
James Emery White wrote in “Rethinking Evangelism,” that “the Bible challenges us to contextualize our message for the sake of evangelistic impact. Brodie points out that “we are tasked to deliver that message both by Jesus and every other apostle in no uncertain terms.” But it’s helpful to remember, as Dr. The same digital culture that opens doors can be closed to someone who is deemed “intolerant” for preaching uncomfortable truth. Evangelists need to compete with commercials.Īnd we’re thin-skinned these days. Modern Westerners are likely to skim off the foamy bits, too impatient to dig for the truth. Self-help authors, politicians, companies that sell diet pills, and other organizations are also evangelizing. It’s no easier to spread the word - consumers receive all kinds of messages from the internet, not just the Good News. Paul and the others lost their liberty and, in most cases, their lives for the privilege of sharing the gospel. Sharing the gospel in the West isn’t generally dangerous or arduous, at least not for the average person. But modern North Americans evangelize using various media or they meet with the lost over coffee two blocks from home.

Believers still go into places where paganism or atheism has taken hold, meeting urbanites and tribes, sharing Jesus with them all. Paul was evangelizing in the Middle East after all.

That’s partly to do with modernization and partly a cultural matter. Clearly, he was a highly effective evangelist since modern Christians still use those letters to teach people who Christ is, but methods of evangelism have changed. His only other means of sharing the Good News was by letter.

Paul went where his feet or a ship would take him. Does evangelism look different in the 21st Century? What Is the Meaning of Evangelist? “Evangelism means preaching, announcing, or otherwise communicating the gospel, our salvation,” wrote Jessica Brodie in “ What Is Evangelism?” The first apostles’ evangelical work involved traveling from town to town across the Roman Empire, telling people about Jesus.
