Church as an Evangelistic Method

Jonathan Bolin

Сентябрь 14, 2017

The Church As A Principle Evangelistic Method Of Witness To The Lost: The Case For Using The Church’s Corporate Witness As An Evangelistic Strategy

Introduction

Could it be possible that a large portion of the Evangelical Church has misunderstood or deemphasized one of the primary evangelistic methods that God intended for his church?^[1] Today, many in the church equate the word “evangelism” with speaking the gospel in a confrontational manner with an unbelieving stranger, the building of a relationship with a person who does not follow Jesus, or the doing of good deeds for the marginalized. Additionally, many in contemporary Evangelical circles have relegated evangelism to an individualized endeavor often compartmentalized as a regularly occurring obligation divorced from everyday speech and life. This is not how the early church lived out its Christian witness. Rather, in both the description of the early church’s practice and in its teaching in the New Testament, evangelism was a much more expansive, integrated, and corporate enterprise. The church itself was the evangelistic witness.

Emphasizing evangelism is crucial for the European Evangelical Church for at least three monumental reasons. First, Jesus’ church in Europe is in decline. Despite the overall global growth of Christianity, proportionally, fewer and fewer Europeans identify themselves with Christianity^[2]. This is true in both Western and Eastern Europe^[3]. If the European Evangelical Church is to reverse the trend, it must focus on evangelism. Secondly, the Evangelical Church, by definition, is evangelistic^[4]. If the European Evangelical Church is to be true to its roots, it must consider its missional identity and action as worthy of careful thought, bold strategy, and clear emphasis. But evangelism is not only a pragmatic necessity and a foundational element, it is at the heart of the church’s existence and mission.

Clarifying the Mission

In order to talk about the church’s role in evangelism, we must first make sure we understand the terms and concepts we are using.

Definition of Terms

The word “evangelism” is based on a family of Greek words εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion), εὐαγγελιστής (euangelistēs), εὐαγγελίζω (euangelizō), προευαγγελίζομαι (proeuangelizomai). The very basic meaning of the word family has to do with “good news”^[5]. εὐαγγέλιον means, at the very minimum, “good news,” εὐαγγελίζω means “to proclaim good news,” εὐαγγελιστής refers to “the proclaimer of good news,” and προευαγγελίζομαι refers to “proclaiming good news beforehand”^[6]. The verb form, εὐαγγελίζω, is the word most closely connected to our topic for “evangelism” because “evangelism” is most basically defined as the method and process of evangelizing.

In our understanding of evangelism, very often we automatically assume the audience of the proclamation of the gospel: the recipients of the gospel are those who do not yet follow Jesus. Yet, the New Testament never makes this connection solely nor clearly. In fact, there are at least two instances where the audience for the proclamation of the gospel are followers of Jesus (Rom. 1:15 and Gal. 1:8–9)^[7]. With this in mind, we can define evangelism as how we proclaim the gospel to both those who have already believed and those who do not believe.

Definition of Mission

Many times in the church there is no clear delineation between evangelism and mission. This creates confusion. The word, εὐαγγελίζω, never appears as an imperative in the New Testament. This does not mean that the concept of speaking the gospel is never commanded in Scripture^[8]. For example, the author of Hebrews commands Christians to “exhort one another daily” (3:13), Paul commands Christians to “encourage one another and build one another up” with the truth that Jesus “died for us” (1 Thes. 5:9–11), and Peter commands Christians to “honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense… for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:13–17). These commands would be empty without the truth of the gospel. In a very real sense, Christians are commanded to evangelize, to proclaim the gospel, both to believers and unbelievers.

