Promoting the Gospel: A practical guide to the biblical art of sharing your faith

by John Dickson

Christian Education Publications Publication 2005 Softcover 9 x 6 x .9

Genres: Evangelism, Christian, Christianity

234 pages, paperback

Published January 1, 2005

About the author

John focuses on the big ideas that have shaped our world.

His journey is an eclectic one. Starting out as a singer-songwriter, he now works as a writer, speaker, historian of religion (focusing on early Christianity and Judaism), media presenter, Anglican minister, and director of a multi-media think tank.

With an honours degree in theology from Moore Theological College Sydney, and a PhD in history from Macquarie University, John is also an Honorary Fellow of the Department of Ancient History (Macquarie), and teaches a course on the Historical Jesus at the University of Sydney (Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies) .

John is a founding director of the Centre for Public Christianity(CPX), an independent research and media company promoting informed discussion about social, ethical and religious issues in modern life.

His book “The Christ Files: How Historians Know what they Know about Jesus” was made into a four-part documentary which aired nationally on Channel 7 in 2008. Now a best-selling DVD, it also won the 2008 Pilgrim Media award (see www.thechristfiles.com.au). His more recent Life of Jesus also aired on Channel 7 in 2009 (see www.lifeofjesus.tv).

Reviews

[David Sarkies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another 'How to share your fauth' book
23 November 2011 (Sydney)

Well, here I am, off on another trek to Sydney, though it will probably be my last for a while due to commitments elsewhere. Anyway, being stuck in this plane, squeezed between the hull and another passenger sort of gives me an opportunity to write another review of a book that I read quite a while ago but am unlikely to read again. The main reason being is that it was written by John Dickson and my opinion of Dickson has nose dived since I went to one of his lectures where his main point was that Stalin was an atheist, Pol Pot was an atheist, and Mao Ze Dung was an atheist and they were horrible people, therefore all atheists are horrible people. However when it comes to Christians the response is that while they may have done horrible things in the past, they either weren't actually Christians, or if they were then he is sincerely sorry for their actions. Honestly, not only is it semantics, but you simply cannot paint a whole group of people based on the actions of a few (though that doesn't stop the mainstream media).

Anyway, this book is about spreading Christianity, something that Christians really like to do. Actually, the main reason that I read it was because it wasn't so much suggested by the church that I was attending, but it was strongly recommended, to the point that it was handed out to all of the Bible study groups and we were all expected to read it, and to discuss it. Honestly, this is the sort of Christianity that pretty much repels me – in fact it repels quite a lot of people – but the response is inevitably that the reason that they are repelled is not because we are trying to ram our opinions down their throat and refusing to accept an alternate point of view, but rather because they are offended by the gospel, and this is to be expected. Pretty convenient I think, though quite a lot of cults actually work like that.

Okay, when I read it I actually didn't find it as bad as I was going to expect it to be, namely because there are a lot of churches out there that expect us to pretty much only talk about God and not actually be real people. In fact they simply seem to want to create an army of proselytisers to go out and grow their churches rather than actually having us go out a live the gospel. You see, that is the thing – a lot of Christians seem to act like a bunch of marketers and advertisers. In fact they seem to want us to all be salespeople, and the more people we tell about Jesus the better we are. The thing is that not all of us are salespeople, and we do our own things our own way.

Take a friend of mine for instance – she is an advocate for refugees. Sure, she spends time visiting them in detention centres, but she also lobbies the government to change their harsh stance on their treatment of people seeking asylum. In fact I have seen whole churches change their tact with regards to refugees when they actually met, and spent time with them. In fact they discovered that there were quite a number of them who had literally become sick of Islam and were seeking other options (which actually made them wanted criminals in their home countries). The thing is that the gospel is more than just proselytising, it is actually about caring for the disadvantaged, befriending those who are isolated and alone, and standing up for those who have no voice. In fact, as it turns out, atheists seem to do a much better job than many Christians that I know.

