Evangelism: State Of The Church & A Radical Gospel

“The main stimulus for the renewal of Christianity will come from the bottom and from the edge, from sectors of the Christian world that are on the margins.”

― Alan Hirsch, The Permanent Revolution: Apostolic Imagination and Practice for the 21st Century Church

I. Introduction

Let me start by saying that I really suck at evangelism! No matter what “gift” profiling test I take, it is always at the bottom of the list. So what gives? Am I really that bad at it? Or is the Church looking for a certain kind of evangelism that is not in my gifted identity?

Either way, a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the Advance Summit here in Calgary, thankfully with the support of my church family at First Alliance. Not only did it give me the chance to explore my understanding of evangelism within the disabled context, I was also able to catch up with and see my old friend, Alan Hirsch.

I must admit to being a little uncomfortable there throughout the summit. Yes, I was the only one there who was in a wheelchair. But that wasn’t it. Sadly, that is a common reality I’ve experienced for most of my life in Church leadership events. (Perhaps that says something about evangelism and the inclusive systemic struggles with ableism in the Church.) No, my uncomfortability came from listening to some of the old language around the table discussions I was a part of, which for the most part seemed to focus on getting the unchurched into the church and converting the masses to a membership status. It was like nothing had changed culturally since my early childhood in the 80’s and 90’s which for me, was not good news.

That is not to say the summit was a wash. It simply framed my being there with a reality in knowing that radical evangelism for and as disabled people is not about increasing church membership. Radical evangelism begins by us embodying the marks and life of Jesus amidst the ableist social struggles and people God has placed us within.

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To explore the state of the Church’s evangelism, perhaps a key question we might ask ourselves is: If the marks of our evangelism do not create space for disabled people inclusively, enter the daily lives and activities they are a part of, address the oppression and injustices they struggle against both politically and socially, and acknowledge the presence, wisdom, and strength of Jesus within them, is it truly the gospel?

Ultimately, authentic evangelism is radicalized when we are willing to see its markers placed amidst the people who are at the bottom, the edges, and the greatest margins of our social communities and not within the membership or attendance of Sunday morning church services. It has been my experience that this description fits more often than not, with physically and cognitively disabled people of today.

II. Evangelism Starts with Embodying Jesus

I grew up in an Anglican church community while going to a Catholic elementary school. Evangelism was taught to me through two processes: the first was the school catechism. And the second was more an evangelical system of repentance for sin, acceptance of Jesus as embodied in the church leadership and authority, and sacramental participation. The idea of relational and emotional connection to daily life outside of church activities and service seemed distant at best; if not dismissed as irrelevant with the label of being secularist. Marge Piercy describes my experience perfectly saying:

“I have no connections here; only gusty collisions, rootless seedlings forced into bloom, that [run the risk of soon] collapsing.”

It is probably why I soon left the church after my spinal cord injury when I was 15 years old and found myself struggling in a new identity of being disabled and in a wheelchair. The Church simply lacked relevance to my ability to fully participate and be part of my life experience with suffering in marginalization.

Perhaps that is why Alan Hirsch’s words came like a breath of fresh evangelistic air when he described discipleship through a three step movement that began not with church attendance, but in the daily life encounter with an embodied present Jesus.

“If we are going to be genuinel