Pitfalls of Evangelism (1)

The Church is the one institution that exists for those outside it.

William Tyndale
16th century Protestant Reformer

As Protestants, we are constantly preoccupied with the salvation of those outside the Church. We spend much of our resources in organizing evangelistic programs, creating endless opportunities and platforms to bring non-believers to our faith. On a personal level, we are often taught, sometimes commanded, to grab hold of every possible opportunity to share the gospel verbally to our friends who have not embraced the faith, yet.

It is of no wonder why we hear messages such as this coming from the pulpit, “How many people have you brought to Christ this year? This month? This week? When you go to heaven, won't it be great to see people whom you have brought to Christ lining up to thank you for bringing them to Christ? How pathetic it will be if there is no one in heaven waiting to welcome and thank you when you arrive there?”

Why are we so preoccupied with evangelism and the salvation of others? This is very much affected by our understanding of the eschaton. In our understanding, when Christ returns, he will bring the Church to heaven. On the contrary, those who are outside the Church will be banished into the eternal flames. Based on our heaven-hell eschatology, our primary mission in the world is to pull as many people as we can out of hell and into heaven before time runs out. We do so by grabbing every opportunity to verbally share the gospel to as many as possible, hoping that some out of the many will accept the gospel, say the sinner's prayer and receive the assurance of eternal life in heaven.

Unfortunately, our single-mindedness in evangelism has caused us to overlook the unChristian-ness of many of our evangelistic methods. Let us take a closer look at evangelistic rallies. Let's say Daniel, a Christian, wants to invite his friend to an evangelistic rally, how does he convey his message? Can he say, "Sam, I want to invite you to an activity in my church this coming Saturday night. We have invited a famous Christian to come and share about our God. I hope that after listening to his sharing, you will be more interested to know about our God"? Certainly not! Such an unwise approach would definitely put him off. So what should Daniel say? "Sam, this Saturday night I want to invite you to my church, got free dinner, some more can meet new friends le! Come la!" If Sam were to ask Daniel what will be going on on that night, he will answer, "Nothing one la, just sing some songs and listen to some nice stories lo." Although some may say that Daniel is being misleading, many others will say that he is just being tactful, and it is not wrong as long as his intention is good.

Therefore, on that fateful night, Sam followed Daniel to his church, thinking that he was just attending a social dinner. Everything seemed to be fine throughout the whole night until a person started giving a long speech. Sam began to smell something fishy because the speaker kept on promoting and bragging about the Christian God. When he came to the end of his speech, the speaker said, "Anyone of you would like to accept this God as your saviour and Lord, please raise your hand." By now, Sam had come to know the whole truth, but he was unaware that the worst is yet to come. The speaker continued, "Those who have brought your friends here, do talk to them and encourage them." Before he could find an opportunity to escape to the washroom, Sam was already surrounded by Daniel and a few other men who were well-dressed with tags labeled "USHER" clipped on their shirt pockets. They spent about fifteen minutes talking, explaining, encouraging and persuading him to accept their God. Angry Sam refused to give in, and they had no choice but to give up their mission...

Certainly, in most evangelistic events, there will be those who will respond to the altar call and receive Christ. Not only will they not blame us for misinforming them, but will thank us for inviting them instead. Yet, how about the many others, who like Sam, felt cheated and betrayed? After this event, what will they think about Christians and the Christian God? What will be their response if we were to invite them to another Christian event, even if it is not an evangelistic event? More importantly, what will become of the relationship between Daniel and Sam?

Perhaps in our eager attempts to bring others to Christ, we have brought them to a distorted Christ and further lead them away from the true Christ.

How about personal evangelism and street evangelism?

To be continued...