Corporate
Evangelism
By Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the May 19, 2012 Sabbath School Lesson
“Then
after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I
took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting
privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I
preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not
been running my race in vain.” Galatians 2:1-2, NIV
Corporate evangelism is problematic for many Christians.
Partly this is cultural and partly this is based on how we have evolved to do
church. In many ways, the current methodology hinders rather than supports the
propagation of the gospel. There are two avenues for corporate evangelism that
can be at odds with one another. One is based on tightly controlled
permissions, the other is based on enabling of ministries that have originated beyond
the primatur of orthodoxy. Of course,
churches engage in corporate evangelism all along the spectrum between these
two extremes. Where they fall on that spectrum says a lot about how they view
church in general.
Those who favor the permission method tend to see the church
as a defensive fortress protecting itself against the evils of the world. The
regulatory theological environment is not limited to evangelism but may
permeate every aspect of church life. The church members tend to speak in terms
of what is allowed and what is prohibited. Churches that have long existed will
have accumulated a resource of detailed writings on these subjects that may
include dress, diet, worship styles and family relationships. While the purpose
behind some of these standards may have been originally beneficial, over time
they became ends in and of themselves without regards to their original
purpose. With the evolution of defensive theology, more and more time became
invested in monitoring these standards and proportionately less and less became
directed toward outward evangelism. Even with what outreach continued, the flow
of effort was tightly constricted by the notion that no matter what the Holy
Spirit may be calling a person to do, the church must approve and endorse the
work or it was not from God.
Rather than recognize the Holy Spirit working in a
personal ministry, the endorsement of that ministry was withheld unless it
could be seen in every point to conform to present understanding of the received
standards. To add further restriction to personal evangelism, the
interpretation of those standards was subjective and could vary depending on
the authority granting ministerial permission. There might be one
interpretation upheld by the local church conference, another advocated by the
church pastor, and still another staunchly held by the church board. Rather
than run this gauntlet of rubber stamping bureaucracy, it could be seen that
perhaps it would be easier to just sit in a pew and allow the professionals,
who are more adept at navigating that system, to handle all of the evangelism. This
they are entirely willing to do. If they do not understand the reason people
have disengaged, they eagerly promote personal evangelism agendas and through
persuasion and even manipulation, push the members to support the program that
is being handed to them. Sadly, the members may be made to feel that they are
not “good” Christians if they do not support the program.
Another response by the church member who is unable to
stifle the calling of the Holy Spirit, may be to go their own way. Rightly
seeing that the permission culture is inhibiting outreach, they determine to
eschew engagement with the corporate environment and develop ministry and
outreach not answerable to the authoritative bureaucracy. Because this can potentially
be a seed bed for extremism, those who prefer a permission environment will
sometimes make jaded reference to those “independent” ministries. While
examples of such can be found, this is not always the case. Even Paul pursued evangelism
for several years, raising up churches and baptizing converts, before he even
approached the apostolic assembly with reports about his work. While there are
certainly advantages that exist with corporate church endorsement such as
greater resources and manpower, we would be remiss if we believed that only
corporately endorsed ministries were valid. However, this is often the belief among
those practicing defensive, “church is a fortress” theology.
The other end of the evangelism spectrum which enables
ministries that fall outside the normal power structures of the church can be a
powerful and explosive force for engagement. The corporate church can help
these ministries to become more effective by being a conduit for others to
become engaged through these outreaches both through personal involvement and
through contribution of material resources. Far too often those elements become
sidelined more into maintaining an excessive and unnecessary church plant that
contributes little to external propagation of the gospel. Instead the resources
are focused too much on maintaining real property until Jesus comes again as
opposed to locating and reaching the lost. Denomination wide, millions of dollars
are poured into everything that is required to maintain these ever larger
edifices. A local church commonly may have over a hundred thousand dollars annually
dedicated solely to maintaining the church plant and its internal programs.
