The church of Jesus Christ is not an end in itself. It does not exist to grow rich or popular or to function only for its members. It does not even exist to preserve its own existence, but contrarywise, to give itself away in tireless sacrifice that others may live. Its essence is the epitome of selflessness, and when the world sees the church's purpose otherwise, great harm is done to the cause of Christ. The church is Christ's presence in ministry to the world. Christians are His hands in service, His feet in mission, and His voice in mercy to the world's people. What Jesus said of His own life is applicable also to the church: "Except a com of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24).
The leadership of God's church has acknowledged in the Thousand Days of Reaping document that at this hour of the world's night, we as a people must place "unquestioned priority on evangelism." While the church has made great decisions on past occasions regarding the need for revival and an increased tempo of redemptive outreach, it is exciting that concerned leaders have once again, in the 1981 Annual Council document, returned the focus of the church toward a renewed priority for evangelism
There are four very special reasons why the church must give unprecedented priority to evangelism at this time.
1. The church must give evangelism unquestioned priority because it has no other purpose for existence.
Ellen White has written that the church "was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world" (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 9), and that the work of the minister is "in Christ's stead ... to beseech men and women to be reconciled to God" (Gospel Workers, p. 13). God gives to the church, both its ministry and members, a work that is inspiring and serious. Second Corinthians 5:17-21 contains the elements of this essential work in capsule form.
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (verse 17). The miracle of new birth is the basic gift the church offers to the world! Life! Not ordinary life as we humans know it, but deep life, spiritual life, with its roots in God. Eternal life is the product we offer to the world! This is the most valuable thing imaginable, and the church is custodian to it! The world needs this more than it needs its next meal. It is for us to know its power, and to sense how fitting an offering it is that we extend to the world!
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself' (verse 19). If we seek a definition of evangelism, here it is: "God in Christ, reconciling the world"! The reconciling process of God, borne by the miracle of the Spirit, is evangelism! And the church, in offering the greatest thing in the world, is automatically doing evangelism.
"And [God] hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation" (verse 19). Wonder of wonders! God has given us a ministry to perform on His behalf—the marvelous service of letting others know of this miraculous life! And the truth that emerges in this passage is that this divine entrustment is not just to clergy! It is to Christians! Evangelism is God's partnership gift to the rank and file of God's house!
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ" (verse 20). As though a progressive excitement finally explodes, we see here an investiture of authority in the Christian tantamount to ambassadorship! Is there a minister who hasn't felt this authority? Is there an enlightened Christian who hasn't? Even though we are but God's "water carriers," there is a portfolio of authority for the soul winner that excels any investiture by earth's greatest government or mightiest monarch. No wonder the magnate of earthly wealth, the worldly powerful, and the successful often stop to rediscover their own spiritual roots when a serious man of God addresses them with gospel authority! Perhaps Jesus intended this when He said: "And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shalt be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19).
Notice how the throb of this authority can be felt in the great episodes of evangelistic encounter to be found in the New Testament—Christ and Nicodemus (John 3); the woman at Jacob's well (chapter 4); the Pentecostal showers of blessing (Acts 1, 2); Philip and the Ethiopian treasurer (chapter 8); Saul's Damascus road conversion (chapter 9); Peter and Cornelius (chapter 10); and Paul and the jailor at Philippi (chapter 16). All reconciliation of the sinful heart is administered, not by human hands, but by God's Spirit. Elder H. M. S. Richards once declared, "No person can come to Christ unless and until God calls him." While the authority is given to man, it is governed by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit directs all Christian witness. Therefore we must not lay our own evangelistic plans! As we cannot program the new birth, so we cannot program evangelism. How can we tell when a certain locality is ready for an invasion of the Holy Spirit to the degree required for conversions and new-birth experiences? Actually, we cannot, except as we seek such wisdom in prayer and that gift is given to us. In no earthly enterprise is the Holy Spirit's direction more needed than in our attempts to do evangelism.
"For he [God] hath made him [Christ] to be sin for us... that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21). This is gospel heartland! The only successful basis for evangelism is the preaching and teaching of the sacrificial atonement and Lordship of Jesus Christ in the setting of present truth! Reconciliation of the sinful life with Christ must be made on the basis that is acceptable to God. Therefore evangelism must deal with the issue! The sin issue is dealt with in the arena of God's appointed sacrifice for sin —"the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). Salvation occurs in the life as Christ is beheld, accepted, and surrendered to. When Christ is found, and life finds its anchor in the hope of eternal life, evangelism then surrounds that experience with the doctrines of the Bible and the church—concepts of truth that allow the "newborn babe" to grow in grace. And so a spiritual superstructure is erected upon that foundation, which no man can lay "than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 3:11).
The church, then, must give unprecedented priority to evangelism for the same reason living persons must give priority to breathing! Without breath we cannot live; without evangelism the church cannot live! The degree to which a Christian's life, a minister's ministry, a church's program, or a conference's leadership philosophy becomes confused regarding the importance of evangelism is the degree to which it may waffle about in merely good activity, and in the light of redemption's plan be wholly lukewarm! Could this be Laodiceanism?