I guess this is the curse of middle class Christianity. They send workers into universities to reach out to those who are going to be the movers and shakers of the world, so that they can actually spread their influence that way. However, very few of them tread the path of people like John Wesley. Many of the pastors that I know have nice and cushy positions in churches in the wealthier suburbs of Australia, but the working class suburbs and the slums are simply left to rot. In fact many of the churches in such suburbs struggle to actually find full time staff because, well, it isn't as glamorous, and well paying, as the church at the otherside of town.

Sure, Dickson does actually make some good points here, and also this is a Christian book designed for Christians, so it is going to have a pretty limited audience. However, I personally don't think it really goes far enough. On the other hand, I feel that it doesn't confront us in the way that it really should confront us. Christians want easy targets – intellectuals, working people, professionals – they don't want to touch the drug users, the working class, the unemployed, or the disabled – which, ironically, were the type of people that Jesus spent the bulk of his time with. The problem is, that Christians are likely to face more opposition from the intellectual and professional class than those who are actually seeking a way out of their own private hell. This was something Wesley realised, and he was very, very successful in that regard.

[Chris Wray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a timely and useful book that seeks to move our thinking on personal evangelism beyond pre-planned, set and learned presentations. While these courses and summaries most definitely have their place, John Dickson has helpfully recognised that most of the opportunities that most of us have to share our faith will not lend themselves to a canned summary of the whole gospel message. He shrewdly and honestly points out that most of us feel somewhat self-conscious when delivering a pre-set monologue and trying to download everything we know about the gospel in a snappy five-minute format. On the contrary, a less contrived, more natural, and conversational approach to sharing our faith is a much more realistic way of encouraging ordinary Christians to take the opportunities that present themselves for evangelism rather than shying away. A memorable concept that resonated with me is the idea of the "gospel nugget," where we share aspects or parts of our faith as they come up or are relevant to the conversations we are having, and to build on that in the context of a real relationship with another person: "most of our opportunities to speak about Christianity will occur in passing, in the to-and-fro of daily conversation." Helpfully, he makes a distinction between "the specific activity of proclaiming the gospel, or what is properly called 'evangelism', and the broader category of promoting the gospel which includes any and every activity which draws others to Christ."

Dickson takes a step back from the activity of evangelism and explains why we should seek to share our faith in the first place (apart from the simple scriptural commands to do so). He summarises the logic as follows: "If there is one Lord to whom all people belong and owe their allegiance, the people of that Lord must promote this reality everywhere." Expanding on this, he says that, "Monotheism and mission are intimately linked. The existence of just one God makes our mission to the many essential…We promote God’s glory to the ends of the earth not principally because of any human need but fundamentally because of God's/Christ's unique worthiness as the Lord of heaven and earth. Promoting the gospel to the world is more than a rescue-mission (though it is certainly that as well); it is a reality-mission. It is our plea to all to acknowledge that they belong to one Lord."

In any discussion of evangelism in a 21st-century Western context, it is important to consider our response to pluralism. Dickson helpfully separates this under two headings, popular pluralism and sophisticated pluralism. The first is "the pluralism in the pub, the café, the workplace and sometimes even over morning tea after church. It basically states that all religions teach essentially the same thing…The basic problem with popular pluralism is that in trying to affirm all religions it pays close attention to none of them." The second is "aware of the intractable contradictions between the faiths," but argues that "while there are few explicit ideas common to the world religions, there is an implicit BIG IDEA made apparent by them all." Dickson points to the writing of Marcus Borg, who argues that "the importance of religions lies not in their particular claims to truth (their doctrines) but in their capacity to connect believers with the Sacredness that lies behind all such claims. Religions mediate spiritual reality without actually possessing that reality themselves." Dickson concludes that "sophisticated pluralism offers what so many want: a way of thinking about all religions as equally valid. But this form of pluralism delivers far less than it promises." One fundamental problem is that sophisticated pluralism doesn't explain how it knows that no particular religion describes a reality that they all supposedly mediate; this is simply presupposed and zealously affirmed. Dickson also points out that while many are motivated to embrace pluralism because they don’t want to appear intolerant, in reality, pluralism is patronising rather than tolerant. This loops back to an important point (addressed more fully in D. A. Carson’s excellent book "The Intolerance of Tolerance"), which is that our society's understanding of tolerance has become muddied. As Dickson summarises it, "True tolerance does not involve accepting every viewpoint as true and valid; it involves treating with love and humility someone whose opinions you believe to be true and invalid." In other words, treating those we disagree with, even on important matters, with kindness and respect.

