Blogging Ottinger (tim)

Yesterday I heard a friend say that he disliked evangelical religions including evangelical athiests. It struck me as an odd grammatical error.

Evangelical doesn’t mean “using in-your-face recruiting techniques” nor does it mean “incessantly proselyting”, as any real evangelical should understand quite well. Are you interested in knowing the real meaning?

The root of the word is evangel, which refers to the Christian gospel books (the gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). The four primary gospel-tellers were referred to as the evangelists. The word “gospel”, by the way, means “good news” or “good story”, not “bad news that you’re a sinner worthy of death and hell”. To be an evangelist would be to have strong familiarity with this story and to share the story. Therefore, your minister and sunday school teacher and VBS helpers should be “evangelists” of the true sense. All Christians should be familiar and able to share this story. In fact, one should look forward to the opportunities that present themselves. It is not hurtful that some seek to create the opportunity.

Sadly, some have sought to force the story where there is no opportunity given at all. They’ve looked hard for the most controversial way to force a watered-down, cruelly-given, hurtfully memorable version of the story on poor people trying to make the most of the lives they’ve built for themselves. Christians have substituted some worldly values (”maximal exposure, maximal impact”) for compassion and kindness and have run roughshod over the very people they have wanted to reach. In my experience, most people who are strongly against Christianity are that way because of roughshod Christians they’ve known. No wonder so much of the world hates us.

The word “evangelical” in popular usage outside of church realms is something entirely different. It refers to those who passionately, zealously proselytize strangers and friends alike. It refers to forceful and often unwanted indoctrination. It smells more like a brutal mass-marketing campaign than a gift from a friend. In that sense, there could be “evangelical Athiests”, “evangelical Microsoft users”, “evangelical Mac enthusiasts”, and the like. Yet the term is mis-applied since these have no relationship with the evangel itself.

We need some other word to step in for zealous proselytizers. I suggest “butthead.”

We need to distance evangelism from that whole tradition. My fear is that mean-spirited, harsh, unwanted proselytizing does little good and in fact vaccinates good people against the true gospel, that we are forgiven for our sins and restored to eternal fellowship with a God who wishes us to know him better. That we can lose the life we built for ourselves and its consequences, and take on a life He has built for us with its rewards.

Let’s go back and look at that evangel. The Christ was very kind, open, and honest in all his dealings with those who were in their sins and outside of the life He offered. His passionate anger burned against those who were in the established church, whose teachings and works drove out the very people He came to save. He took the opportunities that opened to him at the wells where he drew water, in the streets, at weddings and funerals. He spoke to the crowds who formed around Him, even those who came to accuse and embarrass Him. He spoke in their churches, but hung out in the houses of common everyday people. He never tried to shame sinners, but taught the righteous to have some shame for the way they treated others. He wasn’t anti-semetic as some suppose, but was Jewish himself. It wasn’t their race or creed he opposed, but they mess they’d made of it at the time. The news there is very good for the common person.

When the church refers to itself as “evangelical,” we are referring to the desire to associate ourselves with this story, live it out, and share it. It has nothing to do with hard-sell recruiting techniques.

Does the world need this gospel? I think it does. Does it need preachers and other evangelists? Yes, I think it does. Does it need to go beyond the confines of our Sunday congregation? Yes, I think it does. Should we take the gospel to every place where there are receptive listeners? Again, I think so. Should we force people to hear it? Opinions vary, but I think not. The message is bigger and greater than we are, and responding to the true opportunities we are given should keep us more busy than we ever thought possible.