TGC is doing a very helpful series on evangelism, asking pastors for counsel on some good questions. Thus far:
- Why Don’t I Evangelize?
- Evangelism and Apologetics: Preaching the Gospel, Answering Objections
- Church Programs vs. Personal Evangelism
- Evangelism for the Rest of Us
In the latest entry, Pastor Ryan Kelly gives a thoughtful and nuanced answer to the question of the role of evangelistic preaching on Sunday mornings.
Below is but one of his points, which is worth highlighting. He explains that in 1 Corinthians 14:23-25, Paul acknowledges the presence of unbelievers in the gathering of corporate worship and provides counsel for how to instruct:
He tells the Corinthians that unbelievers will not understand “tongues,” but they might understand “prophecy.” The hope is that an unbeliever might come to conviction, repentance, faith, and worship. But this will only happen through intelligible proclamation and worship. For most of our churches, the proper application of this passage has less to do with avoiding tongues in corporate worship and more to do with avoiding a kind of Christian-ese verbiage, which could be almost as confusing to unbelievers as tongues. Practically and specifically, this might shape a pastor’s preparation and communication in the following ways:
- By dropping many of evangelicalism’s common idioms, such as “invite Jesus into your heart,” “make a decision for Jesus,” or “it’s a real God-thing.”
- By defining biblical-theological words or concepts that, though they may be common in Scripture, are foreign to the secular culture—e.g., propitiation, atonement, substitution, etc.
- By knowing how certain biblical words or concepts are also used in the world, but in a very different way. For instance, the world loves stories of “redemption” where a misunderstood, seriously wronged down-and-outer pulls himself up by his bootstraps and comes out on top. But in the biblical concept of redemption, we are wrong, not just wronged; we are helpless, not just misunderstood; we need utter and complete rescue, not just a leg-up.
- By describing and illustrating biblical concepts in plain, even culturally aware, vernacular.
- By anticipating the common objections and doubts that unbelievers might bring to that Sunday’s passage, and answering those objections in patient, human, and clear ways.
- By tying the themes of the passage into the big picture of the Bible’s storyline. Of course, this is simply what we call biblical theology, but many of us preachers need to use this discipline less as a means of wowing the saints with new-found inter-canonical connections and more as a simple demonstration to unbelievers that the Bible is a whole and has a grand story.
- By explaining the parts of the service: what is happening in the service and why the church does this or that particular thing