2. The church must give unquestioned priority to evangelism in order to be Christlike. A Christian cannot be a Christian without being Christlike, and to be Christlike means to be highly motivated personally to touch another life with redemption's miracle. Christ's most obvious trait was His love of souls: "Jesus . . . was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd" (Mark 6:34).
That Christian who comes and goes, navigating within the life of the church but never feeling the irresistible unction to "go tell," will eventually be obliged to come to grips with this basic paradox. If revival ever rekindles his soul with the Spirit's presence and power, his redemptive outreach will be the first area of his character and personality to demonstrate it. True Christians simply cannot be nonredemptive!
3. The church must give unquestioned priority to its reconciling ministry because it is the secret of its well-being and prosperity. Evangelism doesn't cost; it pays. Even in financial terms this is true. In general, the church's inflow of money comes from the results of evangelism. Successful evangelism provides ample money as one of the fruits of faithfulness.
Some have made the mistake of viewing the church as the parent of evangelism, calling evangelism a function of the church. This is a fatal deception. If this is true, the church could manipulate evangelism without hurt to itself. Biblically, the earthly component of redemption's plan is evangelism, not church. A bank may act as trustee to the fortune of an estate, but is never its owner, nor creator.
The church is trustee to evangelism, but evangelism existed before there was a church. It has demonstrated its ability to live without the church; but the church cannot live without evangelism. Kill the church, and evangelism will live still. Kill evangelism, and the church will die!
Evangelism is of prior claim over every other issue in the church. Historically, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has so majored in its mission that the theological hairsplitting of the religious world around it has never affected its unity. It was always too busy, too preoccupied with its mission, to waste time on controversial theories of little value. The church has always been crisis-oriented. True Christians consider themselves in the no man's land of a great warfare—a great emergency. The church must therefore let its priorities and work be decided not by whether an obscure word in a particular text has this or that meaning, but by the fact that lives are being lost in the despair of this world's night of sin. Christians who have felt the cruciality of life-changing power cannot be attracted by abstract theological suppositions regarding things God has not chosen to reveal clearly, once and for all. Though we "see through a glass, darkly," the Christian practices patience through his daily exercise of faith. The prior claim of evangelism is seen when a prostitute, a drug addict, a youth considering suicide, or a self-satisfied, respectable sinner is grasped by redemptive force and transformed into a worshiping, faith-filled saint!
4. We must give priority to evangelism because the Holy Spirit is sent to energize the church in one special thing--the reaching of lost people. The Spirit was given at Pentecost for evangelistic reasons, and it is greatly doubtful that the church will ever again be given the fullness and power of the Spirit unless it is for her central work of evangelism. When the church fully gives priority to evangelism, we will have placed ourselves in the only position in which we will be eligible to reach out and claim the promise of a second Pentecost. Is not this experience past due?
I will never forget the time I checked into a motel in suburban Washington, D.C., and went over to a nearby shopping center to get something I needed. As I stepped out of my car, a youthful Buddhist confronted me. In a polite manner he said, "Sir, may I invite you to attend a meeting this evening on the subject of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism?" As he talked, he handed me several pieces of literature, telling of the miracles of Buddhism and the many who had found a new life through this philosophy.
As a good Christian, I began to witness, in turn, to him. I knew enough about some of his beliefs to compare them with the "truth" and witness of my Saviour. Before long I was surrounded by eleven of these young people, all students at the University of Maryland. Almost as though the first young man had given up on me, I was soon confronted with an especially zealous youth, obviously the leader. He came up close, looked deep into my eyes, and spoke in great earnestness, "Sir, I want to tell you what happened to me! I was a hopeless drug addict. I was very sick because of this addiction, and I slept eighteen hours a day.
The remaining six hours were filled with stealing in order to support my habit. I was ready for suicide and planning the event, when these friends from Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism found me. They taught me the chant, they gave me hope, and soon I was free, and living a new life." His gestures and eyes told of victory, and one could not help but be impressed.
The meeting soon ended. But as I drove out of the parking area, I stopped at a traffic light in the right lane of three lanes. To the far left a small car stopped also, and I recognized it as belonging to one of the youths. Between us a station wagon pulled up and also stopped. While the light was red, the Buddhist youth motioned for the station wagon driver to roll down his window, which he did. The youth handed the driver a packet of literature, the driver thanked him. Just then the light turned green, and all three cars pulled out, probably never to meet again. But I drove on with wonderment! These young people had told me that in the suburban crescent around Washington that night, thirty meetings would be held in apartments and homes. From a dozen to fifty people would come to each meeting and sit on the floor to listen to the lecture and discuss these religious themes. I thought to myself: In the Washington area we have about eleven thousand Adventists. Are any of us doing this kind of evangelistic work? Why not? A verse of Scripture pressed itself upon my mind. "The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light" (Luke 16:8).
