Just hearing the word evangelism often sparks a visceral reaction — the instinctive feeling that comes before we’ve thought it through. What’s yours? It’s usually shaped by past experiences, good or bad. But as we mature in Christ, we’re invited to move beyond gut reactions so we can learn and grow.
It’s a passion of mine to help people see evangelism more clearly, which helped inspire our new video series The Middle Sister Project.
We need better language for mature conversations. If you say “evangelism” meaning something positive, but I hear it as negative, we’re already talking past each other. Apples and oranges. So let’s coin two new words, keeping their Greek roots:
Evevangelism – good sharing of good news
Dysevangelism – bad sharing of good news
Now we can talk.
People often ask, “Is evangelism ethical?” Australian culture tends to say no — it’s taboo to interfere with someone’s deep convictions unless they ask first.
But if you know something that could save a life and don’t share it, is that ethical? If smoke is coming from your neighbour’s house, do you wait for permission to help?
This isn’t really a paradox once we have our two new words.
Evevangelism is driven by genuine love and concern for the good of the other. It seeks to do the most good with the least harm. Evevangelism shares Christ’s message in a Christlike way, bearing the fruit of the Spirit. (Gal 5) (Here’s a great sermon or small group series: Loving Evangelism, Joyful Evangelism, Peaceful Evangelism, Patient Evangelism … Self-controlled Evangelism!)
While some will always resist even evevangelism, dysevangelism is what our neighbours and wider culture are allergic to: pushy, arrogant, results-driven, pressured, guilt-inducing. Dysevangelism is dysfunctional — it does more harm than good.
But it’s not what we’re about. As Paul wrote: “We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Cor 4) He also reminds us that we carry treasure in jars of clay — we won’t always get it right. Still, we know evevangelism from dysevangelism.
So the answer to dysevangelism is not silence. Silence is its own form of dysevangelism. The answer is to pursue evevangelism.
*Andrew Turner is Director of Crossover for Australian Baptist Ministries.
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Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
