Two Ways of Doing Missions & Evangelism
The Roman Way: The Roman model for reaching people is:
· Present the Christian message;
· Invite them to decide to believe in Christ and become Christians;
· If they decide positively, welcome them into the church and its fellowship.
The Roman model seems very logical to us because most American evangelicals are scripted by it. We explain the gospel, they accept Christ, we welcome them into the church! Presentation, Decision, Assimilation. What could be more logical than that?
The Celtic Way:
You first establish community with people, or bring them into the fellowship of your community of faith.
Within fellowship, you engage in conversation, ministry, prayer, and worship.
In time, as they discover that they now believe, you invite them to commit.
In the Celtic model people are allowed to belong before they believe. The Celtic model reflects the adage that, for most people, “Christianity is more caught than taught!”
Most people experience the faith through relationships, they
encounter the gospel through a community of faith. Becoming a Christian involves a process that takes time.
The contention has been made that the Celtic way is more effective with postmodern Western populations than the Roman way. The ongoing contagious common life of a congregation that permits people to discover faith for themselves, at their own pace, now appears to be much more influential than traditional forms of evangelism.
We at Wellspring have embraced the Celtic way. In spite of any perceived “dangers” we believe that the Celtic way is the best way to impact people in our postmodern world.
Here is the rub. To be effective with the Celtic way we must be a “safe” place. We must be a people who allow others room to question, doubt, be angry and believe things we don’t. Most people I talk to aren’t interested in talking to a Christian because most Christians refuse to dialogue. So how can we provide a safe place and at the same time share what we believe without being offensive or condescending?
Is Wellspring a safe place? Would you feel comfortable bringing someone with different views to one of our group meetings? Why?
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5 comments:
I'd say we're safER than many, but still, I must say that I hesitated to invite a friend of mine who I felt was wanting a place to talk about spiritual things. Maybe he didn't want to talk about Jesus, or becoming a Christian, but I think he wanted to talk about something spiritual and he felt he didn't have a place to belong. I sensed that by saying he felt like he didn't have anywhere to belong (to much of a 'sinner' for religious people and too deep for the partiers that don't really care about deeper meaning in life) that he was asking - is the place you have safe for me too? Will people judge me because of ________? All I could say is that my community believes that diversity is good, we welcome people with different beliefs, but I can't guaruntee that others would value him because some of the things he thinks is important. I told him that I could be wrong - but I'm not in control of others and some people might struggle with the way he lives his life - they might feel like they need to fix him - get him to change somehow.
Well spring is made up of people who think differently than most 'church people', but I wonder if we could have people that are 'way out there' amongst us without feeling threatened or like we need to fix them? I hope we can - because my friend needs a place to belong. Homelessness is a terrible thing - it's awful to feel like you don't have any place that really fits you - or rather that allows you to really be yourself- wellspring has been that for me.
I've definitely felt comfortable inviting friends who might feel like "outsiders" elsewhere to the Wellspring worship services. Since I don't attend the Thursday night gatherings and they are much more intimate and involve more voices speaking their minds ... I'd have to think about it. I do hope that we can be that safe place for Rodney's friend. But the desire to "fix" people is awfully strong, isn't it? Wow ... good questions.
The danger is equating a "safe place" with a "safe Answer". There is danger in the Gospel (the Answer) because it calls us to do what does not come naturally to us...live Godly lives. In fact, it calls us to do the unnatural through the supernatural empowerment of God in the Holy Spirit. There is perhaps greater danger in that the Gospel tells us what none of us like to hear...that we are a broken and corrupted people and we NEED TO BE FIXED (sorry KC). What we too often forget is that you or I cannot fix someone...real mending and transformation comes through "Dr. Jesus". We are just His agents that help direct people toward Him.
Just something to ponder...
hmmm i guess i missed it...karen, when you said "the desire to 'fix' people is awfully strong" were you referring to God's fixing or our own attempt to mend our brokeness...and each other's?
Thanks for asking, Juli. I was speaking of how we often want to fix people ourselves and immediately rather than allowing God to work within a person.
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