Perhaps we should ask ourselves what those funds could accomplish if directed
toward ministries that are focused outwardly?
One of the problems with ministries directed by the Holy
Spirit’s calling rather than through engagement with a program promoted by the
church leadership is that the church may not even know they exist. This might
be for two reasons. First, the leadership is so inwardly focused that they have
no idea what is going on beyond the walls of their church. For example, it is
far too common for pastors or other church leaders to exhaust all their
available time putting out fires of controversy within the membership. This may
leave the leadership too emotionally and spiritually exhausted to move forward
with outreach. Even if they have some superhuman endowment of strength to do
more, the time is not there as it is fully engaged with these internal
problems.
Second, individual empowerment by the Holy Spirit may
simply not be on the leadership’s radar. This can be because the “that’s the
way we have always done it” syndrome. Church has proceeded along the current
vein for so long that the idea of enabling new ministries no longer has a place
on the church agenda. Not because it is not necessary, but because it does not
occur to anyone because it has been ignored for so long. That this was not
always so can be seen in an example from the early Seventh-day Adventist
church. James Edson White felt the calling to begin a work among the African
American population along the Mississippi River. He began this work as an
independent ministry but as the church became more involved in enabling his
calling it eventually became an important part of the denomination’s identity
by initiating the establishment of special church organizational structures
that facilitated this work. Even his publishing work was eventually completely
absorbed into the church’s Review and Herald Publishing Company.
Another example from the early Seventh-day Adventist church
is the ingathering ministry begun by Jasper Wayne in 1903. This independent
calling to ministry began with one individual using the “Signs of the Times”
magazine to solicit contributions for missionary outreach. His success with
this ministry was the catalyst for the church promoting its wider adoption.
Eventually, the church contributed large amounts of labor and capital resources
to promoting what Wayne had been called to begin. The result was that almost
every church across the denomination was annually involved in the Harvest
Ingathering program and much money was raised to advance the gospel both
locally and worldwide. While this program is no longer participated in by many
churches, it still serves as an example of the power behind one person
following an independent calling of the Holy Spirit, and the church leadership
enabling that ministry. I personally had
the opportunity to experience it many times in the 1970s and 80s and witnessed what
can be accomplished as a result.
The Christian church today would do well to look for
these individuals who have been called to ministry and integrate them into the
corporate resource structure of the church. They should not do this with a
primary emphasis on granting permission for the ministry to exist, but to seek
out ways they can enable the ministry to multiply its effectiveness. An
excellent example of this can be found in the God’s Closet ministry begun by a
member of the Spokane, Washington Central Seventh-day Adventist Church, Merryl
Tscheope. This ministry collects used but serviceable children’s clothing and
distributes the clothing during “shopping” days to poor families at one dollar
per bag to help them clothe their children each season. Begun as a small
ministry, this service outreach has touched the lives of thousands. People in
need have been prayed with and have participated in Bible studies. The
corporate church has worked to enable the ministry by providing church plant
space for storage and for the shopping events as well as facilitating grants
for operating funds.
The God’s Closet ministry has grown rapidly and is now
outstripping the local church's ability to provide event and storage space.
Other churches in the North Pacific Union have also become interested and are
staging their own God’s Closet events. The ministry continues to grow and no
one, not even the founder, is able to see how far this will go. Like the
Harvest Ingathering program, this all began from one person’s independent
calling by the Holy Spirit. The church then worked to enable that calling.
There are others in the Christian faith being called to
ministries just as Edson White, Jasper Wayne and Merryl Tscheope were. To avoid the two extremes
of Permission Theology and independent ministries working without church
awareness and involvement, the church leadership might benefit by placing less
emphasis on trying to promote administrative agendas with catchy slogans and
glitzy advertisements. Instead, they might focus on finding those who have been
called by the Holy Spirit and are following that vision. Once they find those
ministries, they can help them to become far more than they could on their own
by providing fertile soil for growth.
This Commentary is a Service of Still
Waters Ministry
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