What the lack of a clear imperative form of εὐαγγελίζω in a passage like the Great Commission does mean is that evangelism, especially when understood as speaking the gospel to the lost in confrontational settings, is not the church’s main mission. What, then, is the church’s main mission and how does evangelism relate to it? According Matthew 28:18–20, making disciples is the church’s main mission^[9]. The two following participles following the main verb, to make disciples answer how the church makes disciples: “baptizing” and “teaching them to observe all that [Jesus] commanded [them]”. This “teaching” can be considered evangelism. Jesus’ teaching is often characterized as gospel, or good news (e.g., Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 11:5; Mark 1:14–15; Luke 4:18, 43; 8:1; 20:1; Acts 10:36)^[10]. Luke, in Acts 15:35, connects proclaiming the good news, εὐαγγελίζω, with both “the word of the Lord” (what Jesus commanded) and teaching. The fact that Mark summarizes the contents of his book, which includes what Jesus commanded, as the “beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” demonstrates that when the church teaches what Jesus commanded, it is evangelizing. The fact that much of Jesus’ teaching dealt with how to live as a kingdom citizen further strengthens the connection between “all that [Jesus] commanded [them]” and evangelism since we can consider the gospel very broadly as the good news that God is establishing his rule on earth (Matt. 4:23; Mark 1:14)^[11].

Evangelism, then, is the method of discipleship. Proclaiming the gospel is both how we make new disciples (Eph. 3:8) and how we grow as disciples. Paul, in Romans 16:25, states that God “is able to strengthen [believers] according to [his] gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:8). In Ephesians 4:15, “speaking the truth in love” is intricately connected to the maturity of the believer as a part of Christ’s body. This truth, Paul later states, is “in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21; c.f., 2 Cor. 3:18)^[12]. The gospel proclaimed, evangelism, not only makes disciples, it grows disciples.

The Characteristics of the Church that Are Evangelistic

If the main mission of the church is to make disciples through proclaiming the gospel, how can this be accomplished? There are a variety of methods, but one of the primary methods, and one that leaders in the church today most often neglect, is the existence and culture of the church itself. The Bible speaks of at least four areas in which the church’s existence and culture proclaim the gospel.

The Biblical Argument: Identity, Love, Good works, Unity among Diversity

Identity. We’ve already spoken of the Great Commission as it appears in Matthew. Acts 1:8 adds further dimension to the church’s mission when Jesus calls his followers, “my witnesses.” Rooted at the very foundation of the church is its identity as a witness to Jesus. In this passage, Jesus did not confer upon his church a duty. Rather, he affirmed the church’s prophetic identity as witnesses. He did not say, “You will witness of me.” He said, “You will be my witnesses”. The church’s very existence is meant to testify of Jesus’ person and work. The rest of the New Testament, Acts in particular, bears out the fulfillment to this prophecy as the church lives out its identity as the “pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15)^[13]. The church’s corporate identity is further connected to the proclamation of God and his work through the gospel in 1 Peter 1:9–10. God created the church as a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for his own possession” for the purpose of “proclaiming His excellencies”.

Love. God intended for his church to be visible and he intended its visibility to communicate truth about himself and his work. One of the central themes in Johannine literature is love. At one of the most pivotal points in Jesus’ earthly ministry, he gives his disciples a “new command” (John 13:34–35). The command is that his followers should love each other. But, he does not stop there. He gives them both the manner and the motivation of how they should love each other in the next phrase: “as I have loved you”. This Jesus-like love for one another points to the identity of the disciples as followers of Jesus. First John 4:12 connects the love one for another of God’s followers and his resulting abiding presence in the church to the fact that “no one has ever seen God.” The love believers show to one another allows people to see God at work despite his invisibility^[14]. The church’s sacrificial love for one another is evangelistic because it points to who God is and what he is doing through Jesus – it is proclamational in nature.

Good Works. After speaking of the church’s corporate identity as “a people for his own possession,” Peter encourages believers to “keep [their] conduct among the Gentiles honorable” (1 Pet. 2:12). This behavior, Peter says, results in unbelievers “glory[ing] God on the day of visitation”. Both the church’s good works and its abstention from immoral behavior, therefore, are evangelistic in that they testify to the truth of God and result in “evildoers” glorifying God (cf. Matt. 5:16)^[15].

