Baptism: The Great Commission

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

The Great Commission is central to Evangelical Christianity. We preach and teach the Great Commission all the time. Being faithful to this charge that Jesus gave us is a top priority for us. We place high value missions, discipleship, and teaching. For most of us, if our church did not value these things, there would be a major problem. It would concern us deeply and we would, at least, aspire to do better in these areas. Great Commission commands are central to what most of our churches are trying to do.

And yet, many of us don’t think twice if a church marginalizes baptism. In my own church, we have had a problem with this. Many of our adult members are not baptized. Rarely does baptism come up in our teaching. Encouragements to evangelize and obey come up nearly every week, but baptism? Not so much. In the past, we have even had elders and others who were not baptized. Our church has made great strides to change a lot of this, but the truth is, baptism remains somewhat marginalized for a lot of us. It is a secondary, often forgotten aspect of our faith.

I think this should be somewhat disconcerting, considering the prominence baptism has in the Great Commission. In the Great Commission, Jesus describes what it takes to spread the Gospel. The foundation of Jesus’ commission is that he is both God and King over the whole world. (“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…”) Because of this, we are to call all people to submit to his loving rule (“make disciples”). The process has three steps.

• First, we make contact and interact with many different kinds of people (“go”).

• Second, when these people embrace Christ, we initiate them into fellowship with the Triune God (“baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”).

• Finally, we train them in the lifestyle fitting for one who follows Jesus (“teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”).

This is a description of the whole process of disciple-making. Before conversion, we go. After conversion we teach…and at conversion, we baptize. It seems clear to me.

How, in spite of all the teaching, preaching, and studying is done on the Great Commission, can many of us miss one of the more direct and clear commands in it?

Why are we so eager to do all the other things in the Great Commission (go, make disciples, teach, etc.) and not enthusiastic about getting people baptized? After we have gone out to the world and someone has become a disciple of Jesus, we do not hesitate to jump into teaching them how to obey Jesus’ commands. And yet, we are slow to say, “Let’s get you baptized!” People even get the notion that it is something one needs to be a Christian a while to do. Why?

Natural Places for Evangelism

Right now, we are studying the Book of Acts in Ecclesia. The story is all about the way the Holy Spirit thrusts the young Church out into the world to announce the arrival of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. It is exciting and challenging, because the impulse to move outward, to serve and to bear witness about Jesus is so different from our natural way of living and doing church. There are so many inspiring examples of how the early Christians shared the Gospel. It makes you want to get out and share the Gospel boldly, just like they did.

The problem is, the methods the early church used don’t seem to work today. At Pentecost, Peter preached on the street to a gathered crowd. Paul does this on numerous occasions, often a town market or central gathering place. It was incredibly effective in most case in Acts. But try street preaching today. Not only will you not see many people come to Christ, you probably won’t even be able to gather to people to even give you a listen. People just don’t gather anymore. We don’t have a place for it. When we are outside, we are usually on the move, not stopping to hear a religious lecture. In the days of Acts, this was common, though. To gather to hear a traveling philosopher or teacher was a normal way to pass the time, be entertained, and engage in community. It presented a natural place for the apostles to engage. Today, not so much.

In other cases, Paul went into a town and entered the synagogue and they let him preach, mostly because he just showed up and asked to. Try that today in a random religious institution. Even if you are of the same religion, they won’t usually let you speak just because you showed up. And if you want to reach non-religious people, you’d be hard pressed to find a place that they even gather to talk about ideas. It just isn’t a very feasible option today.

So how do we do it? How do we find places where we can engage in the religious, philosophical, and personal questions that people have? The apostles engaged in places that were natural to their culture. What is the natural place to talk about ideas in our culture? When we find that, maybe we can be more effective at sharing the Gospel about Jesus.

Here are some of my thoughts. I’ve had them in my head for a while, but they remain undeveloped. I want to see what you think about them. Where do people engage with ideas? Where are people open to conversation?

