W.J. Seaton

One of the two great areas of the Church’s life is her evangelism to the uttermost parts of the earth. (The other great area is her worship of God and praise of God, as that one, supreme agent that God has set in the world for this purpose.) But, just as there is that part of our worship that can only be fulfilled in a “corporate” way – in a Church of the Lord’s people met together for that purpose – so it is with regards to a vast area of the Church’s mission and evangelism. The Church is the place in which God’s worship is conducted and enjoyed; the Church is also the place from which God’s word is spread and God’s work in the gospel is performed. The great commendation given to the Church at Thessalonica was that “from you sounded out the word of life.” The idea of the Church, in and of itself, as God’s evangelist in this world is a precious truth and one that is neglected at our peril, as some are possibly beginning to now see. There are various individual ministries, and gifts, and offices, given within the Church and to the Church; but none of these is to make the Church’s own total ministry redundant; they are, rather, to foster, and cultivate, and increase her ministry in all respects – her evangelism included.

The situation that we now find ourselves in is one that has developed over a good many years of neglect. For the best part of a hundred years, and certainly for the whole of this past century, when the Church, in general, has thought in terms of “evangelism” it has thought in terms of “evangelistic campaign,” or an evangelistic “effort,” with an “Evangelist,” etc., to “head” the campaign. All that was normally required of the Church was that the members be in attendance at the campaign meetings and, for the zealous, to attend any special prayer times, as well. What it was, in fact, to a large extend, was evangelism “by proxy:” evangelism by “substitution,” or “delegation.” The churches, in general, “delegated” some “specialist” person, or persons, to take on almost the whole stance of the church’s evangelism; and now, like the famous ostrich, the Church in general, has obviously lost the use of its wings by failure to employ them. Instead of exercising its Godgiven function in the area of corporate evangelism – that is, the church as the evangelist – it handed the task over to this body of “specialists.” Small wonder, then, that it now finds that to a large extent it has lost the ability to function at all in that direction. There is no principle clearer in scripture than the one that assures us that when we fail to exercise various “limbs” in the Body of the Church we eventually lose the power and usage of those limbs. Within that principle lies much of the explanation of the Church’s present plight.

Another aspect of the whole question that very much deserves our diligent attention is the means that we turn to in our efforts to recapture this “forgotten factor” and this “Cinderella doctrine” of the Church. As we endeavour to get the truth “out of the ashes,” we must never lose sight of its great central feature and, thus, be found guilty of evangelism by substitution still. What we mean is this: if the corporate evangelism of the Church consists in anything, it consists in the Church’s face-toface confrontation in the issues of the gospel with the men and women of this hard-bitten, materialistic, twentieth-century world in which we live. That thrusting out with the gospel into the midst of an alien world whose inhabitants will question us, query us, insult us, humiliate us, and manys a time, slay us in the battle. That standing toe-to-toe and heartto-heart with our contemporary counterparts and telling plainly of sin and righteousness and judgment, and of the Saviour who died, “the just for the unjust to bring us to God.” Whatever else the Church’s evangelism may involve, that, in its essence, is what the Church’s evangelism really is and primarily is.

Now, you can see where “substitution” can so easily enter where we are not constantly aware of That? And instead of specialist people we can end up with specialist things. Literature work, children’s work, “ansa-phones,” cassette ministries. Any of these things, or all of these things, or any combination of them may play a vital part in a Church’s total evangelism in that place where the Lord has set it, provided – provided they are not being used in isolation to that first task in the Church’s evangelism; and worse, so long as they are not being used as a “substitute” for that first task.

It is hard to confront the world; of that there can be no doubt. But, so often, it is in that confrontation that the Church’s valour is really put to the test. It’s much easier to convene a children’s meeting than to come heart-to-heart, and toe-to-toe with an adult “homo sapien” like ourselves! It’s a cosy kind of evangelism that installs and answering service with a telephone and, then sits back to see the results – “For the way of salvation Dial ———”. It much less painful to thrust a book or a tape into somebody’s hand with the remark “maybe this will help you,” than to actually say something that really needs to be said from us to them!

Should we despise these things, and other things, as well! Not in the least; not in the least. And we may and must feel free to employ as many means legitimate in the light of scripture that we can employ. The burning question is, are we using these things without doing that one thing necessary, or in place of that one thing necessary? If we are, then, we are no less guilty of the practice of “evangelism by proxy” than many sections of the Church have been for the best part of a hundred years, and we are no nearer regaining the use of our God-given evangelistic wings.

May God grant us all enabling grace to be up and about that grand calling that we have. Like a great many others, how feeble we feel ourselves to be in this gospel endeavour; but, at least, may God give us grace to see our need and grant us enough strength from day-to-day to, at least “flap our wings” a wee bit, in recognition of the fact that we still possess them! Apart from that greatest commendation of all – that a Church loves its Saviour and worships its God aright, can there be a greater commendation than that Thessalonian one that we mentioned? “From you sounded out the word of life.” Indeed, is that not simply the outward display of the inward love and worship that our God demands?

Courtesy of Wicket Gate Magazine. Used with permission.