Is servant evangelism enough?

When I was growing up, the churches I knew focused on one type of evangelism:

MESSAGE

We were “soul-winners”, we were taught the Laws, the Road, the acrostics with the verses. We memorized our testimonies, the answers to the frequently asked questions. Evangelism was an event, a conversation, a presentation. We shared our faith and brought our friends to programs that would clearly proclaim the gospel. Sometimes we debated the use of “lifestyle evangelism”, but usually came back to “proclamation evangelism.”

This approach is biblical. Much of Jesus ministry as a rabbi was in presenting His message of love and truth, often to strangers, usually in a brief amount of time. You see a similar pattern with the apostles. Yes, some miracles which met practical needs, but mainly preaching/teaching.

The challenge is that His followers at times hyper-focus on this method. Life-change stories become sales pitches, a heart for discipling is replaced with the drive to make converts and get decisions. Sadly, this is the angry face of evangelism that many people associate with Christ’s followers.

There was another type of evangelism:

SERVE

These churches fed the hungry, housed the homeless, fought for the down-trodden. They put truth and love into action. But they oftentimes left the MESSAGE behind. They were liberal churches with a social gospel and no clear Jesus-story. So we avoided serving the lost, just in case someone might mistake us for liberals!

Today’s evangelical churches have once again actually read the Bible, the teaching of Jesus, and they see evangelism like this:

MESSAGE + SERVE

Rick Warren and other church leaders have encouraged us to have a reformation of deeds, not creeds. But we must work to hold on to both elements because we don’t want to fall into the other ditch - serving people without a clear MESSAGE. There are plenty of humanitarian organizations that genuinely care about people – but they offer no “salvation.” We might think, “just serve them, they know we’re from a church, they know about Jesus.”

No, they don’t. Every survey from every researcher, Christian or not, shows a decline in knowledge about the teachings of Scripture. Even in the Bible Belt. Even inside our churches.

So, is “servant-evangelism” biblical? Yes, but not based on some of the passages we use:

• John 13 “Wash one another’s feet” – command to serve Christians
• Matt.10 “offer a cup of cold water” – refers to the reward of a disciple
• Matt. 25 “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat” – may refer to national judgment

The Bible IS clear we are to serve the world in love. Jesus’ mission was saving the poor and the prisoners [Luke 4]. Israel as a nation was judged, in part, for neglecting the alien, widows, and fatherless [Prophets]. The second Great Command is to love our neighbor [Matthew 22], and EVERYONE is our neighbor [Luke 10].

But even this combination doesn’t go far enough. Searching back through Acts, I see a third element to biblical evangelism:

MESSAGE + FAMILY + SERVE

The church in Jerusalem focused on proclaiming a clear MESSAGE, and they spent time loving and serving the FAMILY of God. Check out Acts 2, 4, 5, 6, all those stories about sharing and serving. It started inside the FAMILY. Why? Because Jesus Himself taught – after He had washed His family’s feet – “People will know you are My followers if you love each other” [John 13:35]. It wasn’t an exclusive family - everyone was invited in. But love and serving had to start in the family, and then spread to their neighbors. When the wanderer saw the FAMILY working together to SERVE them, they were getting the whole picture.

The MESSAGE gives the critical truth, the SERVE shows the love, and the FAMILY gives the picture of what the wanderer is getting invited into.

To rephrase a quote from my friend Bob Roberts, the church IS the evangelist, the Body of Christ IS the witness. Yes, every member should live a life that shines the gospel, and every member should be able to give an answer for the hope they have [1 Peter 3:15]. But I also see 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 talking about a Body, members with different gifts working together to minister.

Can any of these elements alone become an extreme? Of course:

• If I focus on MESSAGE I can become a pompous academician
• If I focus on SERVE I can become a purposeless humanitarian
• If I focus on FAMILY I can become spiritually incestuous, inbred

Point being it DOESN’T have to be one to the exclusion of the others. As church leaders, we need to have a clear Jesus story and biblical salvation teaching, then lead a family of Christ followers to serve and love our neighbors into God’s kingdom.