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November 12, 2008

Open-ended evangelism

‘Growing Christ’s Church Deep and Wide’ consultation explores variety of approaches, tools

by Bill Lancaster
Special to Presbyterian News Service

STONY POINT, NY — Rick Ufford-Chase launched the two-day Growing Christ’s Church Deep and Wide evangelism consultation here with a promise that it would not be like other conferences.

The consultation was not opened to the church at large, he said, until he had recruited leaders with an array of theological perspectives. Only then was an open invitation extended.  Some participants have come at their own expense.

And so about 75 Presbyterians gathered here Nov. 10 for what Ufford-Chase, moderator of the 2004 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) said he hoped would be a “two-day movement of the Holy Spirit.”

Instead of the usual conference structure, this one is planned around Bible study and worship, conversation “sparkers,” small group discussions, a panel of respondents to the “sparkers” and “open space architecture” in which consultation participants determine the direction it will go.

“What’s the point?” Ufford-Chase asked rhetorically. Produce a position paper? A policy statement?

“I don’t know what God will do,” Ufford-Chase, who is currently co-director of Stony Point, conceded. “Maybe we will just have a meeting and conversation. Maybe some direction will come out of this.”

The Rev. Susan Andrews, moderator of the 2003 General Assembly and now executive presbyter of Hudson River Presbytery, in which Stony Point Conference Center lies, led a Bible study of the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch from Acts 8:26-39. In small groups, participants were asked to reflect on “what stopped your heart” in the story and to “tell a story of when you told someone the good news of Jesus Christ.”

Stanley Ott, the first of the conversation “sparkers” and founder of the Vital Churches Institute, told of his personal experiences of first hearing the Gospel, then outlined four “movements” in evangelism:

• sharing with people in sensitive ways;
• calling people to faith and fellowship;
• relying on the power and timing of the Holy Spirit; and
• leaving the results to God.

"How are we in the mainline churches doing in baptizing adults and helping non-Christians become Christians?" he asked. Not well.

Ott said Presbyterians need to recapture the spirit of the early church where people could not help but speak. “The mark of the early church is talking. The mark of the mainline church is silence,” he said.

“You can’t learn to talk by listening,” Ott said, but that is how we teach people in the church to talk about their faith — by having someone talk to them.

“The present system is perfectly designed to get the results we get,” he said.

Finally, Ott presented three “remedies.”

First, he said, “We need to give people a heart to depart,” to go out to other people. We need to “create in our people the concept of being sent. Evangelism is a lifestyle, not a program.”

Second, we need to “equip them with the capacity to share the message of faith. We need a reemergence of the transformational congregation,” where people’s lives are changed and where “they cannot keep from talking about it.”

Third, he said we need a “shift in the architecture of the church program. We need to create the substructure of the face-to-face group” in which “Word, share, prayer” are practiced.

Marianne Vermeer, a consultant who just returned from three years’ work with the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, reminded the consultation of the effective work of Presbyterian missionaries in that country. These mission workers, over a long period of time, established Forman Christian College, which trained many professional people in Pakistan, including the country’s former president, Pervez Musharraf.

“Mission can be part of this evangelism strategy, too. Plenty of missionaries have exciting stories to tell,” she said.

Following the pattern used by those mission co-workers, Vermeer drew connections between the success factors of the Pakistan work and the PC(USA) today. She said the PC(USA) must have a strategy. “They decided what to do, then they did it. What strategy does the church need now?” she asked.

Second, she asked, “Who should the strategy target?” Should the church seek out those at the top socio-economic level, or at the bottom? “Who would be most receptive to the Gospel? For whom is it good news?”

Third, she suggested the PC(USA) use its overseas missions as an entry point for those who want to learn about the world. “People come who want to learn about Pakistan,’ she said. “We have missionaries who have been a part of that culture for decades.”

Fourth, she said the PC(USA) should look at social, political and economic disruptions as entry points for the Gospel. “How can the church catalyze a healthy response to the financial crisis?” she asked. We need to bring innovation to all aspects of the church — worship, structure, program.

Fifth, she said that the missionaries made lifelong commitments to their work. They would go seven, 10 years without furlough. Some stay on the mission field 50 years. “We cannot look for quick fixes,” she said, noting that the PC(USA) has been in decline for 40 years, she said, “Maybe 40 years from now, we will see results.”

Sixth, she cited the power of prayer. The missionaries “prayed that Pakistanis would convert to Christianity and that Pakistan would become a Christian country. They continue to pray. So what is the PC(USA) praying for? The missionaries are led by the cross and the man who died on it. They are fortified by prayer. They are committed to evangelism.”

The Rev. Eric Hoey, director of evangelism and church growth for the PC(USA), told the consultation: “We must change the ethos of the church. People come to the faith in a variety of ways.”

He said the PC(USA) has a “humility” problem. “If it is not our way, the Reformed way, we throw the whole thing out. Shouldn’t we listen to a variety of ways” of doing evangelism?

“If an evangelism program is working in another tradition,” Hoey said, “should we not at least listen to that method?” He quoted the Apostle Paul, who said he became all things to all people that he might by all means save some. “We should have a variety of tools in our belts. We should have the tools and seek the training.”

Hoey said the biggest roadblock to effective evangelism is “the culture of me.”

“We need to see the world as God wants us to see it. If we just tune the world out, if we just get on the bus with our iPods and earphones and never connect with those around us,” he said, we miss our opportunities. “But if we get on the bus praying for God to use us, thoughts pop into our minds” about the evangelism possibilities all around us.

Hoey told about a family tour of Shaker Village in Kentucky. “Four hundred people came to this place and dedicated their lives to living simply. In their buildings you are going through a slice of history, and it is quite beautiful.” But he said they dedicated themselves to celibacy, “so only the remnants are there.”

“I hope that doesn’t happen to Presbyterians,” he said. “I believe we can make a difference and turn this church around. Let’s get moving.”