• Movies and TV - People engage with significant issues of life, worldview, and values when they watch a meaningful movie. A lot of people think about the world using bits and pieces of thoughts they got from movies. Some have called movies the new sermons.
• Coffee Shops - People are certainly open to conversation in most coffee shops. They probably don’t want to have a Gospel presentation forced on them, but they might not mind being asked about the book they are reading.
• The Internet - There are blogs and forums all over the place online where people are engaging in debate and discussion. The problem is that usually like-minded people gather in the same places and feed off of each other. The only disagreeing voices tend to be hard-headed, unreasonable people who post overstatements and insults along with their opinions. But, never the less, there are people talking about signficant things all over the place online. Youtube, Facebook, blogs, etc…How do we engage with them?
• Colleges and Universities - People go to college to learn, to figure out what they think. That could be a great place to go to engage with people in the time when their ideas are being formed the most.

These are just a few ideas. There must be more. What do you think? Are there other forums for these kinds of conversations? What are the ways we can engage people in these environments in a manner that makes sense? Be specific if you can. Give examples from your local environment, your town. Where are people interacting with significant issues and ideas?  That is where the apostles went to share Christ in their culture. That is where we need to go in our culture.

Evangelism in the Book of Acts

I will be posting my philosophy of ministry paper soon, but until I have time to prepare that, I thought I would post another paper I wrote this fall. I was taking a class titled, “Jesus and Evangelism.” I did not enjoy the class tremendously, but the final paper turned out be very cool. We were asked to read the book of Acts, and without consulting commentaries, to extract a “Biblical Model of Evangelism.” First we were supposed to observe who did evangelism (this is very short in my paper), and then we were to look at how it was done. Our professor wanted us to use the filter of four froms of evangelism that he saw in the Bible:

Presence Evangelism - Also known as lifestyle evangelism. This is when someone simply lives differently in the presence of non-Christians, and the non-Christian is attracted to Christ through that example.

Proclamation Evangelism - This is good ole’ fashion gospel preaching. It is basically Billy Graham style ministry, in which the Gospel is simply declared for people to respond to.

Pursuasion Evangelism - This is the use of rational apologetics to pursuade someone to believe. It is the use of argument, reason, and debate to convince the mind that belief in Christ is good.

Power Evangelism - This is the use of miracles and wonders to draw people to faith in Jesus.

My prof was definately setting us up to find his “Biblical Model of Evangelism” in the book of Acts, because we had to use his categories, but they did help filter my thoughts a bit. Eventually, I added my own fifth mode of evangelism, which you can read about in my paper. At the same time as extracting these examples, we were supposed to asses the contemporary church’s use of these forms of evangelism (drawing from our own experiences primarily).

I have removed the intro and conclusion, because they stunk. But, hopefully, you can handle that and get something out of the rest.

Here is my paper. Personally, I don’t think it was my most well written paper (partially because of space constraints by the prof and lack of time and effort on my part), but I thought the ideas were helpful for me to think about. Let me know what you think.

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Who Does Evangelism?In the book of Acts, salvation is always the work of the Lord, but he uses human agents to bring it about. The Apostles are the most common agents of evangelism, Peter and Paul being primary. Steven and Philip, who are not apostles, but two of the seven chosen to minister to the Hellenistic Jews, are also frequently witnesses. The Apostles often take partners along with them for ministry including, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, and others. It would also be appropriate to say that the entire community of believers as a whole is an agent of evangelism, because they represent the life of God to those around them.

Presence Evangelism

Presence evangelism is when a person becomes an example to show the difference in the lifestyle of one who follows Jesus. It is often given the term lifestyle evangelism. The power of this form of evangelism is that it embodies the principles of the Gospel in a tangible way for people to see in the life of a believer. Looking at the examples of this form of evangelism in the book of Acts, we can draw out two key principles for the use presence evangelism.

First, for presence evangelism to be effective, the Christian community must be visibly involved in public life. In a sense, the life of the Christian community must be on display for the world to see. The Church cannot be a separatist group. Although they live differently from the world around them, Christians must not be isolated from the world. Faith is not a matter of private conviction, to be kept semi-secret, but a matter of public activity.

