We Value Evangelism

That was the title of the sermon this past Sunday, a message in a series devoted to seven Core Values originally articulated a few years ago.

My difficulty with such a statement is always that I'm not sure just what it means, what it actually communicates. While really just a simple idea of proclaiming or heralding the Good News, Evangelism often seems to mean something more programatic, more targetted, more results oriented when used by some people.

The results oriented, targetted, warfare type language that seems heavily correlated with talk of Evangelism has always left me a bit cold. No doubt it relates to my own personal exposure to Evangelists as a child and adolescent -- an exposure that nearly destroyed my faith in God in favour of a faith in religion.

Curiously enough, while still recalling the whole Core Values sermon series, I encountered an article by Spencer Burke entitled Swords Into Plowshares, which really resonates with me. Even though I don't garden, his gardening metaphor for evangelism seems so much more appropriate than the warrior metaphor.

Just when I start feeling all alone, God sends some part of the one holy catholic church to remind me that He still has many people in many places who hear His voice. Who knows, perhaps that feeling of aloneness is what God is nudging me to give up this year for Lent.