I recently posted a comment on a friend’s blog about evangelism and the truth. So that got me thinking about these concepts and how we, as evangelicals, place such a premium on evangelism. I think it’s interesting that some in our brotherhood argue that evangelism is our purpose for living. While I would agree that evangelism is an integral component to the life of a follower of Christ, I would disagree that our purpose is to make disciples. Rather, our lives are given purpose and meaning in Christ. We exist to glorify Him — evangelism is merely one way we bring Him glory.
We surely are taught to live as much Gospel as we proclaim. So much effective “evangelism” occurs within the context of a friendship based on respect and trust. When I engage in spiritual dialogue with someone who knows me & the way I try to live out my faith, that person will be far more receptive to anything I might say than the guy on the street that I’ll hand a tract to.
I think it’s important for us to articulate that our claims about Jesus come from Him. He claimed to be the Way, the Truth, the Life, the only way to the Father. It’s such extreme claims like this that led Lewis to posit Jesus as either Liar, Lunatic or Lord. But make no mistake…the claims we make about Jesus are merely echoes of His own claims about Himself. Wouldn’t you expect such declarations from Deity-in-flesh? He is the full embodiment of truth. Pilate’s question in John 18:38 is so indicative of our human predicament. Jesus says, “Everyone on the side of the truth listens to me.” Pilate’s response: “What is truth?” If we think of truth as an abstract concept, we miss the point. Truth isn’t an idea, it’s a Person! Truth is right in front of Pilate’s nose, and he misses it!
Our charge is to lovingly express our convictions in the current marketplace of faith, to speak of all that God has done, to encourage others to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Ps 34:8). It’s my job to introduce others to Jesus through my character, my person, and (sometimes) even my words. But this is effective only to the degree that my character, person and words are increasingly being conformed to the image of Christ. It’s up to Him to grant the increase by doing what He always does: prick the hearts of men and change their lives.
already & not yet 
Jason–Thank you for having the courage to express this thought–that evangelism is “merely” one way of glorifying God. Rather than taking people whoses gifts lie elsewhere and turning them into door-to-door salespeople , wouldn’t it be great if as a community we embraced the idea that God is glorifed when each is exercising his or her true spiritual gifts in whatever context they are living? We give lip service to this, but it seems that evangelism (with it’s emphasis on mission work somewhere other than the place where you live) is still held out as creme de la creme of spiritual gifts. Mission work deserves its emphasis, but we at least need to balance things out a little more. I don’t hear as much said about living out the Gospel in the daily warp and woof of life and what that might look like. I still think we struggle mightily with a dualistic mindset, dividing the “spiritual” from the “secular.”It makes me think of the words of St. Francis of Assisi who is reputed to have said: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.”
Mike,I couldn’t agree more. We’ve become enamored with the “go” dimension of evangelism to the neglect of the more challenging call to “be”. Obviously, I see a lot of value in short-term missions, especially in working with teens. But I’ll be honest with anybody I talk to: the trips we go on are probably more about growing our teens into disciples than anything else. I don’t mean to underscore the impact of, say, a VBS we might conduct for local children on the mission field. Who knows what seeds God plants in such a context. But I’m even more concerned with our kids taking something from that experience. It’s as if taking teens to Mexico helps them be better missionaries in their schools, on their athletic teams in Huntsville. It’d be easy for a critic to say that our type of ministry is part of the problem, and we are probably guilty of making too much of our teen mission program. But again, the goal is to develop disciples who are passionate about living and sharing their faith in every context. That’s the goal, at least.