Against Colonialism - Proposing A Presence Based Evangelism

Several years ago now, my wife and I and our young child were hanging out with our Muslim friends in Harmony Park, a central park in our suburb. It was a balmy summer evening. Our children were playing, when I noticed a huddle taking place in one corner of the park. It turned out to be an evangelism team from a local church, gathering round a leader, getting some coaching tips before they were sent into the park to do some evangelism. My friend Hasan turned to me and said “quick .. we gotta get out of here… before those people come over here and ambush us.” I go “huh? What are you talking about.” Evidently he had a bad encounter with them the previous week. I nudged him and said, “Dude, come on, let’s give em a chance.” Hasan would have none of it.

I said “ok, then just give me a minute” and I rushed over to a nearby park bench, where one of the courageous evangelists was making his pitch. I listened in. He started out with the predictable question, “Do you know where you’re going when you die? I’m sure you’d agree, that’s an important question?” The person being addressed said “No, I’m fine thank-you” and asked to be left alone. His partner leans over, and whispers to me, “he’s seen this before. he’s got their number.” I returned to Hasan and we left the park. As we left, I looked over my shoulder. It seemed as if there was a clearing out taking place of that little park. Though I greatly appreciated the courage of that evangelism team, the reaction to their evangelism was stunning. People were leaving the park in droves.

This picture for me, of the emptying Harmony Park, has become a metaphor for what has happened to evangelism for most Christians today. I wish to take nothing away from the zeal and courage those evangelists had in the park that day. But I do want to take notice of two missteps that have plagued evangelism practices of the past and why Christians today find evangelism off-putting.

1. A lack of a sense of context, quickly followed by

2. A presumptuous (even coercive) posture.

Allow me to dig in on these issues.

The Contextual Problem

First, these ways of evangelism lack awareness of context.

Whether it be through Billy Graham Crusades, Evangelism Explosion, the Four Spiritual Laws, or the Romans Road, our common ‘evangelical’ evangelism methods of the past presume there is one message in response to one existential experience for all people. This one experience is the experience of guilt and shame over sin, and/or the worry about what comes next when we die. Make no mistake, these experiences are still real for many. They were very real among Europeans of the 15^th century from whence the Reformation arose. These experiences have been real for the inheritors of the Catholic, Lutheran and other Protestant liturgical churches of the previous century. These existential experiences lied resident in particular within the white European cultures of post World War 2. And so the gospel starting point, “do you know where you’re going when you die?”, opened space for the good news for people living in these periods of cultural history. But it is just one, of many, starting points into the gospel (I discuss this later).

The contextual awareness of guilt and eternal damnation of these times was why there was enormous success from these past evangelism practices among the white Caucasian middle class masses of post World War 2 North America. It remains so for people living in these same milieu today. But these post Euro-church contexts are shrinking massively in North America, while secular contexts are growing like weeds around us. These past practices of evangelism miss those persons living in today’s landscapes of secularism. They miss those persons living in the contexts of the poor who suffer and struggle. There are just numerous contexts where the existential struggles are different than those post Euro church peoples, and the gospel can speak here too in powerful ways.

Today we live, more than ever, among multiple cultures in North America, and so these past approaches to evangelism don’t make sense in many places. These practices (like Four Spiritual Lws) focus on a singular entry point that fits contextually in just one culture (as large as that once was – a billion copies were printed). Today, amid a growing multiculturalism within the West, the approach of the Romans Road or the Four Spiritual Laws presumes to answer questions most people simply are not asking.

And so we need fresh ways of entering a context and listening to people with patience, waiting for God to move (prevenient grace) and reveal Himself at work in people’s lives, social groups, and contexts. Only then, after deep listening, can we recognize the Spirit moving, drawing a person to Himself, revealing what He is doing in the life of a person in his or her culture.

As we are ‘with’ people in their social situations, any number of things can be revealed: guilt over sin, longing for reconciliation, a deep sense of emptiness and loss of purpose, anger against the injustices of the world around him/her, etc. The gospel of Jesus Christ speaks good news to all of these persons, in all of their experiences, within every single cultural expression that they live within. Our role as followers of Jesus? To listen, and then when it is time, in the presence of the Spirit, share the good news of who Jesus is and what He is doing, and invite them into the Kingdom of God, and Jesus is doing to reconcile.

