BLOG. 9/19/13. PART II: A DIS-EVANGELIZED CHURCH?

In my last Blog I raised the phenomenon of the possibility of a church being dis-evangelized. Be aware that this always takes place quite unconsciously on the part of a particular Christian community—it is a drift back into darkness under the guise of religious Christianity (as designated by Bonhoeffer). Let me give you a couple of experiences out of my own experience.

First there was a church, which was made up of folk who had retired into that lovely town from successful careers in business, and had been members and leaders of prominent churches in the Northeast and Mid-west. Great folks. Faithful participants. Good friends. I had been zooming along preaching from the Book of Acts, about how the church was growing exponentially in those early days and how the word went everywhere, and folk were being converted daily. Everyone in the congregation thought this was great.

But then … I thought it would be purposeful to let my folk experience conversations in which they shared their own faith and its meaning for themselves with each other. Thereupon I asked them to find a conversation partner or two near them and for ten minutes, or so, do exactly that. Some few did it with great excitement, but for the most part there was a combination of consternation, affront that I would propose such an exercise, and a few expressions of downright anger at me for embarrassing them.

Question: How can such a basic exercise of the Christian life as that of sharing “a reason for the hope” that is in us (cf. I Peter 3:15-16) be an embarrassment? Answer: Dis-evangelization, or claiming to be a disciple of Jesus but missing the meaning and thrill of the faith to which he has called us.

Second example: My wife and I were visiting a theological seminary, and were invited to a gourmet dinner with two of our good faculty friends at one of their homes. The three of us ‘clergy-types’ were zooming all over the place doing theological and professional talk, as is our wont to do—when my dear wife, who listened more than she talked, at a break when our conversation stopped for a moment, leaned across the table and asked: “Marion, how did you come to know Jesus Christ?” His mouth dropped open, and there was a long pause, and then he smiled and said: “Do you know, Betty, I’ve been a tenured professor at this seminary for years, and that is the first time anybody ever asked me that question. Isn’t that revealing?” And then he proceeded to tell her about his response to Jesus that had brought him to teach New Testament there. That was one episode, among many, that persuaded me that that same seminary was basically dis-evangelized, or a mission field in itself. It had drifted back into the darkness.

And the third, also about a seminary: I was a regular visitor to one of our denominational seminaries, and always joined the seminary community in their daily chapel services. It dawned on me after several of these visits, and services led by students, that they were liturgically quite impressive—except for the fact that the name of Jesus was never uttered. How to have a worship service and inadvertently forget Jesus, the reason for it all? Dis-evangelization, a Satanic wile.

When that flame of passion for Jesus and the gospel grows dim, and nobody seems to notice, or when a congregation gets caught up in other (in themselves) good church agendas … then the dis-evangelization has done its work. Yes, when a community is no longer passionate about the mission and message of God in Christ, then the dominion of darkness reasserts itself.

Tragic, but all too common.