I’ve not heard the concept of ‘one-word evangelism’ often presented. One verse evangelism, yes, but ‘one-word evangelism’ would seemingly be much harder to quantify. Is it, though? I think, having considered what I’m about to talk about, that one-word evangelism isn’t that difficult, at least in theory, to understand and engage with.

I once heard Dr Mark Baddeley from the Queensland Theological College speak on the idea of organisational worldviews. Dr Baddeley’s presentation was exploring why, even in a Christian educational environment, students don’t engage with the Gospel. I’d like to expand on the ideas he presented and examine them in the context of our evangelism, and people’s lukewarm or flat-out rejection of the Gospel.

He stated that there are three predominant issues arising with students and their relation to the gospel, and I believe they can be applied across the many contexts and circumstances in which we find ourselves with an evangelical opportunity. I don’t believe social media helps our evangelistic cause at times, as rather than preaching the Gospel we find ourselves drawn into the echo-chambers of others, which is quite possibly one of the greatest wastes of time there is.

So thanks in large part to our presentation of the Gospel (Israel Folau “You’re all going to hell…” – he may or may not be true, but I’ll come to this idea of truth soon), what seem to be the stumbling blocks?
1. Moralism – there is no direct sense of the Gospel. I saw this with the plebiscite on same- sex marriage. The number of Christians who argued against same-sex marriage based on the supposed immorality of the presumed depravity of this lifestyle was actually quite astounding. Using the Bible and quoting Levitical law to people who a) don’t hold the Bible to be authoritative, and b) question the legitimacy and factuality of Levitical law, seems to me to be a fruitless exercise. All we are doing is playing moral arbiter, deciding that only we hold the keys to what should be considered a moral lifestyle. And what’s more, we tend to be doing all of this while living lifestyles contrary to the directions given in the Sermon on the Mount. We own large flat screen TV’s, we check Facebook before reading our devotions in the mornings, we eat/drink too much, we’re more enthusiastic when watching our sporting teams play than we are in our churches on Sunday mornings, we expect to get more out of the church than we are prepared to put in etc. So not only are we playing the gatekeeper to all morality, we’re doing so from a place of hypocrisy. “I’m straight, therefore I’m obeying Levitical law, so therefore I’m better.” Surely we need to offer a far more nuanced perspective and presentation of the Gospel than this.

2. The Gospel that we present is too safe in an attempt to be inoffensive rather than truthful. John MacArthur says this:

Many people prefer to speak of all-inclusive love, compromise, ecumenism and unity. To the modern religious person those are the only “doctrines” worth defending, and they are the doctrines to which every conflicting doctrine must be sacrificed.

Our Gospel must be offensive. Jesus himself said not to think that he had come to bring peace, but a sword. He came to set a man against his father, daughter against her mother, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. Jesus said that our enemies will be within our own houses. We are told that whoever loves their father, mother, son or daughter more than Him, and those not willing to take up their cross and follow Him are simply not worthy.

3. We actually try too hard to bring all things back to Jesus. Now this might sound counter- intuitive, and you may well be thinking that surely we need to bring all things back to Jesus. The context Dr Baddeley used for us was a mathematical one. He explained that there is no ‘Christian’ way either to teach or to complete the mathematical equation of 1+1. When I go running at a Park Run there is no Christian way, as in no specific biblical instruction nor any direct teaching of Jesus, on how to run 5km. Let’s get even more mundane; there’s no ‘Christian’ way for me to refill my car with petrol. There just isn’t.

Titus 2:1-10

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober- minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour.

Verses 1 through 10 of this book give us clear indications of how to live real life, in the real world, in a real way. There are four groups of people covered in these verses, and we all fall into one of those categories:
* Older men: be sober-minded, dignified, have self-control, be sound in faith, love, and steadfastness.

* Older women: be reverent in behaviour, don’t slanderers or drink to excess, teach what is good and train young women.
* Young women: love your husbands and children, have self-control, purity, work at home, display kindness, and submit to your husband that the word of God may not be reviled (be careful here. There is a specific context in which submission occurs. It only occurs so that the word of God may not be reviled. No other reason. This is absolutely not a license for accepting abuse of any kind on any level, as that behaviour is not only contrary to the word of God, but it is abhorrent).
* Young men: be self-controlled.

I’m not sure whether the young men get off lightly or not with that instruction; be self- controlled. Speaking as a former ‘young’ man myself, I have a vision of Paul writing this and getting to the young men part, writing something, scribbling it out, writing something else, scribbling it out, pausing with great intent, concentration, and anguish, and then simply writing ‘be self-controlled’.

So when someone encounters something they’re unfamiliar with, there are three things that are asked of this unfamiliar context:
* Firstly, is it true? Is this thing (idea/philosophy/worldview/perspective/etc) verifiably and demonstrably objectively real?
* Secondly, is it good? Does it promote flourishing on a personal and societal level? Is it good for me/others/society?
* Thirdly, is it beautiful? Is it attractive, or is it repulsive? Does it draw me in, or push me away?

