The Good News Gone Badly

New essay published at Missio Alliance

Sadly, sharing the glorious good news of Jesus with others, what is commonly known as evangelism, has been reduced to merely telling someone information about Jesus (and often in a forcefully bad way). It has become mainly an intellectual transaction. Even worse, the word evangelism is associated with coercive tactics such as threats of hell and punishment for those who do not “invite Jesus into their heart.” Rather than being heard as news that is good, the good news (the Greek, ‘evangel’) has been reduced to calling people out, ‘othering’ people, and making threats if someone does not affirm a particular belief system. Using these heavy-handed approaches distorts the full beauty of the gospel and the Christian witness. This form of evangelism badly misses the mark, particularly in post-Christian contexts where Christ-followers lack the authority and trust to be listened to like we once were. However, this is not merely a contextual issue around power and trust for our post-Christian evangelism – there is also a growing concern with the content of our proclamation.