The Gospel

I believe the gospel is the whole story of what God has done to fulfill His promises to Israel to put the world right, and that God has accomplished this in Jesus Christ, and is reconciling the whole world to Himself in and through Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15). Within this Grand Story of what God is doing, and where He is taking the world, there are many entry points. There is personal forgiveness of sin, reconciliation with broken relationships, recognizing God’s justice at work and joining with Him in seeking this justice, the reconciling work of Jesus to heal a culture from abuse, the healing for a broken body or a broken soul, helping to break the hold of addiction, or of the principalities and powers over our lives, and many other things. All of these are entry points, openings for the gospel, that if entered, will lead to Jesus and the whole Story of who Jesus is, that He has conquered sin, death and evil, and now reigns bringing in His Kingdom. We cannot assume one entry point for all into this great salvation God is bring to the whole world.

We need therefore a practice of ‘Presence Based Witness‘ that teaches us how to be fully present to people, who carry existential struggle, or who perhaps carry the pain of their neighborhood. We must listen long before we offer the gospel itself. We need a practice of ‘Presence-Based Witness’ that helps us see the whole gospel for what it truly is. Then, only after we see, hear, and discern God’s prompting in a person’s life, only after opening space for the Holy Spirit to work and move, can we offer an entry point to the gospel. It’s as simple as wondering questions like these:

· “Do you see what I see God is doing?” followed by

· “Are you interested in joining in?” followed by

· “Are you interested in making Jesus Lord of your real life in this world?”

This entry point could be revealed in one’s personal life, or it could be communal, existing as a longing for justice in one’s neighborhood. In each case, the gospel made known leads to whole Story of who Jesus is and what He is doing in and among us. It could lead to a reconciled family becoming whole or a march through town praying against systemic racism. All efforts become a witness to what God has done and is doing, and an invitation to join in Christ’s Kingdom, make Him Lord over our lives, in God’s restorative work in us and around us.

I believe Harmony Park that day would have been different if the church had taught that evangelism team to be “with” people, listening and discerning their context, seeking to hear the groanings and longings deep within people’s lives. After many months, as the Spirit works among us, the gospel can then be shared in a way that gives life, via an entry point into the Lordship of Christ for each person’s life, their neighborhoods, and the world.

The Posture Problem

Besides the context problem, the evangelism practices of the past also have a posture problem.

The evangelist entering the park that day carried a subtle posture of superiority: We know we are right, and therefore we are going to convince you of that fact. The lack of contextual awareness shapes a presumptuous posture: We presume to know what your problem is before we even talk to you. Think about the way the question was asked: “Do you know where you’re going when you die? That’s an important question, I’m sure you would agree?” From there, this often leads to the evangelist convincing the prospect he/she is a sinner condemned to hell. Or, if you are not feeling the guilt, you should be!! Again, I do not wish to disparage the motives of these zealous evangelists in Harmony Park. I laud their courage! But a coercive vibe rarely achieves connection for an evangelist. Indeed it often repels.

European colonialists of the past often went as missionaries to a foreign land, bringing a gospel, a salvation experience, from a cultural formation that was worked out in their home cultures/home churches. They believed this gospel was THE gospel. These missionaries often did not listen long enough, with an open posture, to understand the people they were meeting before they brought their gospel formulations from their foreign culture on a people. This created a posture problem. Sometimes it still brought fruit. Often, sadly more often, it brought collateral damage. (Note: I recommend reading Rev. Dr. Willie Jennings’ The Christian Imagination for a powerful and prophetic critique of this colonial approach to Christian mission).

But there is no coercion in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The power of God at work in Jesus through the Spirit never coerces. Our God in Jesus Christ is a God of love, self-giving, and healing power. Instead of engaging someone outside the faith with presumption, or even coercion, we must recognize that Jesus is already present and at work wherever we go. As Jesus teaches, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:1). Our role is to be present among people, tending to what God is already doing before you got there. Let the free-flowing, gentle healing work of the Spirit be revealed as you are with people. There simply can never be coercion where God’s power is at work.

Presence-Based Witness

Lack of 1.)Contextual Awareness, and 2.) a Posture of Presumption, are two signatory aspects of colonialism. We inherit these habits from a prior day when Christianity, specifically evangelical Christianity, was part of the dominant culture. We, and our predecessors, learned to disregard context as irrelevant to the gospel. We learned to be presumptuous.

The evangelism practices of the past worked among a particular people when Christianized culture seemed monolithic. But for many of us, we are living in another era. We live and breathe multiple cultures now, among people with various experiences of pain and hurt seeking a healing transforming Jesus. We live in a secularized culture with multiple struggles and pains, all of which God has come in Christ to heal and transform. The gospel of the Kingdom is for all.

And so let us must move on from the presumptuous ways of the past and go sit in the ‘Harmony Parks’ of our neighborhoods, be with our neighbors, praying that the presence of Christ becomes seen and experienced, and seeking to be faithful as laborers in the harvest. For we are “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing…we are not…peddlers of God’s word; but as persons of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the presence of God, we speak in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14-17).