letter from America
Why is evangelism increasingly ‘optional’?
Josh Moody
It has become startlingly obvious to me over the years that evangelism, and its importance, has increasingly receded in the life of the church in America.
I know there are exceptions, and of course there are many individuals who are effective and zealous in personal evangelism. But my anecdotal and instinctive observation was recently confirmed by Lausanne’s survey on the importance of the Great Commission. The survey asked whether the average Christian, in various countries, believes that sharing the gospel is essential or optional. It is no great surprise that where the church is growing rapidly the average Christian believes that sharing the gospel is essential: Africa, Asia, Latin America. But where the church is not growing (North America and Europe) the average Christian thinks that evangelism is merely optional. You can look at the figures yourself here: lausanne.org/ report/great-commission-discipleship.
Karen Swallow Prior and the ASP
‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ is a reasonable comment sometimes made about human beings’ propensity to fiddle with things that are already working quite well, thus making them worse.
But what about US politics? Few would argue that the system is working well, or that the choice of candidates being offered in presidential elections over the last decade or so (perhaps much longer, in fact) is particularly edifying, inspiring or encouraging – especially from a Christian point of view.