I’ve enjoyed reviewing and blogging on the book Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis.
Here are previous posts:
Post 1
Post 2
Link to Interview with Authors
Post 3
This week, we continue the post on evangelism, discussing what they call the three strands of evangelism: building relationships, sharing the Gospel, and introducing people to community. They summarize:
Like three strands of a piece of rope, our approach to mission should involve these three elements.
Think about people you are trying to reach with the gospel or would like to start reaching. Identify ideas (often very ordinary ideas) for building relationships with them, sharing the gospel message, and introducing them to the network of believing relationships. Introductions might involve nothing more sophisticated than inviting both Christian and non-Christian friends for a meal or an evening out. It is not enough to build a relationship between one believer and one unbeliever.
When considering this model, it is important to avoid imposing a supposed logical sequence. Often people ask which comes first–introducing people to community, sharing the gospel or building relationships. None need be the first; nor need progress be made in one area before you can move into one of the others. In reality, any one of the three can occur first, and all three can sometimes begin to happen simultaneously. If one strand is missing, then, in God’s sovereign plan, the rope can still hold. But it is stronger when all three are present. (p.61)
Later on they say:
Most gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality.
I find what they are getting at here to be extremely liberating. Often, thinking about sharing my faith with others, I get this idea about awkwardly getting into some conversation about things that immediately make people uncomfortable. No relationship is involved. I am dumping truth on someone. This model, though, says, go about living your life. Be relational. And as you live life in a relational way, be intentional with the Gospel. This is something that I can relate to. I hope it encourages you in that regard too.
On a deeper level, the NT emphasis on the local church and community is upheld. Often with the evangelism training I grew up with, there was much about how to turn conversations or not an emphasis placed on my living out Gospel truth in the context of Christian community. This is very good stuff.