Speakers: Relationship key to evangelism

“The vast majority of the population do not question Billy Graham on his, quote, ‘proselytizing.’ Why? Because his integrity has remained intact over the years and people say, ‘Hey, this guy’s real, he’s genuine and he’s out there trying to help people and care for people.” Sammy tippit, an evangelist and Baton Rouge native now living in San Antonio

PINEVILLE — Relational evangelism — person-to-person witnessing about Christ’s impact on an individual’s life — is the trendy approach today, evangelists said this week during a two-day Louisiana Baptist Convention evangelism conference on the campus of Louisiana College.

More than 2,000 pastors, church staff members and other interested people were estimated to attend the event Monday and Tuesday, according to the Rev. Keith Manuel, LBC evangelism associate.

Among the participants was evangelist Sammy Tippit, a Baton Rouge native now living in San Antonio, Texas.

Tippit contends evangelism today is much healthier than a few decades ago, “because evangelism has become more rooted in relationships.

“We had a lot of big evangelists, for instance, when I first came to know Christ and people would gather around those personalities,” he said.

“And there’s nothing wrong with that. God uses personalities,” Tippit said. “But I think it’s a healthier way when it’s rooted in relationships that just regular, everyday people have ... person-to-person sharing, one person sharing what Christ has done for him.”

The Rev. Roy Fish, distinguished professor emeritus of evangelism and former L.R. Scarborough Chair at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, noted how a few decades ago, revival evangelism was very prominent, but is no longer the force it was when he was growing up in the 1950s.

“I’d say probably a majority of churches in our convention today are not even having revival meetings,” Fish said, adding that an evangelistic emphasis on Sunday school has also declined.

“Our two basic thrusts in evangelism in the past were revivals and the Sunday school,” Fish said. “We would say, let’s enroll lost people in Sunday school, teach them the Bible, and they’ll be saved.

“As I see it at least, that is not a major emphasis today,” he said. “The only thing that might be in their place would be more of an emphasis on training personal evangelists in our churches, or training witnesses.”

“I think we have more of that than we did back in those other years, but we really haven’t found anything to take the place of Sunday school evangelism ... or the revival meeting,” he said.

The Rev. Jake Roudkovski, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary assistant professor of evangelism, said he thinks this is a more biblically illiterate society than 20 years ago.

“As such, you just cannot say we’re going to talk about Jesus or spiritual things and expect people to come to you,” Roudkovski said. “You have to build relationships.” But does relationship evangelism work? Do people come to faith in Jesus that way? Or is it the Christian who is more likely to change?

The authors of “American Grace,” Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campel, citing recent studies, suggest that acquiring friends and family members of different faiths tends to make a person more tolerant and less likely to view those of other faiths as destined for hell.

Tippit said that he’s not worried about relationship evangelism backfiring.

“My faith is not a box called religion,” he said. “My faith is in the person of Christ, and the person of Christ forgives sin, changes lives, sets people free, no matter who they are.”

Rather than comparing or belittling other religions, Tippit prefers to emphasize personal testimony.

“I just share what Christ has done for me and what he can do for them, and then let the chips fall where they fall,” he said. “I’ve found very, very good response to that.”

Fish said that “friendship evangelism is very effective as long as it becomes evangelism.”

“I had problems in earlier days with friendship evangelism, because it was all friendship and no evangelism,” he said.

“But the concept is very viable, and it’s one in which we ought to be engaging. In fact, I have an idea that most of the people who come into our churches are led there by some friend,” Fish said.

Another challenge for would-be evangelists is how the idea of sharing one’s faith has become almost a dirty word.

Proselytizing it is called, especially by those who oppose evangelism, Tippit said.

In the 1980s, the word “televangelist” came to denote many who “were television personalities, rather than evangelists,” and who had moral failings that created scandal, he said.

“I began to notice that, in my own heart, that I began to say, ‘Ooh, I don’t know if I want to be known as an evangelist, because this is what evangelists are being portrayed as,’” he said.

But there are differences between evangelism and proselytizing, he insisted, explaining the foundation of evangelism is character.

“I can go to a drug addict and say, ‘God did a work in my life. I had things in my life that weren’t pleasing, that I was addicted to. It may not have been drugs, but it was something else. We all have these things, but Christ was able to set me free,’” he said.

“There’s a difference in that, because you’re coming from character, than just ‘I want you to become my religion,’” Tippit said.

He cited as an example the Rev. Billy Graham.

“The vast majority of the population do not question Billy Graham on his, quote, ‘proselytizing.’ Why? Because his integrity has remained intact over the years and people say, ‘Hey, this guy’s real, he’s genuine, he’s out there trying to help people, and care for people,’” Tippit explained.

Fish said that “among Southern Baptist, I don’t think that evangelism is a dirty word. There may be other denominations that look at it as proselytizing,” he said.

Roudkovski said, “The word ‘evangelism’ in itself really means ‘good news.’

“So we don’t have the word in English to say, ‘I’m good newsing you.’ That’s what evangelism is,” Roudkovski said.

When he’s evangelizing, Roudkovski noted, he’s not trying to convert people to his viewpoint, but rather is sharing the good news that “Jesus Christ came, lived a perfect life, then died a substitutionary death, then rose victoriously, and then is coming back for us.”