This can be seen in the behavior of the Church in the book of Acts. The unique communal life of the Church is described in Acts 2:42-47. Their community and their love was something they shared with each other, but because “day by day” they were “attending the temple together,”(Acts 2:46) the difference in their lifestyle was visible. As a result, they had “favor with all the people” and conversions were happening daily. (Acts 2:47) All throughout the book, we see the Apostles and the believers involved in Temple life. (Acts 3:1, 5:12) The temple was not merely a forum for their preaching, but a stage for their living. People could see their worship and their love, and discern the difference.

Secondly, presence evangelism is best occurs as the “new commandment” is being fulfilled. At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

It is when the Church is fulfilling this commandment that presence evangelism happens in the book of Acts. As much as any action directed outside the Christian community, the love between believers demonstrates the reality of the Gospel. The sharing of possessions, (Acts 2:44) the meeting of physical needs within the community, (Acts 2:45) the hospitality, and sharing of meals, (Acts 2:46) are all acts of love that happen within the Church, but they issue in “the Lord [adding] to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) The best example of this is when the Church realizes that there are needs within the community that are not being met, particularly among the Hellenistic Jews. (Acts 6:1-7) To respond to this, the Apostles appoint seven men to focus specifically on meeting these needs. The result of this act of love among believers? “The word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”(Acts 6:7)

How is the Church doing today in effectively using presence evangelism? I think we have the capacity to do very well with this form of evangelism, however I think two mistakes can creep in subtly and weaken our effectiveness in this area. First, we can easily become isolationists. There is a very distinct Christian sub-culture in America, especially in suburban Protestantism. While, not all of this is detrimental, it can easily become a way of Christians living in a bubble, interacting with only Christians, while at the same time presenting a false image of Christian lifestyle to the outside world. Especially, when the image is one of shallow optimism¹ and a cheery front of moral superiority, the rich love that exists in the Christian community is obscured to those on the outside. Second, our contemporary attempts at presence evangelism often become an individualized effort. People attempt to do lifestyle evangelism by showing that their individual life is in some way superior to the life of unsaved individuals. It is the life of the believing community that needs to be on display for unbelievers. It is our love that will demonstrate the Gospel, and that can only exist in community. Let us open our community to be seen by those outside. Our flaws will be harder to hide, but the grace of God among us will be all the more compelling.

Proclamation and Persuasion Evangelism

Proclamation evangelism is the form of witness that verbally declares in public the truth of the Gospel. Persuasion evangelism is the use of logical argument to demonstrate the reasonableness of the Gospel. Although often distinct, I have paired these two forms of evangelism because in the Book of Acts most acts of persuasion occur in a proclamation setting. Both Peter and Paul use persuasion, but for the most part they within a public speech. Part of this is because the Book of Acts focuses on the public ministry of the Apostles. Very few private conversations are recorded, which makes most examples of evangelism in the book events of proclamation. With this in mind, the following principles can be seen in the proclamation and persuasion evangelism in Acts.

First proclamation and persuasion need a set up and do not happen out of the blue. Proclamation is not a cold-turkey event. On Pentecost, Peter’s speech is a response to the confusion of the visitors to Jerusalem caused by the descent of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:14) Peter’s speech in Solomon’s Portico happens when the attention of crowd is drawn by the healing of the lame man.(Acts 3:11-12) The apostles’ regularly have opportunities for proclamation before religious leaders because they had been arrested. (Acts 4, 7:1, 16:31-32, 21:37-40, etc.) Likewise, the use of synagogues in Paul’s missionary journey’s shows how Paul utilizes natural set-ups for proclamation. Because people come to the synagogue to hear teaching about the Torah, Paul has a perfect chance for proclamation and persuasion. (Acts 17:17) In Athens, it is the invitation of the local townspeople who love to hear new ideas that Paul has a chance to speak and reason in the Areopagus. (Acts 17:19-20) The opportunity for proclamation is always provided by logical, natural² situations among the non-Christians of a city. The situations do not have to be created. There are natural opportunities, and the Apostles simply seize them.

