Mission and Evangelism
Rev Dr Stephen Skuce
Director of Scholarship, Research and Innovation
skuces@methodistchurch.org.uk
‘One Mission’
Britain – wherever: it’s the same
Eg 2014 Report of the One Mission Working
Party (3:2)
(Some Americans still talk about ‘missions’)
Aspects of Evangelism: Summary
of the Evangelism Commission
‘People were not always clear regarding what
they were talking about. The language can get
quite muddled between evangelism and mission
– and the distinction is negligible from a
congregation’s perspective.’
In the rest of the ‘Aspects of Evangelism’
resource, I think the words ‘evangelism’ and
‘mission’ are used interchangeably.
I suggest a sharper understanding of mission
and evangelism would help.
It is abundantly clear that there is a challenge at
the very heart of what evangelism is. From the
organisations that strongly believe in
proclamation as the only form of evangelisation,
to those who see evangelism as much more
developmental in its nature, involving both
presence and proclamation, the world of
evangelism in the UK is wide and broad.
Evangelical Alliance UK Evangelism Review, March 2005:
Part of the confusion is around mission. It might
be helpful to make a distinction between two
uses of mission:
1 A theological concept that seeks to describe
the action of God with the world: missio Dei
2 A Christian response to this whereby
Christians engage in a wide variety of
activities with those who are not followers of
Jesus: Christian mission
A further issue is that Christian
mission includes evangelism which
can perhaps be helpfully considered
as a subset of practices.
But, evangelism does not include all
that is in Christian mission.
Consequently, if the two terms are
used interchangeably, there can be
confusion.
2012 Conference Future Mission Together
4.2 Before we proceed, it is important to define what is meant, in this report, by
the word mission. There is often confusion about what is mission and what is
evangelism. Mission and evangelism are closely linked, but different. The following
definitions, taken from the WCC statement on Mission and Evangelism in Unity
(2000) makes the distinction more clear:
Mission: carries a holistic understanding – the proclamation and sharing of the
good news of the gospel in the word, deed, prayer and worship and the everyday
witness of the Christian life.
Evangelism: while not excluding the different dimensions of mission, focuses on
explicit and intentional voicing of the gospel, including the invitation to personal
conversion to a new life in Christ and to discipleship.
4.3 Mission and evangelism are thus closely linked and in many ways the word
mission includes and implies evangelism. It is in this way that the word mission is
used in this report.
See also 4.4-6.2
2013 Conference Report of the MMS Working
Party
6.1 ‘… should mean that mission and evangelism
can be viewed holistically with less division
between them …’
Does this reintroduce a conflation of the terms?
Cf 6.3
Mission: ‘Mission begins in the heart of the Triune
God and the love which binds together the Holy
trinity overflows to all humanity and creation.’
Christian Mission: ‘God invites us into the life-giving
mission of the Triune God and empowers us to bear
witness to the vision of abundant life for all in the
new heaven and earth.’
Evangelism: ‘Evangelism is a confident but
humble sharing of our faith and conviction with
other people. Such sharing is a gift to others
which announces the love, grace and mercy of
God in Christ. It is the inevitable fruit of genuine
faith.’
WCC Together Towards Life (2013/14)
What is Mission? Evangelism? Neither?
The calling of the Methodist Church is:
• To increase awareness of God's
presence and to celebrate God's love.
• To help people to grow and learn as Christians,
through mutual support and care.
• To be a good neighbour to people in need and
to challenge injustice.
• To make more followers of Jesus Christ.
Which is Christian mission? Which is evangelism?
1. How do we develop friendly attitudes towards everyone we
meet?
2. Do we have a clear message? Are the words we use
straightforward and meaningful to those outside the Church?
3. What attracts others to the Christian faith? Are there initiatives
we could take to present our convictions? Can we do this with
Christians of other denominations? Where should the focus be on church premises, or in the community?
4. How can we learn about effective witness from Christians in
other cultures?