Unity among Diversity. A final example of a characteristic of the church that proclaims the gospel is its unity among diversity. In John 17, Jesus plainly states that the unity that his followers demonstrate leads to people believing that God sent him (John 17:20–21). The unity of believers demonstrates the gospel. Paul, in the first thirteen verses of Ephesians 3, explains why this unity is so amazing. The inclusion of the Gentiles into the church (v. 6) proclaims God’s multifaceted wisdom to “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (v. 10). The church proclaims the gospel, called God’s wisdom in 1 Corinthians 1:20–25, by its display of unity despite very obvious diversity^[16].

The Implications of the Biblical Argument: Gospel Culture, Gospel Incarnation, Gospel Mission

I have attempted to demonstrate from the Bible that God intends for the church’s very existence and culture to be evangelistic in nature. This thought is by no means a new one. In 1989, recognizing the dangers of the growing influence of secular democratic societies, Lesslie Newbigin, a European and former missionary to India, explains that if our missional strategy for the church simply involves “adopt[ing] the proper techniques for evangelism,” we are not taking into account the complexity and reality of a secular society^[17]. He states, “How is it possible that the gospel should be credible, that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross? I am suggesting that the only answer, the only hermeneutic of the gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it”^[18]. The way people understand the gospel is by looking at the church. We all know this to be true. In places where the church has a bad reputation or where the church is divided, people think the gospel is false, it is fake, it is insignificant, or it is powerless. The church proclaims a message with its culture whether it intends to do so or not^[19]. A church that remembers its identity and fosters a contrasting culture is a truly powerful witness to the gospel. Newbigin provides six characteristics of a church that witnesses the gospel well^[20], I will provide three.

Gospel Culture. The first characteristic of a church that proclaims the gospel with its existence is a church that is characterized by community. John 13:34–35 summarizes this characteristic. People in this kind of church understand that, through the gospel, Jesus radically redefined family, take the “one another” passages of Scripture seriously, and strive for a culture shaped by the gospel.

Through the Jesus’ work on the cross, God adopted us into his family giving us a perfect father and making us fellow heirs with Jesus (Gal. 4:4–7; Rom. 8:15–17; Eph. 1:3–6). God made us members of his household (Eph. 2:19; cf. 1 Tim. 3:4–5) and expects us to treat one another as family (1 Tim. 3:14–15; 5:1–2; Eph. 5:1). This new identity shifts how we think about the concept of family (Mark 3:31–35; Matt. 10:34–37; Luke 11:27–28). When members view each other and treat each other as family, people outside the church will begin to understand the gospel differently.

There are over forty passages in the New Testament that describe how we should treat each other as family. Among many others, these commands include: “be at peace with one another” (Mark 9:50), “serve one another” (John 13:14), “outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10), “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2), “forgive one another” (Eph. 4:32), “submit to one another” (Eph 5:21), “exhort one another” (Heb. 3:13), and “show hospitality to one another” (1 Pet. 4:9). We often look at these verses solely as commands and are ashamed that we do not meet up to many of them. But what if, instead, we viewed them as descriptions of the local church. While not yet perfect, a church that emphasizes the “one another” passages and provides context and structure for them to be worked out would powerfully proclaim the gospel to the world.

In his book, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ, Ray Ortlund states that “the test of a gospel-centered church is its doctrine on paper plus its culture in practice”^[21]. Later in the book, Ortlund says, “Gospel doctrine creates gospel cultures called churches, where wonderful things happen to unworthy people for the glory of Christ alone”^[22]. A church that recognizes that people are complex and do not change quickly is a church that provides an environment of safety and time for people to grow^[23]. A grace-centered culture is a strong witness of the gospel because no one will ever find anything like it outside of the church.