Up until recently, probably prior to society’s infiltration, acceptance, and subsequent strangulation by postmodernist philosophies, we attempted to understand firstly whether something was good, and secondly whether it was true. If something was good, then true, the implication was that it was beautiful. However, today’s society seeks to identify firstly something’s personal goodness (for LGBTQ etc), and secondly its beauty; in other words how it makes me feel. If it’s good for me, therefore it’s beautiful, and therefore it’s true to me. Objective truth has been removed from the discussion. We don’t care about truth, and we have embraced dialectic systems of logic which are contradictory – you can be both male and female, and you can decide. I once heard this transformation described as of thought through examining our former and our current interpretations of both egalitarianism and elitism. Egalitarianism, as in that all people are created equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. We would hold to elitism of thought, that we do not believe all ideas are equal. Some ideas are superior to others. However, through our removal of a ‘truth’ we have reversed this. We have made an elitism of people, and an egalitarianism of ideas. What we must understand is that the Bible and the Gospel are all three; good, true, and beautiful. St Thomas Aquinas writes that the order should be beauty, goodness, and truth. Is something beautiful? If so, it must be good. Why is this good for me? Because, God. Now there’s a little challenge for us. Live our lives presenting the Gospel as beautiful, good, and true.

I think that in order to understand this concept of one-word evangelism, the Gospel must form the centre of all we do. Firstly, what God has done for us supersedes what happens in our lives. The Gospel gives us security outside of the good and bad that life throws at us, causing us to have a focus on something outside of ourselves. Secondly, the Gospel gives dignity to real life. The Gospel is not an escape from life and the world, but a transformation in our lives in the world. We must bring a Gospel-perspective to all we do.

See, Dr Baddeley suggested that there were three what he termed ‘off-ramps’ for students failing to understand in and of themselves, and three arising from our presentation of the Gospel. I’d extend these to everyone outside of the Christian faith, and not limit the poor presentation of the Gospel to teachers in Christian schools.

Firstly, there is an ignorance that is prevalent with regards to God. What people don’t understand is that God exists outside of our thinking of Him. God doesn’t exist because I think He does. God exists therefore I think, and reason etc. Perhaps it’s an Australian thing, but I’m sure that many non-Christians are happy for me that I find satisfaction and happiness in God. They’re happy for me that God exists because I want/need him to exist. Secondly, the perceived cost of following Christ is too great. Not only are there too many rules and someone would obviously have to become bigoted, the perceived social cost of admitting to being a follower of Christ is becoming too great. Think what you like of Israel Folau and what he wrote, but I believe this is the first case in Australia of someone losing their job for merely quoting the Bible.

Thirdly, following Christ doesn’t fit with their life goals and desires. They don’t have the time or would rather spend the time doing something else, therefore don’t really care about the Gospel message and are just not interested in it.

What about our presentation of the Gospel? Our evangelism? Surely, as professing and practicing Christians, everything I do points to the goodness, truth, and beauty of the Gospel? Well, the effectiveness of my evangelism depends on the wholeness of my walk. Not my personal wholeness, that’s different, but the wholeness of my walk. Habakkuk chapter 3; the first 16 verses are basically extolling the majesty, the justice, the greatness, and the glory of God. But listen to what he writes in verses 17 through 19 –

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.

Again, hear what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 –

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

The effectiveness of our evangelism greatly depends on our ability to join the dots for those observing us, the people wondering why anyone would possibly still believe this stuff. Or wondering who this Jesus is. Or wondering what a Christian is. They look at us and think to themselves “Aha. That’s what Christianity is.” It’s not about rules and ticking key performance indicators during our day; rather it’s about the relationships we have with people, and the positive influence we can be.

How did I treat or respond to the:
* Waitress who was late in bringing my meal?
* Telemarketer who phoned me at an inconvenient time?
* JW who knocked on my door?
* Person who cut me off in traffic?
* Person answering the phone when I have a complaint due a problem they didn’t cause? * Politician whose views don’t align with my own? Or in my case, any politician, car sales person or real estate agent.

The effectiveness of our evangelism depends on our wisdom in knowing which battles to fight, and which mountains we are prepared to die on, and our ability to sell our lives dearly when we do. Quoting an apologist who once visited Angola Prison in Louisiana, where 80% of the inmates are serving life without parole. In a visit to death row – where in every cell a

Bible is placed – and talking with an inmate there about how he was going, the inmate responded with

“If this Bible was in my high school it probably wouldn’t have been needed here in my cell.”

Is it, while sitting in my position of relative privilege, worth tweeting that certain groups of people are going to hell?

Titus 2:11-15

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Verses 11 through 15 demonstrate the truth, the goodness, and the beauty of the Gospel. The grace of God has appeared, bring salvation for all people. The realisation and acceptance that I cannot pay for this with myself. The wonderful, humbling, awesome, tear- inducing redemption of Jesus Christ – the pure – paying for me – the impure. I don’t need to worry about the circumstances in my life, as I have salvation. That’s where my hope is; the appearing of my great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is only by the grace of God that I can observe things of the world and have the capacity to avoid them. It is only by the grace of God that I can display self-control, uprightness, and Godliness within all aspects of my life. By the grace of God I am to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility I am to count others more significant than myself. Let me not only look to my interests, but also to the interests of others.

“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

We are commanded to go and preach the Gospel, making disciples of all nations. But how do we do this using the concept of ‘one-word evangelism’? Surely our calling, as publicly professing Christians, is to soak real life in grace. When our neighbour/colleague/family member/whoever looks at us and asks us how we:

* Deal with mild inconveniences through to hugely tragic circumstances with dignity, poise and self-control, and
* Temper our achievements and significant personal celebrations with selflessness and humility….

In fact, when our neighbour/colleague/family member/whoever examines all aspects of our lives and asks us why we are the way we are, we can answer using only one word: Jesus.