Attack Evangelism

ATTACK EVANGELISM Introduction Most books written on evangelism follow a more passive approach. It is about sharing Jesus, live the lifestyle and people will just come to you and ask, and it is about being able to do it in such a low key, easy manner that you do not need to be afraid of offending anyone. One of my mentors was an evangelist and he was asked if he was ever afraid of driving people away. He replied, where are we going to drive them, they are already going to hell? There are unintended consequences to this passive approach. First, it is so passive that people do not get around to actually giving the gospel. Second, it is so passive that it is easily ignored and considered to be irrelevant by the masses of people. This great salvation has been reduced down to a fire escape with very little, if any, relevance to daily living. There are basically two styles of evangelism. The first is known as life style evangelism. This style of evangelism has been defined by the author of Lifestyle Evangelism, Dr. Joe Aldrich in the following manner, “It is the constant and spontaneous outflow of our individual and corporate experience of Christ. Even more specifically, evangelism is what Christ does through the activity of His children as they are involved in (1) proclamation (2) fellowship, and (3) service” The essence of this style is just as its name suggests, it is living out the life style of a Christian, being ethical in our dealings with others, being sympathetic and empathetic, and then have something to say when the opportunity presents itself. A person is to be a Christian before broadcasting to others about how they should be one as well. The advantage to this approach is that it is non-threatening and is a natural part of our every day life. The disadvantage is that Christians forget to give the gospel and when they do it is so non-threatening that they do not give people the opportunity to trust Christ. This was certainly not the intent of Aldrich or of any other writer of books on evangelism, but it has become the outcome. The second style of evangelism is confrontational evangelism. This style is in your face, opposing, and challenging. The advantage of this style is that it places evangelism as a top priority, it is more aggressive and tends to get more results. The disadvantage is that it tends to offend people and cause people who are already against the Gospel to be more so after the encounter. I am proposing a third style of evangelism which I call attack evangelism. This is an evangelistic mental attitude that is on the offense without being offensive. It is a mind-set that will recognize and take advantage of opportunities and will create opportunities where none had existed. This is a style that combines the best of both lifestyle and confrontational evangelism. This means that we will pursue opportunities that come as a result of our lifestyle and will create opportunities through confrontation. It is important to keep in mind that this is being on the offense without being offensive. Later in this volume you will be able to see how this works by using questions. The question might be raised as to why use the word attack, that sounds so aggressive and unloving? Should we not be passive? Christians tend to like retreats, therefore the idea of an attack is a foreign concept. There are at least four reasons why it is important that the Lord’s people go on the attack. First, passive evangelism has not worked. For the first time in its history the United States is not a Christian country. Postmodernism is the dominating philosophy of the day. Atheist and homosexuals have both come out of the closet and are spewing their venomous lies without anyone to challenge their presuppositions. Second, we are at war and our warfare is in the spiritual realm, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12). We see that there are two sides with different world views containing a totally different basis for answering the key questions of life; what is real, what is true, what is the meaning of life and what happens when we die. At the root of the discussion is a spiritual problem which only has a spiritual solution. Third, Christians have taken on the mantle of judges to point out what is wrong and have pursued political processes to correct the problems. All this has accomplished is to turn the Church into a political movement with motives that are suspect. Politics will always divide and one side must win while the other side loses. It is time for Christians to make a stand for what they are for, that faith in Christ not only provides eternal life but a better and more prosperous life in the here and now. Fourth, those who do not place their faith in Christ will go to hell. This is reality and hell is a very real place. How can anyone know that there is a better way with a better destination unless someone tells them (Romans 10:14-15)? To attack with the gospel is actually the greatest gift of love that can be given. Due to the high regard of the author for the New Testament Church the word Church will invariably be capitalized. This volume is submitted to give a theological and philosophical basis for giving the gift of the gospel. May we proceed with the understanding that the only thing that we cannot do in heaven is give the gospel. Therefore, it is time to attack!