Gospel Incarnation. The account of the commissioning of the Jesus’ followers in John is shorter than Matthew, but involves clear direction from Jesus. “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21). The question is, how did the Father send Jesus? John 17:18 answers that question, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world”. As Jesus incarnated into the world, he now sends his church into the world (cf., 1 Pet. 2:12). The church is to live in its context. It lives in the world. Many times Christians have a tendency to come out of the world. For example, we form our own Christian clubs, our own Christian schools, our own Christian musical festivals, and our own Christian art. These things are not necessarily wrong, but when we create our own safe Christian spaces for the sake of avoiding being with unbelievers, we fundamentally misunderstand our mission. If the church does not follow Jesus’ example to go into the world and be with people, unbelievers will never see the proclamational identity of the church. Jesus calls on his followers to make their lights shine before others so that others may glorify God (Matt. 5:16). This means that we must find ways to make our light visible to those who do not follow Jesus. We must work with, study with, recreate with, rest with, and dialogue with unbelievers in the places they live while inviting them into our normal rhythms and spaces of life. We cannot expect the world to see the transformational light of the gospel by solely inviting them to church services or evangelistic events. These events rarely show the kind of sacrificial love, righteous conduct, and costly unity that God promised would proclaim the truth of his gospel.

Gospel Mission. A church that proclaims and displays the gospel understands its place in the mission of God. One of the major themes of the gospel of John is how Jesus was sent by the Father. The disciples continued in that mission. The church must continue in that mission because the church’s mission grows from Jesus’ mission. The church must recognize that its mission does not stop with Bible study, as good as that is. It must recognize that its mission does not stop with a community that acts as a family, as good as that is. The church must recognize that it must follow Jesus’ great mission – to make disciples. This concept changes the identity of Christians. We are now all missionaries. A missionary is someone who places the importance of the mission over their own personal comfort. Members of the church should intentionally, consistently, and continually live with Christ’s mission in mind.

Conclusion

Many church leaders would have no issue with the idea that the church itself is evangelistic in nature. They would readily affirm the idea that the church’s love, good works, and unity display gospel truth, but they have not set up structures that would expose the church’s culture and actions to the unbelieving world nor have they encouraged believers to live as a distinct community among the unbelieving world. They place most of the church’s emphasis and resources upon the events of the church rather than the actual life of the church. In one of the most clear passages on evangelism in the New Testament, 1 Peter 3:14–15, Peter states that the church must be always ready “to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”. We have to be honest with ourselves and ask, when is the last time someone asked about the hope in us? Too often, evangelism focuses on answering questions that people are not asking^[24].

But what if the world sees a church that is acting and living under the power of God? What if the world sees a church where people are extremely diverse and yet devotedly united? What if the world sees a church where people genuinely forgive painful injuries and do not treat people according to the offense? What if the world sees a church where love with no expectation of repayment is a way of life? What if the world sees a church where people sacrificially serve? The world would ask questions.

The church is a theater where God’s grace is put on display for all to see. We do not only use our words to proclaim the gospel, we also use our actions. Could one of the most biblical and effective strategies for growing the church numerically be found in focussing on the church’s culture and missional identity instead of scheduling more events and accruing methodologies? One of the best evangelistic strategies for the church may be focussing on creating and exposing a culture of grace^[25]. What if we spent the resources and time we typically spend on methodological evangelism on creating, developing, and deploying communities characterized by the gospel into our cities and villages? This is a return to an emphasis on the local church as the hermeneutic for the gospel, not only out of necessity due to the cultural context in Europe, but as a realization of the church’s biblical and missional identity.

Leslie Newbigin brings up the question that those who witnessed the events of the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection asked when the church was evidencing God’s supernatural work, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:12). He says, “that is the question from which the real missionary dialogue begins… I think, therefore, that nothing is more central to the world mission of the Church than the renewal of the life of local congregations. But they must be congregations who really believe in and live by the story that is the clue to the whole human and cosmic story, the story that has its center in the incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ”^[26]. May God give us more local congregations that provoke questions concerning the hope within us.

