Movement 103

't{ey sinner! Read this simplistic, condescending tract that witl change your tife!"-
sad, isn't it? David Liggins argues that evangetism-with-integrity is possible.
But onty when we realise it is as much about listening as talking.
Counter-pofnt
T A coMMETEE tAsr weex I
suggested inviting a decidedly
post-Christian speaker. A college
chaplain who was there said that
the proposed speaker "would be no good for
our propaganda". "Propaganda?" I asked,
horrified at the word. "Well," she replied,
"apologetics. I think there is a real need for
good apologetics."
I pounced on her slip of the tongue
because I feel uncomfortable with
evangelism. Talking with people about
religion and its difficulties I can manage,
but reading those booklets designed for
the wavering or seelng an evangelistic
sketch always make me cringe. And I know
it's not just me.
Once upon a time, people used to hear
hymns like this one being sung without a
hint of irony:
"Can we, whose sou/s are lighted
With wisdom from on high,
Can we to men beni!,hted,
The lamp of life deny?"
Then, evangelising those living locally and
sending missionaries overseas would have
been seen as central to proper faith. After
all, the Jesus of Matthew's gospel did
instruct his disciples to go and make
disciples of all nations.
This type of activity is still on the
agenda for some; for instance, our CU put
on last year an event designed to convert
Jews to Christianity. But I expect few
Movement readers would be happy to
declare that those of other faiths or none
will roast in hell after they die. (Not many
evangelicals, even, hold that sort view
nowadays).
It's hard not to see all this stemming
from our preset cultural context:
postmodernity. We have realised that our
opinions are simply that our opinions are
simply that: our opinions are simply that:
our opinions, not certainties guaranteed
by some outside infallible source, like the
biblical canon or a tradition, however long
it may be. lt is this that makes us ask what
right we have to push our views on others.
Persuasion, though, is a hallmark of
postmodern culture. Advertising is
everywhere. lnstitutions have "mission
statements". Politics is characteristics by
empty rhetoric. This is the age of style and
spin.
But where matters of faith are
concerned aggressive marketing doesn't
seem honest. ls there really a simple core
to Christianity, a as those sketches and
booklets suggest? On the other hand, I
confess to feeling a little uneasy about the
ultra-postmodern approach of complete
indifference. Even if that's just the version
of Christianity I was brought up with
coming through, I'm still caught in a
dilemma - reconciling evangelism and
integrity.
I rrrnx I nlve FoUND soME cLUEs
to this problem in John Saxbee's book
LiberalEvangelism (SPCK, 1994). ln it, he
talks about the early twentieth-century
American composer Charles lves, whose
father was a bandmaster in a small
American town. George lves would arrange
with one of his colleagues for his band and
theirs to march past each other whilst the
two bands played different pieces. George
and his son appreciated the effect, and
Charles went on write revolutionary where
very different musical elements are heard at
the same time.
The point is that two tunes heard
together do not necessarily make a painful
cacophony. Talking with people, they say
things, we say things - it's precisely
because of the differences that together
we make something new and unique. lt is
only when one person stops listening and
tries to drown out the other that that
special quality, the counterpoint, is lost.
What does this mean in practice? We
should be reluctant to speak before
listening; instead we should be alongside
people when they need us, sometimes not
even saying anything but making clear by
our presence our interest and care.
Looking after people is a form of
evangelism (even though doing it with the
intention of persuading people that
Christianity is a good thing would be
appaling). A 'two tunes' approach to
evangelism points to a context-centred
preaching and bible discussion based on
open models, as a way of of opening
church activities to those who have no
sense of ownership over them.
Honesty, then, should come before
snappy slogans. And the humility glimpsed
in the story of a teacher crouching on the
floor to wash his disciples' feet should come
before the self-aggrandisement of the
soapbox and the microphone, we are
listening carefully, we might find that the
songs we sing during worship fit in well with
the sounds from the world outside ,aL?
David Liggins is convenor ot koinonia, an
Oxford group affiliated to SCM.
tr
lssue 103
Autumn 1999
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