Evangelism... How good is the good news?

In our BSL (Bible as a Second Language) series, we began with "Gospel"--the Good News. This week, we're going to see the verb form, Euaggelizo (transliterated Evangelizo or Evangelism). Just as we saw that Gospel has taken on a new definition in our oh-so culturally-steeped Church today, just think about what the action of telling it has come to mean.

I want to share a simple quote to let you chew on until Sunday morning. This comes from another blogger that I found while searching the web for resources. I haven't researched his affiliations or other articles, so I'm not advocating everything you may find if you follow this link. But consider what he has to say about our topic at hand, and by 10:15 Sunday morning, see if you can at least relate, if not agree...

"I hate the word evangelism. It's quite possible that some will take offense at that because evangelism is a strong Christian word and concept, and not liking it may have connotations to not liking the action of doing it. And you would be right! I do not like the word because it is very misunderstood by the rest of our world and I do not like the word because of how we have been trained to do it....

"King Richard had good news for the Muslim world – it was a crusade! When our world hears 'crusade,' when our world hears 'evangelism,' when our world hears 'turn from your ways!,' they do not connect the dots and think, 'Wow, this is really good news!'"

-- Thoughts Outloud, Jeff Peters

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