Bibliography

Conrad Hackett and David McClendon, “Christians Remain World’s Largest Religious Group, but They Are Declining in Europe.” Pew Research Center. April 05, 2017. Accessed December 14, 2017. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/05/christians-remain-worlds-largest-religious-group-but-they-are-declining-in-europe/.
Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996).
George M. Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991).
Geoff Holsclaw, “Is Trump the End of Evangelicalism?” Missio Alliance. June 27, 2016. Accessed December 14, 2017. http://www.missioalliance.org/trump-end-evangelicalism/.
Jeff Vanderstelt, Gospel Fluency (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017).
Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005).
Lesslie Newbigin, A Word in Season: Perspectives on Christian World Missions (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994).
Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989).
Moisés Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014).
“Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. November 08, 2017. Accessed December 14, 2017. http://www.pewforum.org/ 2017/11/08/ orthodox-christianity-in-the-21st-century/.
Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990).
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014).
Robert W. Yarbrough, 1–3 John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008).
Tim Chester and Jonny Woodrow, Evangelism (Sheffield, U.K.: Porterbrook, 2016).
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).
William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974).

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^[1] At the outset, I must acknowledge the influence of and my dependence on several men and their writings and preaching. God used Francis Schaeffer to begin my journey in this line of thinking when I read The Mark of the Christian. My mentor and friend, Colin Smith, and my colleague, Brian Wagner, gave me the “permission” to think outside my ecclesiological box. Tim Chester and Steve Timmis’ Total Church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, Leslie Newbigin’s thought, and Jeff Vanderstelt’s teaching and preaching confirmed and sharpened my thoughts on the gospel, community, and mission. My pastor, Rob Berreth, and his friend, Ray Ortlund, sharpened my understanding of a culture of grace within the church.

^[2] “Christians remained the largest religious group in the world in 2015, making up nearly a third (31%) of Earth’s 7.3 billion people, according to a new Pew Research Center demographic analysis. But the report also shows that the number of Christians in what many consider the religion’s heartland, the continent of Europe, is in decline” (Conrad Hackett and David McClendon). “Christians Remain World’s Largest Religious Group, but They Are Declining in Europe” (Pew Research Center. April 05, 2017). Accessed December 14, 2017. http://www. pewresearch.org/ fact-tank/2017/04/05/christians-remain-worlds-largest-religious-group-but-they-are-declining-in-europe/.

^[3] “Most of the world’s 260 million Orthodox Christians live in Central and Eastern Europe. The doubling of the worldwide Orthodox Christian population to about 260 million has not kept pace with the growth rates of the global population – or of other Christian populations, which collectively have nearly quadrupled in size from 490 million in 1910 to 1.9 billion in 2010”. See: “Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. November 08, 2017. Accessed December 14, 2017. http://www.pewforum.org/2017/ 11/ 08/orthodox-christianity-in-the-21st-century/.

^[4] By “Evangelical,” I am referring to the broad conservative wing of Christianity, mostly in Protestantism, that is characterized by gospel-centrality, a belief in the authority of the Bible, an emphasis on individual conversion, and a strong devotion to evangelism. I understand that this encompasses some individuals and churches that would not self-identify as evangelical, but it is the one word that characterizes the perspective from which I am writing and the audience to whom I am writing. For a more detailed definition of “evangelical,” see George M. Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), 4–5.

I also understand the loss of meaning this word is experiencing particularly in my country of origin, the United States. For example, see Geoff Holsclaw, “Is Trump the End of Evangelicalism?” Missio Alliance. June 27, 2016. Accessed December 14, 2017. http://www.missioalliance. org/trump-end-evangelicalism/.

^[5] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), p. 402.

^[6] It is not within the scope of this article to define what the gospel actually is. In general, I would very broadly define it as the good news of God doing the work to establish His rule on earth (Isa. 52:7; Mark 1:14–15; Acts 10:36). The church’s gospel, of course, became much more specific as God’s ultimate plan to establish His rule on earth was made clear through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:1–8). A very good survey of the history and use of the word εὐαγγέλιον can be found in the eighth chapter of John Dickson, The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More than Our Lips (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010).