Secondly, we must be context-sensitive when we use persuasion and proclamation. The mode of persuasion depends on context in which the Apostles found themselves in. Early on, when the Church is mostly in Jerusalem, Peter and the Apostles use arguments from the Scriptures frequently. They reason, but they begin with a Jewish worldview. The classic example of how this works among non-Jewish people is Paul’s address in the Areopagus. He quotes pagan philosophers, (Acts 17:27-28) outlines a more fundamental worldview, (Acts 17:24-27) and responds to the specific needs and interests of those he to whom he is speaking.(Acts 17:29) Paul speaks different languages for different contexts, and he uses different basic facts to argue from in different places. (Acts 21:37-40) Evangelistic proclamation and persuasion must be context sensitive so that it will most effectively reach people where they are at.

The contemporary Church has come through an era where proclamation evangelism, through the ministry of Billy Graham and others, has been very effective. Persuasion evangelism has also flourished on college campuses and in places with a modern rational worldview. I think the danger for us as we move out of this era is that we will not adapt our proclamation and persuasion techniques, thinking that the older forms will continue to be effective. We ought not to abandon them altogether, but we need to follow the principles of the book of Acts. We need to begin looking for natural opportunities to proclaim and persuade. Because our culture is not one where speeches are not everyday forms of communication, this may require creativity. There were ample opportunities in the Greek and Roman era for public speaking. However, in our day, speeches are not a common public event. Because of this, churches who attempt proclamation evangelism are often found creating contexts for proclamation that are unnatural. Many evangelistic events in the Church are unnatural situations for an unbelieving person to hear the Gospel. It does not make sense to come to a church revival or evangelistic rally anymore. We are not preaching to Jews who on a weekly basis gathered to hear teaching about the Bible. We are not preaching to Greeks who gathered to debate ideas in the pubic squares.

That is not to say that there are not logical and natural places for non-Christians to hear and consider religious ideas today. We are in an era of media and technology. People go to movies to hear about ideas, not lectures. They go to chat rooms and internet forums, not the town square. Perhaps we can creatively reformulate our proclamation efforts to encompass film, the internet, television, and other forms of media. As we do this, however, we need to remember to use existing contexts for proclamation. Even those churches that attempt to proclaim using media, often focus mostly on creating a Christian form of media that they hope non-Christians will use and thus encounter the Gospel. But, in the spirit of Paul in the Areopagus and synagogues, we need to go out into the places where ideas are being heard and considered already. That means going onto existing internet forums, talking to people in public coffeehouses, discussing existing movies, not simply creating our own. Expecting non-Christians to come to us to hear proclamation is silly. We must enter their context, just like Paul did. The opportunities for proclamation exist, and we just need to open our eyes to see them.

Power Evangelism

Power evangelism is the use of signs and wonders to show the power that the Holy Spirit administers through the Gospel. Paired with proclamation, this is by far the most common form of evangelism in the Book of Acts.

The main principle behind power evangelism is that signs and wonders open the door for proclamation evangelism and are fodder for persuasion evangelism. Power evangelism, like presence evangelism, is not complete. It must be accompanied by proclamation and persuasion. However, in the Book of Acts, it is very often the signs and wonders that create the opportunity for proclamation. As noted before, proclamation and persuasion need a set-up, and while there are many natural settings for this to happen, often in the Book of Acts contexts for proclamation are created supernaturally. This happens at Pentecost, when Peter preaches to the astonished crowds who had gathered because the Church was speaking in tongues.(Acts 2:1-14) The signs and wonders performed by the apostles brought “awe…upon every soul,” giving a hearing to the Gospel. (Acts 2:43) The healing of the crippled beggar draws a crowd, providing Peter an opportunity to preach. In turn this leads to the apostles’ arrest and more opportunities for proclamation. (Acts 3-4) It was because the religious leaders had seen “the man who was healed standing beside [the disciples], and they had nothing to say in opposition.”(Acts 4:14) When Paul raises Dorcas from the dead, it “became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.” (Acts 9:41-42) In Lystra, healing a crippled man leads to public proclamation of the Gospel. (Acts 14:8-18) When Paul and Silas are in the prison in Philippi, after a miraculous earthquake, they have a chance to share the Gospel with the jailer. (Acts 16:25-40) Over and over, miracles wrought by the Spirit lead to opportunities for proclamation. It is a tag team combination. Power evangelism draws people’s attention and drops their defenses, leaving space for the proclamation of the Gospel to find its mark. Without power evangelism, proclamation would not have happened. Without proclamation, power evangelism would have simply been a kind deed done by supernatural means.³ The two go together.

