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Stone's Compassionate Evangelism
"Let me put it bluntly - Christian evangelism, as it is commonly understood and practices in North America today, neither lends itself to compassionate ministry nor, if it is consistent with itself, even coexists with compassionate ministry. ... we need to clarify the fundamental features of the prevailing evangelism consensus. The pedestal upon which the predominant evangelism consensus stands is a fundamental dualism between an immortal soul and a perishable body that houses this soul during its relatively short journey on earth. ...while this dualistic starting point has held tremendous sway in the history of Christian thought over the last twenty centuries, there is nothing especially biblical about it. Its origins lie in classical Greek philosophy and in a religious system know as 'gnosticism' that grew out of it and thrived during the first centuries of Christianity. ... With the advent of Christianity and its claim that God became incarnate in Jesus Christ, the conflict between Hebrew and Greek modes of thought became even further intensified. Here was the ultimate insult to a philosophical worldview that firmly believed the divine and the physical do not mix and that salvation consists of escape from the this world rather than its redemption. ... The natural by-product of this dualism is an understanding of the kingdom of God as essentially, private, other-worldly and ahistorical. The second point of consensus in evangelism today is its clear preference for personal salvation over corporate salvation. Communities don't get saved; only individuals do - at least in the only sense of the word 'saved' that finally matters. This view is, in many ways , a natural result of dualism, but it is also the by-product of an entrenched individualism that saturate North American culture. Salvation, in this view, is strictly a matter between the individual and God. ... A third feature of the prevailing consensus of evangelism is its view of human existence as a test rather than a constructive project. This feature builds on the prior two characteristics: dualism and individualism. ... Evangelism, in this view, is envisioned and carried out as an effort to get people to pass the test, enter the lifeboat, get their ticket, or the like. ... The fourth point of consensus of contemporary evangelism is its predominantly (if not exclusively) other-worldly or next-worldly understanding of salvation. ... Salvation is the guarantee of one's future; it is the determination here and now of where one's soul will spend eternity. Salvation is the avoidance of hell and the insurance of heaven. Again, this life is but a test to see where one will end up. ... Contemporary evangelism consensus hinges on the first four points and is an emphasis on the quantitative rather than the qualitative salvation of our individual souls. Then mass evangelism is our greatest priority, changing the quality of physical, social, and political life of relatively little importance. ... Compassionate evangelism is corporate as well as personal. It aims not only at the transformation of the individual, but also of that individual's community and world. ... It calls for repentance and conversion to a particular set of values, commitments, and allegiances re-presented in Jesus of Nazareth, rather than some private and personal salvation experience that requires no change in loyalties and can be obtained in a matter of seconds or minutes. Compassionate Ministry by Bryan P. Stone, Orbis, 1996, p. 143-6, 150-1. Stone is Associal Professor of Religion at Azusa Pacific University.
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