In terms of promoting the gospel, Dickson encourages us to adopt what he calls a "salvific mindset" (a term he acknowledges as pretentious!). This picks up on passages like 1 Corinthians 10:31 and emphasises that we are not called, primarily, to put on evangelism as a specialised adjunct to Christian living. Reaching out to our friends is not an optional extra; rather, it is an orientation and should permeate everything that we do. The relevance of this quickly becomes obvious in a multitude of related areas. While not many of us will be superstar evangelists, all of us can both pray and financially support evangelism, and these are not second-string or unspiritual contributions to God's mission. Similarly, our good deeds both personally and as churches are not a missionary tactic and must be done for their own sake in obedience to the Lord, but they are a powerful way of promoting the gospel. Again, our public worship is a powerful way of promoting the gospel, and not just when the life and work of Jesus Christ are explicitly taught and explained. Dickson helpfully summarises the interplay between the explicit presentation of the gospel and other factors when he says that, "seeking the salvation of others involves more than our lips." To unpack this further, he explains that "Humanly speaking, hearing the gospel is the necessary and sufficient cause of faith in Christ. It is necessary inasmuch as people cannot put their faith in Jesus without first learning the gospel about him. It is sufficient in that the gospel can bring people to faith all on its own…none of this means that hearing the gospel is the only cause of faith, or even that it is always the primary cause of faith. Other factors (on the human side of the equation) will frequently play a minor or major role in winning people over to the One revealed in the gospel."

In short, there are "a whole range of activities that promote Christ to the world and draw others toward him." Similarly, "emphasising the range of missionary activities in no way diminishes the centrality of the gospel in God’s plan of salvation. The phrase promoting the gospel is intended to remind us that all of these activities have as their goal the advancement of the news of Christ, the gospel, the necessary and sufficient cause of conversion." While in one sense he isn't saying anything new in this book, the value of what John Dickson has to say is in his clear and edifying call to all Christians to "Live lives worth questioning, and offer answers worth hearing."

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another john Dickson great piece of writing. Easy to read.

[Bill Forgeard · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. Promoting the Gospel grabbed me from the introduction, because I identify with all of the "evangelism pitfalls" he lists -- 1. The curse of self-consciousness, 2. The gospel download, 3. Reducing the gospel, 4. Underestimating the mission. I've fallen into them all! John Dickson manages to dial down the stress that can surround evangelism (and make Christians behave so strangely when they share their faith!) while at the same time upholding an inspiring vision of the importance of calling the world to worship it's creator. The book is down to earth and realistic, it relates well with our culture and avoids jargon, it addresses a Christ follower's whole life, it's readable and engaging but also biblically and theologically rigorous (Dickson is very good at combining these last two characteristics, which is no mean feat). It is easy to read a book on this topic and come away feeling guilty, but after reading Promoting the Gospel I'm very encouraged.

[Mark Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read in summer 2007. A great book for helping Christians understand there role in the mission of the church. This book has been criticised by some for downplaying the role of spoken word evangelism, something I don't think it is guilty of. Rather, it maintains the primary importance of the verbal proclamation of the gospel, but also acknowledges that Christians will not be equally gifted in this way, yet all have a responsibility in the promotion of the gospel. An excellent and invigorating book.