and pushing their versions of truth. But it isn’t working. The extremists are broadcasting too. In a post-modern mindset and culture, moderates are not entirely sure what they believe about Jesus and so, at best, they broadcast welcome and inclusion but do not match the depth of their openness with deep teaching or deep practice. We moved from the burden of converting the world to broadcasting to the world.
The good news is that there is a discernable new movement of the Holy Spirit in our times. I believe we are being called to sharing our faith not as burden or broadcast but instead as blessing.
The Holy Spirit, who is both God and evangelist for God in the world, is at work everywhere to heal, liberate, and redeem. Every form of death died in the tomb, and resurrection is the first fact and act of the new heaven and the new earth. This is the message that God is spreading. Every one of us is invited to join God’s mission. It is time to learn to bless the world with the gospel, not conquer it or rule it. The title of every person who says yes to this invitation to bless the world with love is evangelist.
Let’s take a minute to define and reclaim the term “evangelist” according to its ancient creation and context among the followers of Jesus. Scholars of the first and second century agree that the term “evangelist” was utterly unique to the followers of Jesus. The word evangelium in Greek and Latin is not found elsewhere in literature contemporaneous to the New Testament documents. Either the followers of Jesus coined the term on their own or it was created to describe the disciples by others. Either way, the word evangelium meant both “good news” and “messenger.” Over time, we began to use the term “gospel” to refer to the “evangelium” or “the good news.” It is unclear whether or not the “good news” was understood as the narrative of Jesus or as the person bringing the news of Jesus.
I love this historical linguistic ambiguity because it unveils a sacred truth about holy evangelism: what we say is only good news because of the way that news is actually transforming our lives. The evangelist that is being transformed by the love of God in Christ is the Good News in the flesh. A person being transformed by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is the proof of the power of the gospel. A Christian is the gospel not because of what they say, but because of what God’s love is doing to them and in them and through them in the world. You don’t ever have to wake up in the morning and wonder how you can start being an evangelist each day. If you are following Jesus, your life is already an evangelist sharing the Good News of Christ with the world. Belief in Christ is not just an idea that you carry in your head. Living in a relationship with Christ is a real experience that is happening to your whole body and soul. The Good News is living in you and changing your life with love. Therefore, a disciple is an evangelist while she sleeps or while he sits in silence. A life being transformed by Christ is sharing the gospel with every breath. Your life has been part of God’s evangelism of all creation since your baptism.
A Christian evangelist is simply a baptized person whose life inspires other people to become baptized people. The more aware you are of your identity as an evangelist by baptism, the more intentional you can be in how you share the gospel that is already transforming your life. Notice that I said, “whose life inspires other people,” not “whose words inspire other people.” The most powerful evangelism is the power of a life that is committed to the love and mission of Jesus Christ in the world. The person who has made this commitment and who has adopted spiritual practices to get better and more faithful in this commitment every day will inspire others to do the same. Words are important but they are not the only and not the most powerful way to share the love of God with other people. This is the crucial difference between the Christian evangelist and an evangelist for Facebook or Google. Brand evangelists have the challenge to convince people to become new customers or new consumers in a crowded marketplace. But Episcopalians believe that God is already present in every person’s life. We are not sharing a new product. We believe that God knows and loves every person already and that the love of God is present in the lives of every person already. What is often missing in agnostics or un-churched people is the awareness, belief, desire, or ability of any person to hear the voice of God present and calling in their life.
Episcopalians believe that God is calling all people into deeper and deeper relationship, every minute of every day, whether a person believes in God or not. Episcopalians believe that people are free to ignore or reject the constant call of God in everyone’s soul from conception and through death. But we also believe that God will not stop calling despite any person’s inability or refusal to listen. In our theology, humans are free to ignore God’s voice, but our freedom does not limit God’s freedom to call and call and call again, in the depths of every human heart and conscience. The Episcopal evangelist does not introduce God’s love to a person, as if any soul had never heard it or felt it. In the Episcopal tradition, we believe that we are bringing Good News, not New News. We are not introducing anyone to a new product or idea or service, like Lyft or Amazon or Twitter. We are on God’s mission to awaken every soul to the love of God that is, from conception, at the core of their being and is the source and end of all their longing and hope. In one of our liturgical prayers for “deceased people who do not profess the Christian faith” in the The Book of Occasional Services, we pray:
Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to your never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come, knowing that you are doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for . . . .3
God’s love for every person