The contemporary Church has missed the mark big time on this one. Most of the Church is missing out on the power of the Spirit in evangelism. The miracle of calling and regeneration are acknowledged as works of the Spirit, but the power of God to heal bodies or perform miracles is missing for a vast majority of the Church. If miracles really do set up opportunities for evangelism, imagine what we are missing by not seeking miracles. Many would blame the lack of miracles in many Churches on theological convictions,⁴ but I would want to put the blame on our faith in slick marketing techniques and sales pitches to attract people to Gospel, rather than the wonder of an encounter with the Holy Spirit. We must reclaim the power of God to do miracles if we are to have the effectiveness of the early Church.

Persecution Evangelism

I would like to propose that another form of evangelism is pervasive in the Book of Acts, one that is easily ignored in contemporary American culture. One of, if not the primary vehicles for the spread of the Gospel in Acts is persecution. Persecution evangelism is the submission of believers to unjust suffering for the sake of witnessing and to embody the life, suffering and death of the Evangel himself, Jesus.

I would propose that a cyclical relationship exists between persecution and proclamation. Proclamation leads to persecution and persecution leads to proclamation. This can be seen vividly in the story of Peter and John healing the man in Solomon’s Poritico. The miracle leads to proclamation of the Gospel. Because of this proclamation, the authorities notice the apostles, leading to their arrest. (Acts 4:1-3) Proclamation results in persecution. And yet, when they are persecuted, it opens a door for them to preach to authorities. (Acts 4:7-2) Persecution opens doors for proclamation. In the same way, Paul’s preaching leads him to be stoned, (Acts 14:1-28) arrested, (Acts 16:16ff) mobbed, (Acts 19:21ff) and chased out of town. (Acts 17:1-15) The culminating example of persecution opening doors for evangelism is Paul’s arrest at the end of the book of Acts. Although it looks like a setback to the Gospel, this persecution results in Paul preaching to those gathered at the Temple, (Acts 21:37-22:21) the Council, (Acts 22:30ff) Felix, Festus, Agrippa, (Acts 25-26) and ultimately those in Rome. (Acts 28) Paul’s persecution was part of the Gospel spreading all the way to the capital of the Empire, and through his suffering, Paul gained a hearing for the Gospel in places he may have never reached otherwise.

It is sad that the contemporary Church in North America has missed this aspect of evangelism for so long. The church around the world has been experiencing the power of suffering in evangelism for a long time, but we seem to have missed it. We are far too comfortable sometimes. While we should not seek to be persecuted, and we need to pray that persecution subside for our brothers and sisters, we should not avoid suffering. Many of us act as if being at peace with society at large and well respected by the general public is a good thing for the Gospel. We fear rocking the boat or being bold enough to bring down the wrath of the establishment on us. Maybe, if we lost our fear of suffering, we might find our evangelism effective like it was in the early Church. And, perhaps, suffering is something we need to prepare for, even here in America. It may come sooner than we think. May the Kingdom prosper because of it, and the King find more subjects.

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¹ This is in contrast with the deep optimism of the Gospel which wrestles deeply with the reality of evil, and comes out on the other side with hope in the redemption which deals with evil in full.
² Or supernaturally imposed, as we will see in the “Power Evangelism” section.
³ Which would have been good in itself, but as far as evangelism goes, miracles and signs do not lead to conversion all by themselves.
⁴ Cessationism, dispensationalism, etc.