5. What can we do to make our premises more welcoming?
6. Should we consider planting a new congregation in this locality?
http://www.methodist.org.uk/who-we-are/vision-values Evangelism
‘Mission was understood as being
derived from the very nature of
God. It was thus put in the context
of the doctrine of the Trinity, not of
ecclesiology or soteriology. The
classical doctrine of the missio Dei
as God the Father sending the Son,
and God the Father and the Son
sending the Spirit was expanded to
include yet another "movement":
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sending
the church into the world.’
David Bosch, Transforming Mission, p.390
Mission
… considering the church, not so
much its inner life (ad intra) but in its
activities outside (ad extra).
… concerns the church’s evangelistic,
prophetic and diaconal ministries
within the everyday life of human
communities.
J Andrew Kirk, The Church and the World, p.
xiii
E Stanley Jones:
‘Evangelism is the Good
News of the Kingdom of
God on earth; that
Kingdom personalised and
embodied in Christ’
DT Niles : ‘One beggar
telling another beggar
where to find bread’.
Proclamation, church growth,
conversion, testimony and discipleship
are part of evangelism but inadequate
characterisations of the whole.
‘We can best improve our thinking on
evangelism by conceiving it as that set
of intentional activities which is
governed by the goal of initiating
people into the kingdom of God for
the first time.’
Abraham The Logic of Evangelism, p95
Does evangelism involve initiation?
For Abraham initiation involves:
1. something beyond the formal admittance
into a Christian body
2. distinct from conversion
3. can’t be reduced to intellectual assent to a
creed
4. can’t be reduced to a changed moral
understanding
5. isn’t tied to certain rites or ceremonies
6. isn’t limited to a positive social activism
Abraham considers four agents involved in
evangelism:
1.
2.
3.
4.
the triune God
the Church
the evangelist
those being evangelised
‘… we can best improve our thinking
on evangelism by construing it as that
set of loving, intentional activities
governed by the goal of initiating
persons into Christian discipleship in
response to the reign of God.’
Jones, The Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbour,
p.114
Scott Jones: Components of Evangelism
1. a divine activity and a human activity
2. both initiation and the expectation of results
3. aimed at personal decisions but involve whole
communities
4. be a distinct ministry yet be integrated into wider
Christian discipleship
5. considered theologically yet continually reexamined contextually
6. never understood in opposition to social justice
‘Evangelism is our sharing and
inviting others to experience
the good news that God loves
us and invites us into a
transforming relationship
through which we are forgiven,
receive new life, and are
restored to the image of God,
which is love.’
Knight & Powe Transforming Evangelism,
p.17
‘Evangelism rightly understood
is the holistic initiation of
people into the reign of God as
revealed in Jesus Christ.’
Elaine Heath The Mystic Way of
Evangelism, p.13
Today, British Methodists are reasonably good at
Christian mission, but very weak at evangelism.
If we make clear that mission is engaging with
those outside of the Christian faith, but that in
itself is not evangelism, it might assist us to
recognise where we need to learn more.
Bibliography
Abraham, W
The Logic of Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1989)
Chilcote & WarnerThe Study of Evangelism: Exploring a Missional
Practice of the Church (Cambridge: Eerdmans,
2008)
Gunter & Robinson Considering the Great Commission: Evangelism
and Mission in the Wesleyan Spirit (Nashville:
Abingdon, 2005)
Heath, E
The Mystic Way of Evangelism (Grand Rapids:
Baker, 2008)
Jones, S
The Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor
(Nashville: Abingdon, 2003)
Kirk, JA
The Church and the World (Milton Keynes:
Paternoster, 2014)
Kleiber, W
Call and Response: Biblical Foundations for a
Theology of Evangelism (Nashville: Abingdon,
1997)
Knight & Powe
Transforming Evangelism: The Wesleyan Way of
Sharing Faith (Nashville: Discipleship, 2006)
Logan, J (ed) Christ for the World (Nashville, Abingdon, 1996)
Short & Kiser Reclaiming the Wesleyan Social Witness: Offering
Christ (Franklin: Providence House, 2008)
Stone, B
Evangelism after Christendom (Grand Rapids: Brazos,
2007)
Tuttle, R
The Story of Evangelism: A History of the Witness to
the Gospel (Nashville: Abingdon, 2006)
Whiteman & Anderson World Mission in the Wesleyan Spirit
(Franklin: Providence House, 2009)