RTCA Statement on Evangelism
What is evangelism?
I. Overflow
It gives the right nuance of someone who is so full of joy about Jesus Christ that it overflows as surely as a cup that is filled to overflowing with water. It is a natural thing. It is a very obvious thing. Accordingly, it has the quality that so much evangelism lacks, spontaneity. Incidentally, “overflow” is a very passable translation of a Greek work that occurs a good deal in the New Testament to describe the liberated confidence of the Christian, plerophoria. Paul reminds the Thessalonians “our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and much confident overflow (in much plerophoria)(I Thess. 1:5).
II. Simply telling a fellow searcher where he can find the Bread of Life, as C.H. Spurgeon, the famous nineteenth-century British preacher and evangelist, maintained. It draws attention both to the needs of the recipient and to the generosity of the giver: God will not give us a stone when we ask Him for bread. We like the equality it underscores. There is no way that an evangelist is any better or on any higher ground than the person than the person to whom he is talking. The only difference between two hungry beggars is that one has been fed and knows where food is always available. We are reminded that we cannot bring this good news to others unless we personally have come to “Taste and
see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8).
III “To evangelize is so to present Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, that men shall come to put their trust in God through Him, to accept Him as their Savior, and serve Him as their King in the fellowship of His church,” according to English Archbishop William Temple.
If we accept this third definition, it says some very important things about evangelism:
A. Evangelism is good news about Jesus. It is not advancing the claims of a Chaplaincy, denomination, of a nation, of an ideology, but of Jesus Himself.
B. Evangelism is centered in God the Father. The religion of the New Testament is firmly Trinitarian. It brings us to the source of the Godhead, the Father Himself, through the agency of the Son, and at the instigation of the Holy Spirit.
C. Evangelism depends on the power of the Holy Spirit. It is something that depends on he work of the Holy Spirit entirely for its effectiveness. We human beings are quite unable to draw others to Christ. It is the prerogative of the Holy Spirit to convict people of their need of Christ, to make Him real to them, to bring them to confess that He is Lord, to baptize them into Christ’s body, the church, and to assure them that they belong. All this is the Spirit’s work, not ours.
D. Evangelism means incorporation into the church, the body of
Christ. Evangelism in the New Testament is shamelessly corporate. You may come to Christ on your own, but as soon as you do, you find yourself among a whole new family of brothers and sisters.
E. Evangelism challenges decision. It is not enough for people to hear the preaching of the gospel and to be moved by the quality of Christian lives among them. They have to decide whether or not to bow their knee to Jesus as their King. The decision may be slow or sudden: that is not the point. It may be implicit if the person has grown up and been nourished from early years in a believing home and community, or it may be very explicit. In either case it has to be made.
F. Evangelism is discipleship. It is not simply a matter of proclaiming good news, or of eliciting decisions for Christ, getting hands raised, or a cry of commitment made. The goal in evangelism is nothing less than fulfilling the Great Commission and making disciples of Jesus Christ.
In summary RTCA states that Evangelism is:
“The process of presenting Jesus Christ in
the power of the Holy Spirit, that men,
women and children in the horse race
industry shall come to put their trust in God
through Him, to accept Jesus Christ as their
Savior, and serve Jesus Christ as their King
in the fellowship of His Body, the church.”
