Cultural Contexts for Evangelism

Some thoughts are beginning to crystalize in my mind as to the starting place for evangelism in various cultural contexts. For a local church seeking to reach out and connect people to Christ through the church, that church must pray and assess the cultural norms and realities around it. I am starting to get a glimpse of the cultural starting places here in England which has therefore helped me to better understand the cultural starting place in Woodville, Texas when it comes to God, faith and church. By the way, my purpose in blogging thoughts like this, is to discipline myself first to reflect on this things and second to enter into a conversation with you that will sharpen my reflections, give you an opportunity to bounce back your own thoughts or push back on some of mine. Any and all comments are welcome.

In Woodville, it seems that the cultural starting place (among those not in the church)when it comes to faith is that faith is a good thing, the expected thing, the cultural norm. If a poll was taken, my guess is, most folks would profess a basic belief in the existence and power of God, generally speaking. Further, I think most folks would acknowledge a belief in Jesus (what they believe about him would no doubt vary). Even beyond that most folks would lay claim to a denominational loyalty (ie. I'm a Baptist, Methodist or Catholic...) Many would be on the membership role of a church (not often active members however).

With this cultural reality people don't need to be convinced about the existence of God, the power of God, or the importance of the work of the church. The challenge this cultural reality produces though is communicating to people that a professed faith in God and membership on a church roll doesn't constitute real discipleship. The challenge for evangelism is to convey the truth that a real, true, living, faith has to be lived out actively in community and our faith must shape how we spend our lives.

I am beginning to understand that the cultural context for evangelism in at least where we are in England starts in a different place. For a church here to connect with new people and bring them to Christ through the church, I think the church has to start by talking about why we need God to begin with. That a person you pass by on the street is a person of Christian faith is not a basic assumption here. It does not seem to carry with it any social favor (faith as a favorable social status indicator is not necessarily a good thing). So, I think with evangelism, its not a matter of savy advertising or mass mailers about Vacation Bible School. Evangelism has to first address the questions - why do we need God, what difference does it make, what is the church all about? The challenge of evangelism in England perhaps is to be in conversation about these questions, talk about radical commitment to Jesus and making a difference in the world for God.

Of course neither of these cultural realities are better or easier than the other, both require prayer, discernment and creativity. Bottom line is that deep evangelism seeks to address the core challenges in both of these contexts. We always need to testify to the need for God, whatever our context and we always need to call people to live out their faith in community.
We are living in a rapidly changing, dynamic, and interconnected world and our own commitment to Christ and community calls all of us to wrestle with all of these realities for ourselves.


The Methodist Church in the UK and the Church of England have joined together in an effort to think creatively about ways to "be and do church." Check out this link to find out more

www.freshexpressions.org.uk/