What is the Problem With Evangelism Ministry? Part 3: Skewed perspective

 Where there is no guidance, a people falls,

    but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.  

Proverbs 11:14

   I have a great deal of respect for full time evangelists, street preachers, and missionaries. I also have a little bit of jealousy. I loved my time of life when I was able to do public ministry regularly. As I detailed before, however, ministry became idolatrous to me. It became at least synonymous with God,  if not above God in some cases for me. If I was not evangelizing regularly, I felt far away from God and disobedient to God. When I was going through the initial separation process with my now ex-wife, I continued to evangelize regularly because my wife was seen as the sinful one. I am guilty of portraying her that way, but my evangelism friends were all too happy to receive my reports. I was almost seen as a hero of sorts because I was being persecuted because I wanted to serve the Lord Jesus in evangelism, and all that time my now ex-wife and my kids were against it. When my ex-wife abandoned me and our marriage, I saw it as an opportunity to increase my 'ministry 'time and focus. God was trying to get a hold of me- not to evangelize more, but to mold me more into the image of Christ. I was not listening. Ministry was my god. 

     I believe that it is part of the curse; this idea that men are connected with what they do. When they do well at something, they are affirmed by it, and, of course, bury themselves in it. Just like a man who has an affair with a person at work, he is missing out on something at home- more than likely that thing is respect. At work, the man is seen as qualified, professional, adept at his profession, and people admire him for his success. This is true in para-church evangelism ministries. In fact, the leaders of these ministries are often idolized by the followers.  The men specifically feel respect from their friends in the ministry. Even as they are being reviled by those to whom they are preaching, (like the photo below, an evangelist with a pig's head on a stake getting 'persecuted' at a Muslim festival)that is interpreted as being a fantastic preacher hitting people with the truth. The respect factor grows. I had an affair; my mistress was ministry. It was like a drug that became better and better the more chaotic the situation became. I thrived on this chaos. If you look at the blogs and the websites of many preachers, they thrive on negative attention, portraying it as a badge of honor, and privileged persecution.

Preacher with pig's head at a Muslim festival

     Part of the problem with modern evangelistic ministries is that you are with a group of people who are all of the same mind going for the same goal. There is a positive aspect to this; The fellowship is fantastic when you are of this type of mindset. You can accomplish great things when you are of one mind. There is also very real danger in that they become more closed off to outside influence, even if that outside influence is the church or the spouse and family. I have witnessed men, myself included, who have no fear of what society and the world can do to them, and this places them in a dangerous spot. The attitude is that the end justifies the means. So they do not fear or respect police officers, judges, or what is worse, whom they perceive to be bad churches or church leaders. They even stop caring about what their family thinks. They do what they want to do because they believe that are doing it for God and anyone who stands against them is the anti-Christ. 

     This is the skewed perspective that I am speaking of, and have witnessed in many para-church evangelism ministries. Yes it is true that every Christian should be a missionary, proclaiming Christ and the good news at every opportunity that they get. However, as I pointed out before, this looks different for different people. They only common thing to evangelism ministry is the truthful, verbal proclamation of the Gospel. How people do it is irrelevant. However, to many para-church evangelistic ministries, the only way to do it is their way, whether it be open-air on a street corner or college campus or one to one in a public area. If you are not doing it in the way that they do it ( and in some cases, this includes the words and tone) it is not considered evangelism. In my case, when I recently backed away from regular open-air ministry to focus for a season on my local church ministry and my new wife and family, I was seen as a backslider and was believed by some to no longer be a Christian. 

     The skewed perspective is personified in the scriptures by the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a group of Godly men who desired to serve God, and believed the best way to do that and to demonstrate that was through a dedication to law keeping. Not only were they dedicated to keeping the Mosaic law, they were also dedicated to keeping their strict interpretation of enforcement. What this meant to them was a focus on the letter of the law and their interpretation of it. This evolved into law enforcement; they became keepers and enforcers of their interpretation of the law. They would literally watch every step on the Sabbath. They determined what was work and what was not on the Sabbath.  Any breaking of their interpretation of the law meant punishment which could include stoning. Jesus exposed them on many occasions for their hypocrisy in the keeping and the enforcement of laws. A great example of this is found in Jesus' words in Matthew 23: 

23 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.[c] 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

     We can observe this same attitude in para-church evangelism ministries. People who fear specific types of evangelism are seen as lesser Christians, or not Christian at all. My ex-wife was accused many times of being a weak Christian or a non-Christian because she struggled sometimes with my evangelism. To my shame, many times I did not stand up for her. I relished the fact that I looked good and she looked bad. In that way, and in many others, I was a failure as a husband, and I rejected Jesus' Lordship as I did not love my ex-wife as Jesus loved the church. I was not the only one. I hear countless stories of husbands elevating ministry to the place of the wife. That is, the love ministry more than they love their wife. They choose the mistress of ministry time and time again over their wives. And some even leave their wives- some emotionally and spiritually- and some even physically leave their wives. And when the evangelist leaves his wife- he is taking a bold stand for Jesus. If the non-evangelist wife leaves because she has been abandoned time and time again by her husband, she is seen as the sinner. The para-church evangelism ministry is doing damage to the Gospel when this happens. 

