Evangelists Feel the Heat

These are turbulent times for SBC evangelists. The progress of modern culture has created a climate in which evangelism tactics from Great Awakening #2 are being questioned (the purpose of revival meetings, public invitations with heavy emotional/decisional emphasis, the use of evangelists for revivals, etc.) by many SBC pastors. At least two reasons for this are 2nd Great Awakening revivalism's lack of doctrinal depth and accuracy and inability to create a culture of intimate Christian fellowship in a today's society. More educated than previous generations and more disconnected from traditional community moorings than ever, younger folks hanker after doctrinal substance and true fellowship in the church. The Calvinist resurgence and the rise of the Seeker Sensitive movement parallel these needs.



Recently in my state's convention paper, 'The Western Recorder," there was an article in which a particular group of SBC evangelists that meet in association blamed both the rise of Calvinistic theology and the Seeker Sensitive paradigm in our day as culprits that have led to the decreasing success of revivalistic theology and practice. The problem with their criticism of Calvinism is that some of those involved with this evangelist meeting made inaccurate statements about the Calvinist movement. Some examples:

Hal Poe, professor of faith and culture at Union University in Jackson, TN, said about Calvinist pastor John Piper:

"...John Piper's version of Calvinism is not something John Calvin would espouse, or even that Charles Spurgeon would espouse."

Jerry Drace, evangelist, "told the group he currently is working with some young pastors who are "so leaning in this morphed Calvinism that they almost laugh at evangelism. It's almost to the extent that they believe they don't have to do it. So (Calvinism) gives them an excuse not to do evangelism."
(Western Recorder; January 22, 2008; pp. 2)

The first statement is a smear on John Piper because it paints him as a radical who is far different than Calvin or Spurgeon. I wonder how Poe would explain this major difference between Piper, Calvin, and Spurgeon in terms of soteriology? I don't think he can. Nor can Drace say all Calvinist pastors are unevangelistic. Perhaps he has encountered a few hyper/non-witnessing Calvinist pastors, but he is dead wrong about all Calvinist pastors being against evangelism. His statement is absurd. In fact John Piper says the following about evangelism for the Calvinist pastor:



"4. Make Spurgeon and Whitefield your models rather than Owen or Calvin, because the former were evangelists and won many people to Christ in a way that is nearer to our own day.

5. Be an evangelist and a missions mobilizer so that the criticism that Calvinism dulls a passion for the lost is put to silence."


Piper's writing on this is available at the following link: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/1998/1509_How_to_Teach_and_Preach_Calvinism/

Stupid criticisms aside, one strong positive came from this evangelist's meeting:

These evangelists have begun to examine evangelism as a practice and have concluded that there is a lack of integrity in their own ranks. Of particular importance are evangelist's inflation of numbers of respondents at their events and also evangelist's exaggeration the quality of decisions made by these respondents. These evangelists have begun to realize that many times, they emotionally manipulate people into one-time, shallow, non-discipleship, verbal commitments. This realization is good. Perhaps they will come to the next set of logical conclusions about their method of evangelism: 1) there is something wrong with it, because of the shallowness of so many "conversions," and also that 2) their soul-winning model has played havoc in a rapidly changing world over the last 60 or so years, as SBC pastors have imitated it in the local church, creating an army of dechurched, uncommitted, careless professing Christians who have loads of confidence in a one-time decision, but little biblical basis for their status as disciples (followers of Christ and His word's) in their day-to-day lives!