^[7] I readily admit that the verb is most often used in the context of the gospel being proclaimed to an assumed audience of mostly unbelievers. This, however, does not detract from the point I am making that evangelism is a much broader activity than only speaking the gospel to the lost. For how believers should speak the gospel to believers, see Jeff Vanderstelt, Gospel Fluency (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), particularly chapter 2.

^[8] The only possible place where proclaiming the gospel appears as a command is Mark 16:15. This text’s authenticity is disputed by most New Testament scholars, so I have omitted it from consideration. For a detailed explanation of the issues related to the final verses of Mark, see William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974), pp. 601–605. Paul tells Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” (1 Tim. 4:5), but it would be a stretch to say this command applies to all Christians.

^[9] We could also add the word, “go,” to the main mission even though it is not an imperative verb in this text. It is probably best understood as an attendant circumstance participle that was intended to mobilize the church from being “ethnocentric in their evangelism (bringing prospective proselytes to Jerusalem)…to be[ing] ektocentric,” or centered on those who lived outside the Jewish circle. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), p. 645.

^[10] Paul also connects proclaiming the gospel with Jesus’ teaching in Romans 16:25 and 2 Thessalonians 1:8.

^[11] “The content of Jesus’ teaching focused on God, his kingdom, and his will – all themes of contemporary Judaism” In: Moisés Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), p. 711.

^[12] “‘Speaking the truth in love,’ for Paul, is shorthand for ‘speaking what is true about Jesus’ to one another – that is, speaking the gospel to one another. Paul knows that if people are going to grow up into Christ in every way, they need to hear the truths of Jesus (the gospel) and learn to speak them into everything” In: Vanderstelt, p. 28.

^[13] Verse 16 of 1 Timothy 3 provides a summary of the good news of Jesus’ life and teaching, thereby identifying the truth the church supports and upholds.

^[14] Robert Yarbrough further explains, “[John] points to the importance of believers actualizing God’s love among themselves in view of God’s not being seen. God’s invisibility, then, is not only a reason to exalt and venerate him in his heavenly loftiness; it is at the same time an implicit mandate for God’s people to render his presence concrete by their response to him. Foremost in that response is the expression of love to others” (Robert W. Yarbrough, 1–3 John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008, p. 244).

^[15] It is possible to interpret this verse as saying that these evildoers will never become believers and will have to affirm God’s work in the lives of believers at the day of judgment. For example, Davids says, “While good lives will eventually force all to glorify God for what they see in the Christians, now unbelievers see the same facts in quite a different light, for ‘they slander you as evildoers’ or ‘criminals’” (Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990, p. 97). While this view is plausible, I prefer Karen Jobes’ position, “The day of visitation should probably be understood as a reference to the future final judgment, by which time Peter hopes that unbelievers who have observed the good works of the Christians they have slandered will have come to faith in Christ” (Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005, p. 172).

^[16] I understand that “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” most likely does not refer to unbelievers on earth, but if the unity of the church proclaims the wisdom of God to these rulers and authorities, it must also do so to unbelievers on earth.

^[17] Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), p. 224.

^[18] Ibid., p. 227.

^[19] By “culture” I mean the practiced ideas and beliefs of a group of people.

^[20] The community will be “a community of praise”, “a community of truth”, “a community that does not live for itself but is deeply involved in the concerns of its neighborhood”, “a community where men and women are prepared for and sustained in the exercise of the priesthood in the world”, “a community of mutual responsibility”, and “a community of hope” (Newbigin, pp. 227–233).

^[21] Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), p. 18.

^[22] Ibid., 51.

^[23] Ibid., 72.

^[24] Tim Chester and Jonny Woodrow, Evangelism (Sheffield, U.K.: Porterbrook, 2016), p. 26.

^[25] I am, by no means, minimizing the legitimate role of evangelists in the church (Eph. 4:11–16) or the public preaching of the gospel in the public arena as the early church practiced (e.g., Acts 8:5; 8:26–40).

^[26] Lesslie Newbigin, A Word in Season: Perspectives on Christian World Missions (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), pp. 146–147.