Evangelism in the Local Church

How can individuals and congregations focus on a comprehensive understanding and practice of evangelism that continues the distinctive emphases Wesley initiated? The answer is by mirroring the distinctive approach of Wesley to offer grace-based evangelism to all, followed by a process geared toward genuine transformation in every way as authentic Christian disciples. Simply put, reaching people is tied to discipling.

Before we move from principals to practice, it is important to look at how a variety of people have defined evangelism. Here are some examples: “Evangelism is concerned with the whole disclosure of God in the world. The function of the church is to continue the incarnational principle Christ started.”
    - -Jerry Cook in George Hunter’s To Spread the Power, 1987.

“Evangelism is every possible way of reaching outside the church: to make contacts with definite people, to cultivate their knowledge of the Christian faith, to lead them to confess Christ as their Savior and Lord, to bring them into (committed) church membership, and to help them commence Christian habits.”
   - - George Sweazey, The Church as Evangelist, 1978.

“(Biblically) Evangelism is a drama, a narrative that has a beginning, a middle and an end. The first sequence is an ongoing struggle- a conflict between powerful forces—the adversarial tug-of-war between good and evil, sin and holiness, life and death. The second scene is the announcer, the proclaimer, the witness who tells the outcome of the victory that has been witnessed. The third scene involves how the listener makes an appropriate response. These dramatic movements shape our evangelism: adversarial conflict, announcement of decisive victory and appropriate response.”
   -Walter Brueggemann, Biblical Perspectives on Evangelism, 1993.

INVITE, AWAKEN, ACKNOWLEDGE and ALIGN
In our effort to define, understand, and practice grace-based evangelism in a way that reflects the approach of John Wesley that sparked the Methodist movement, four words can guide our approach. The words are: Invite, Awaken, Acknowledge, and Align. These four principals form, both the focus and the method... the form and the function of evangelism in the local church.

When these four principals are translated into action in the local church, we remain grounded in the grace-based practice of evangelism we see Wesley using in his historical era. Though we live in a much more complex environment in many ways than Wesley did, the principals of being invitational, focusing on a growing awareness of divine grace, providing ample opportunities to acknowledge and respond to grace, and the ongoing effort to align one’s life with Christ and be accountable as Christian disciples are all still extremely valid and distinctive for United Methodists.

Invite, Awaken, Acknowledge and Align are both the focus of evangelism and the methods we need to use in the local church… the form and the function of evangelism in the local church.