 23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,[a] and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi[b] by others.

     Additionally, there is a strange thing that happens with many street preachers. As they are preaching the law, there is a spiritual reality that happens. The law is meant to be the whole counsel of God, but it becomes focused on the Mosaic law, specifically the ten commandments. It is the law (the whole counsel of God) that converts the soul (Psalm 19:7). The ten commandments are the moral law of God, and is very effective in pricking the conscience of an unbeliever. What often happens is that the focus of the preaching is only on the law, or at least heavily focused on it. The spiritual reality is that the law condemns and kills (2 Corinthians 3:8, Galatians 3) - it cannot bring life- only the Spirit can bring life. The keeping of the law is a burden that could not be borne even by the Pharisees. With all the preaching of the law, the preaching becomes very legalistic. What is missing all too often is the good news of the Gospel. The law was kept by Christ on the behalf of the sheep- those who hear His voice, repent, and believe on Him alone. There is a spiritual pride that comes in laying down the law which is impossible for an unbeliever to attain to. Even those who have repented and believed on Christ struggle with and battle sin in this life, but they fail to communicate that (some even deny they sin). Standing on the pulpit, delivering an impossible standard of righteousness breeds pride. This is combined with the attention they get from the people they are preaching to, even though it is overwhelmingly negative. Added to this is the praise they get from their peers, and even some people within the church, and the para-church street evangelist begins to get full of pride. This pride is damaging first and foremost because God hates pride. It is also damaging because we cannot hear the reasoned voices of other believers who do not see things the same way that we do. 

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.[d] 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell[e] as yourselves.

      This is part and parcel with the skewed perspective that is created with focusing on one command in scripture and not having a balanced, well rounded, whole scripture approach. In other words, it is letting one area of the Christian life overrule all other areas of the Christian life. It is not allowing the whole of scripture shape your worldview and your walk in Christ. Many of the evangelists I know believe in preaching that is exegetical in nature, and will scream and yell when someone takes scripture out of context. Yet, I contend, that they are doing the same thing when it comes to the focus of their ministry. In many cases, it is completely out of balance. They focus on the go- and throw away the make disciples, baptize, and teach (Matthew 28:18-20) They focus on the preaching and proclaiming- which is very important, and many do a great job of that. But for those who only focus on evangelism, and using the law to evangelize (which is proper to do under the right circumstances:  1 Timothy 1:8-10) and not the important part of personal holiness, and looking after themselves, they are in real danger. And what is worse, many of their converts become just like them. 

     23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

Finally, as was stated in this article, evangelists that take part in para-church evangelism are very good at looking good to those with whom they are ministering with away from their everyday life. It is easy to put on a mask (the very definition of hypocrisy) when there is no one with you that walks in your life day to day or holds you biblically accountable. It is easy to have a good look on the outside, and for your words to be theologically accurate, but on the inside you are rotting away. You have left a trail of broken promises to your church and family. Most of all, you are portraying the Gospel in a false manner. 

   25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

     I am not saying that every evangelist in para-church ministry is a Pharisee, for this would be an unfair statement. There are many faithful men and women in the US and around the world who are bringing the truth of the Gospel to a world that needs it. However, there are pockets of men and women who are not overseen by a church who are right now misrepresenting the character and nature of the God they claim to serve. They are doing this through refusing accountability of an elder board, replacing them with other evangelism friends. They are refusing the accountability of spouse and family, preferring instead the praise (even the ridicule) of their peers and those to whom they are preaching.  They are abandoning the church, preferring their preaching friends or recorded sermons of pastors they admire. 

     The very worst thing that a skewed perspective brings is the thought that you are good with God just because you are proclaiming the Gospel in a bold way in the open air. We only become righteous through the finished work of Christ. This is accomplished by grace through faith that is not of ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is continued as we respond to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is assisted by being obedient  to the whole Word of God, which includes being in the Word, being in continued fellowship with a body of believers, and being in right relationships with others- specifically our spouse and children and those within the church (Ephesians 5). When any of these things is out of whack, and you still manage to preach in the open air, you need to examine yourself to see if you have a skewed perspective. If someone in your life- your pastor, your spouse, your children, and others who care question your perspective, then you likely do.