Archive: Leaders Discuss Evangelism

by M. Garlinda Burton

Prominent United Methodist scholars and some of the church’s most provocative pastors began building bridges among academia, church bureaucracy and grass-roots parishes during an international symposium held in Atlanta earlier this year.

Evangelism—why and how—was the common ground plowed by scholars representing the gamut of church thought and geography, from Malaysia and South Africa to Wilmore, Kentucky, and Evanston, Illinois.

Conclusions drawn by the 35 speakers were myriad, but common observations included:

• evangelism is a “theological imperative” for the UM Church;
• seminarians and pastors are pushed to be administrators and paper-pushers, and lack proper training to perform the “primary task” of evangelism and Christian nurture;
• responsible, effective Christian evangelism is incomplete unless converted people become instruments for social justice and world peace.

Some at the symposium pointed fingers, but most accepted at least partial blame themselves (or on behalf of their disciplines) for the church’s lost fervor for evangelism.

Washington-based professor James C. Logan criticized theological education for “increasingly distancing itself from the community of faith,” in favor of finding credibility “in academic circles.”

“Theologians need evangelism. Theology is faith seeking understanding,” he said, urging colleague theologians to reclaim their place as partners in the church’s ministry.

A coordinator of the symposium, Logan is the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Wesley Theological Seminary, supported by the Foundation of Evangelism. The foundation, which raises money for evangelism education, sponsored the symposium.

Methodism must reclaim its ardor and self-confidence to be an instrument for God’s plan for the world, said the Rev. Peter C. Graves of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Great Britain.

He decried an “ignostic” church—full of people ignorant of the power of their own Christian faith—and contrasted it to the vibrant Methodist renewal movement begun by founder John Wesley.

“The early church grew simply because it never occurred to them not to. The people were so convinced of the Holy Spirit’s power to change people’s lives that they wanted to be a part of that,” Graves said.

He also reprimanded an elitist clergy network for failure to include laypeople in ministry, thereby “ignoring the greatest wasted resource in the church.”

Also championing laypeople was the Rev. George Hunter, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky. “In Wesley’s movement, the ministry and mission of the church was primarily entrusted to laity,” Hunter said. “Methodism radically ‘out-laitized’ other traditional Christian movements in its day.”

But, said the Rev. Kenneth Carder,  Knoxville, Tennessee, the church bureaucracy and seminaries do not push evangelistic education or Bible study and reflection for pastors, but stress administrative duties. That leaves little time for personal renewal, much less nurturing laypeople to be in ministry, he said.

While Wesley admonished pastors in his charge to study five hours a day, “pastors and congregations devote prime time to institutional maintenance and administrative tasks, and the hierarchy of the church tends to reinforce and support such use of time,” Carder said.

“In my thirty years as a pastor, I have had only one district superintendent and one bishop to admonish me to study. I have yet to have any (churchwide agency) leader seek to hold me accountable for the theological integrity of my preaching,” he said.

While identifying structural barriers to true evangelistic spirit in higher education and the church bureaucracy, several speakers said evangelism at all levels of the church must be guided by belief that Christianity can make a difference in individual lives and in the world.

Patricia Brown, mission evangelism executive for the church’s Board of Global Ministries, New York, called for renewed connection between personal piety and social holiness, the hallmark of the early Methodist movement.

“Because of our fear of anything that has the appearance of propaganda or proselytism … (our) evangelism has lost its passion,” she said. Brown admitted her own fear of wrong-headed evangelism gone amok—used to manipulate people and evoke “fear and guilt.” However, she urged her colleagues to “do the gospel.”

The Rev. Joe Hale, chief executive of the World Methodist Council, agreed. He lamented that the notion of evangelism has become associated with self-serving “televangelists” and unscrupulous persons concerned only with converting people to their own brand of Christianity.

Quoting late theologian Georgia Harkness, he said, “We must rescue evangelism from the ‘red-light’ district of the church,” and call converted Christians not only to the Good News, but live it out in justice ministries.

M. Garlinda Burton is director of the Nashville, Tenn., office of United Methodist News Service.