This post was written by Randy Newman on May 19, 2008
If we lead people to Christ, will they inevitably grow? If we teach the Bible, will people inevitably want to tell others about it? If we ground Christian academicians in doctrine, will they inevitably integrate their faith with their scholarship? If we teach about spiritual formation, will Christians inevitably experience transformation?
From the looks of things, it would seem that the answer to each of the above questions would be a resounding, “yes.”
In churches, campus ministries, faculty fellowships, and even in some seminary classes, I sense an assumption about inevitability. It is worth challenging these assumptions and, if they are to be discarded, to formulate alternatives.
There have always been tensions within the body of Christ between evangelists and disciplers. The evangelist wants to reach out more broadly while the discipler wants to build in more deeply. The evangelist sees lost souls. The discipler sees shallow believers.
Instead of valuing each other as complimentary parts of the body, the opposing forces pit themselves against each other and argue over which task is more important or central to the mission. Part of that posturing often employs the argument of inevitability.
Evangelists see the need for grounding new believers in some basics and then training them to reach others. But after that, they assume young Christians will just grow as the inevitable result of putting themselves in challenging evangelistic outreach settings.
Disciplers (pastors, teachers, and the like) come at the situation from the opposite direction. If we just teach the scriptures and the power of the gospel, they imply, people will inevitably start reaching out to their unsaved friends. How could they not do so?
The world of academic integration parallels this debate. Some argue for “just” evangelizing professors and training them to reach their colleagues and students with evangelistic strategies that are relevant to intellectuals. Integration of faith and scholarship will inevitably follow. Others think that a full-orbed Christian worldview, delving into all of God’s world with all of God’s truth, will inevitably spill over into conversations which lead to presentations of the gospel.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if such assumptions worked out! They haven’t so far and I doubt they ever will.
Instead, why not think through and implement strategies which pursue goals of both evangelism and discipleship, outreach and integration, reaching the lost and maturing the saved, adding numbers to the rolls of the redeemed and deepening the effects of salt to prevent decay.
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