Taking Evangelism Off The Table

A SHOCKING SURVEY RESULT: In a recent Barna survey, nearly half of practicing Christian millennials said that evangelism is wrong.

- Matthew 28:18-20.

- After more than 20 years of being a pastor, it’s rare than I read anything that makes me say, “Whoa.” I’ve read too many “debased culture” stories and seen too many depressing survey results. This one, though, got my attention.

- Let’s define a few things so we’re all on the same page:

a. Evangelism is the act of a Christian sharing his or her faith with someone who is not a Christian. It’s central to our mission as the church. It’s the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

b. In this survey, the specific wording was “It is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.”

c. I’m not picking on millennial Christians.

- Other generations also held this belief, though in lower numbers.

- What millennials believe is largely a reflection of the culture in which they’ve been raised and that’s on us older generations for creating a dysfunctional and myopic culture.

d. There are other parts of the survey that push back on this finding. For instance, 96% of practicing Christian millennials agreed that “part of my faith means being a witness about Jesus” and 94% that “the best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to come to know Jesus.”

- This tells me that they “nearly half” number that I started with is not a well-thought-out belief, but rather a soft belief that is a reflection of the cultural values they have lived in.

WHAT'S THE CORRECT DEFINITION OF "TOLERANCE": “Everyone has the right to decide their own beliefs” or “Every opinion is equally valid.”

- As Baptists we enthusiastically endorse the first idea. Everyone has the right to believe the way they want.

- Historically, this is an important one for Baptists. At various points in church history, state churches tried to dictate what the mandatory religious beliefs were in certain countries. When Baptists stood in opposition to those beliefs, they were persecuted. And that’s why freedom of religion is one of the core beliefs that Baptists have.

- So we absolutely agree that everyone has the right to decide their own beliefs.

- In recent years, though, a wider definition of tolerance has become prominent in America – the second one I’ve shared above. It’s the idea that every opinion is equally valid.

- In this view, the facts don’t ultimately matter. In this view, logic doesn’t ultimately matter. Everyone’s opinion is equally valid and no one has the right to call any opinion “wrong.” Even if the facts don’t support it. Even if it doesn’t make sense. Why? Because if the person “feels it’s true,” that’s sufficient.

- You may think I’m exaggerating, but that is fully where we are today.

- One survey showed that a majority of Americans believed that one person could think one thing while another person thought a contradictory idea and they both could be right. That’s logically idiotic. Contradictory ideas both can’t be right!

- One way to put it is that today people think of matters of truth not in terms of mathematics but in terms of ice cream.

- With math, one answer is right and one is wrong. 2 + 2 = 4 means that 2 + 2 doesn’t equal 5.

- With ice cream, everyone can have an opinion that’s equally valid. You like vanilla? I like chocolate. And we’re both right!

- This is the way that people think of truth issues today – like ice cream. Yes, you believe one thing and I believe the exact opposite, but we’re both right!

- This idea plays right into the evangelism survey results that I shared earlier. In fact, it’s a direct manifestation of it.

- What is not only thought in culture, but is now seeping deeply into the church is this: I can believe what I want, but I have no right to think that I what I believe is true for someone else.

- This is a big deal and I want you to understand it.

- Let me speak myself as if I believed in this idea. I would think something like, “I believe in Jesus, but that doesn’t mean I have any right to impose that belief on someone else. Just because Jesus works for me doesn’t mean that I should tell someone else what to believe.” Obviously, this would negate any call to evangelism. Why would I feel called to share the good news about Jesus when I have no right to “impose my beliefs” on someone else?

- All of this is why we as Christians must enthusiastically live out the first definition of tolerance while simultaneously strongly resisting our culture’s push toward the second.