Developing a Simple Life-Style - No. 8 - Evangelism

Children in Guatemala learning about Jesus Christ

EVANGELISM. We are deeply concerned for the vast millions of un-evangelized people in the world. Nothing that has been said about lifestyle or justice diminishes the urgency of developing evangelistic strategies appropriate to different cultural environments. We must not cease to proclaim Christ as Savior and Lord throughout the world.

The church is not yet taking seriously its commission to be his witnesses “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). So the call to a responsible lifestyle must not be divorced from the call to responsible witness. For the credibility of our message is seriously diminished whenever we contradict it by our lives.

It is impossible with integrity to proclaim Christ’s salvation if he has evidently not saved us from greed, or his Lordship if we are not good stewards of our possessions, or his love if we close our hearts against the needy. When Christians care for each other and for the deprived, Jesus Christ becomes more visibly attractive. In contrast to this, the affluent lifestyle of some Western evangelists when they visit the Third World is understandably offensive to many.

We believe that simple living by Christians generally would release considerable resources of finance and personnel for evangelism as well as development. So by our commitment to a simple lifestyle we commit ourselves wholeheartedly to world evangelization.

(This is part 8 of a series of 10 blog posts. Developing a Simple Life-Style was a conference with 85 evangelical leaders from 27 countries at High Leigh Conference Center, London, England March 17-21, 1980)