Defining Evangelism

1           Introduction

The act of evangelism is one that is often confused with missions and preaching. In this post I have attempted to draw a distinction among these terms for the purpose of removing this confusion and defining what is meant by each term.

1.1         Missions vs Evangelism

To most people “evangelism” and “missions” are interchangeable with little or no confusion. However there is some significant difference between the two. Generally speaking Missions is the means to outwardly express Christianity. It describes various activities of the church that aim at bringing people to God through Jesus Christ.  Social interventions, relief and aid programs of the church may form part of Christian Missions as long as the ultimate goal is to help the beneficiaries develop a relationship with God. Based on this evangelism is only an activity of Christian Missions and it does not include the other activities of missions.

1.2         Preaching vs Evangelism

There is a thin line between preaching and evangelising that too often people who set out to evangelise only end up preaching. How?

There are so many definitions for preaching. Drawing from a couple of them I love to define preaching as the deliberate act of delivering a public discourse or address, based on the Word of God (Holy Bible), by the man filled with the Holy Spirit. According to John Stott preaching is audible and active (Stott, 2013); there is no “silent” preaching.

In a similar way Evangelism is the deliberate act of publicly delivering the Gospel (which is inadvertently based on the Bible), by the man filled with the Holy Spirit. The main difference lies in the fact that Evangelism is the public act of proclaiming or announcing the Gospel (Hubbard, 1918). The question that springs to mind immediately is one related to the nature of the public discourse in preaching and its difference from the Gospel of Evangelism.

This is not a simple question to answer but for the aim of this document let us consider this: Preaching addresses societal, moral, cultural, religious and spiritual issues, among others, using the Bible as standard and basis for correction and encouragement. Some of the good sermons I have heard had titles like “Making good of your marriage” (addressing an issue of marriage), “Academic excellence; the example of Samuel” (addressing an issue of academics), “knowing Jesus; knowing you” (addressing an issue of Christian spirituality). Thus it is safe to conclude that the Gospel falls within the range of foci for preaching. That said when we limit the focus of preaching to the Gospel (not to be confused with the canonical Gospels) it becomes evangelism.

Some have argued that when preaching is taken outside the confines of the church auditorium it becomes evangelism. I strongly disagree on the basis that it is the message that differentiates the acts, not the location.

1.3         Evangelism and the Gospel

Gospel is an old English rendering of the Koine Greek word εὐαγγέλιον (transliterated as euangelion or evangelion). It literally means “good news”. Incidentally this is the root word of Evangelism. When the word, εὐαγγέλιον, is broken down into its etymological derivatives (εὔ = “good”, ἀγγέλλω = “I bring a message”) it literally translates into “I bring good news”.

In ancient Greek culture “good news” may refer to any news that has good bearing on the hearer (or hearers). The Jews had always looked forward to the appearing of the Messiah who will restore the kingdom of God as a solution to the devastation of Greco-Roman rule. The Apostle Mark records that Jesus started his earthly ministry “proclaiming the good news of God [that] the time has come… [and] the kingdom of God has come near.” (Mark 1:14-15). Though the Jews did not realise it Jesus of Nazareth was that long awaited Messiah and there was no good news greater than the news of his birth and presence. The teachings of Jesus concluded that the long awaited kingdom of God is available in the one who believes in Jesus Christ. Hence the early apostles that went round proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah considered themselves heralding the only “good news” of the time. The first four books of the Bible (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John) that focused on the personality and works of Jesus were, thus, called the Gospels. Over the years, through the influence of the church, “The Gospel” came to refer to the teaching and revelation of Jesus Christ as Saviour.

1.4         What then is Evangelism?

When we say evangelism is the public proclamation of the Gospel it only means that evangelism is the public teaching and revelation of Christ as Saviour, with the primary aim of bringing the hearers into a relationship with God.