* Some good thoughts from Elliot Clark's book Evangelism as Exiles: Life on Mission as Strangers in Our Own Land (2019).
Problem with Merely 'Sharing the Gospel'
"For some time now, American Christians have conceived of their witness in terms of 'sharing the gospel.' Read any book or listen to any talk on personal evangelism and you'll inevitably encounter the phrase. On one level, the terminology is positive, conveying the gracious act of giving others a treasure we possess. However, if by 'sharing' we imply a kind of charity where we only give the gospel to willing recipients, then our Christian vernacular has become a problem. Especially since the Bible rarely uses such language to describe the act of evangelism.
"I first awakened to this reality while doing language study in Central Asia. As I took a course in spiritual terminology, a missionary teacher bemoaned the fact that many Westerners had imported the idea of sharing the gospel into the vocabulary of the local church. He asserted that such a concept was completely foreign--to their context and the Bible. Scripture, instead, spoke primarily of preaching the gospel, declaring and proclaiming a message.
"But what, you might ask, could be wrong with sharing the gospel? Isn't the greater problem that people aren't sharing it at all? However, I've come to wonder if these dual realities aren't somehow related, with the way we speak about evangelism imperceptibly affecting the way we do evangelism.
"Throughout the book of Acts we find repeated examples of authoritative witness--even in the face of suffering--from the apostles and early church. We find them proclaiming the gospel and speaking boldly. We read of them persuading others. We see them reasoning from Scripture, both expounding and also applying it. We observe them testifying before rulers and governors, bearing witness before civil crowds and angry mobs. What we don't find them doing is 'sharing' the gospel.
"So it's more than a bit curious that the dominant way American Christians describe the act of evangelism is in terms of sharing. This isn't just one way we talk about it; it's almost the only way we talk about it. And I believe this lack of clarity is more than an issue of semantics.
"It would be no different from a baseball coach who consistently described the role of pitchers in terms of tossing the ball. In practice or a game, whenever his pitchers were struggling to get batters out, what if his dominant instruction was simply to toss the ball? Not throw strikes. Not work the corners. Not change speeds. Not pound it inside. Just toss the ball. Would the pitchers have an accurate understanding of their responsibility?
"But that's basically the way we talk about evangelism. Our description is overly simplistic. It lacks precision and nuance. And when that becomes our default instruction--to simply share the gospel--we fail to convey the attitude, approach, and authority necessary for the act itself. Thus what started as a subtle change in terminology results in a massive shift in our whole ethos of evangelism.
"That's because 'sharing' typically involves the act of giving something to someone who desires it. Children share (or don't share) Legos with other kids who want them. Friends share a great cookie recipe with another friend who asks for it. Or we might share money with those holding a cardboard sign at the street corner. In each case, we share with others because they're asking for what we possess. But the reality is, few people are ever begging us to share the gospel with them.
"We must ask ourselves, then, whether casual Christianese has influenced the way we view the gospel mandate. We must consider why we're only willing to speak the gospel when we perceive openness on the part of another. We must ponder whether we even have a category for proclaiming a message that people oppose, one that's innately offensive. Or do we tiptoe through polite spiritual conversations and timidly share our opinions, then call it evangelism?
"But to evangelize is to preach good news. According to D. A. Carson, this is the basic definition of the Greek word euangelizo from which we get our English word for evangelism. As he observes in his comprehensive study of the 'gospel' word-group in the Bible, 'the gospel is primarily displayed in heraldic proclamation: the gospel is announced, proclaimed, preached, precisely because it is God's spectacular news.' In fact, Carson expresses concern that some of our confusion (what he labels as 'nonsense') about what the gospel is (and how it must be communicated) results from our lack of understanding regarding how the Bible describes the gospel and evangelism in the first place.
"Far more than just sharing, evangelism involves testifying to Christ--warning, persuading, defending, pleading, and calling. As we saw last chapter, such authoritative witness need not be in opposition to gentleness and respect. Moreover, the context of healthy, trusting relationships can actually add force to our words. But sadly we often value those relationships more than a clear statement of the truth. Rarely do we engage people with a sense of authority or urgency." (pp. 95-98)
