Evangelism: Putting the "Good" back in "Good News"

Evangelism has become a dirty word in a lot of circles.  I just spent 3 days at the Church Planters Academy in Minneapolis and none of the presenters used the word "evangelism."  That's not to say that the church plants or the post-modern/emergent/missional church doesn't do evangelism, but we don't like to talk about it much.

Evangelism in Greek literally means, "preaching the good news."  (Angel in Greek simply means messenger or one who is sent).  James Choung, author of "True Story," (from which I stole a lot of the ideas in this post) in his presentation at the Big Tent Conference last year started by saying that we are naturally wired to share things that we think are good news.  When we see a great movie, the first thing we want to do is run out and tell everyone how great it is.  And yet, when it comes to the best news in all creation, we hesitate to share.  He claims that this is the case becausewe don't think it will be perceived as good news by people we share it with.

I think there are a number of reasons for this, but at the top of the list is the abusive, manipulative, and often just downright mean ways that people have claimed to be sharing "good news," all the while making it (and any sign of them) very bad news.  I think the majority of Christians know the gospel is good news, but don't know how to articulate the gospel in clear way that makes it good.

While in Minneapolis, I got into a conversation over dinner with some other church planters about evangelism and a guy asked me, "So then do you think there is truth outside of Jesus?"  I hesitated for a moment (and actually never got to answer his question, since he got a phone call) but I thought about that question and here's my answer:

The truth-iness of Jesus Christ is not relevant to the goodness of Jesus Christ.  I don't think "truth" is the right question for me or for most of the people who are far away from God.  I've never practiced any other religion so I can't speak to the truth of other religions compared with the truth of Jesus Christ.  (Notice the particularly post-modern move of allowing behavior and experience to define truth rather than vice-versa.)



However, as an adult convert to Christianity, I have a very clear understanding of the goodness of the gospel and, for me, it basically involves three moves:

a) The world is full of suffering on the global and individual levels.
The global level of suffering is hard to argue.  Pick up a newspaper and you will see suffering.  The individual level of suffering is a little bit less public, but no less real.  My life was full of shame, guilt, and pain and I really didn't like what I saw when I looked in the mirror.  I felt inadequate, alone, afraid, and hopeless.

b) The God of the bible is good.
In spite of things like the problem of suffering and the wraths in the Old Testament, the overwhelming message of Jesus Christ is grace and love, as well as justice and empowerment.  (For many post-moderns, this move may actually come third.)

c) A life connected to God's goodness alleviates individual and global suffering.
As I struggle to turn my life more and more towards God, I continue to find that I have a much greater ability to live in a way that I can be at peace.  I like what I see in the mirror.  The more connected I become to God, the more I am able to be at peace with my own faults, the faults of other people, and the faults of the world AND the more able I am to change my faults and the faults of the world.  (The faults of other people are pretty much between them and God).

So that's the good news to me and that's the good news that I have committed my life to sharing.  Whether it's true, exclusively true, kind of true, or possibly even not true (another post for another time), I have found goodness in Jesus Christ and when I think that there are still people who feel inadequate, alone, afraid, and hopeless, then I feel ever more motivated to share the goodness that I have found in Jesus Christ.

So how about you?  What about the gospel is good news (or bad news) to you?

(Maybe I'll make this into a series and post about ways to share that goodness, but I think articulating the goodness itself is probably a good start.  Plus, nobody wants to read 8 pages.)