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However one defines the term “evangelism,” I think it’s fair to agree with the introduction that, since the 60’s, it has often been characterized as “a self-serving, game-playing exercise, concerned only with numbers in terms of conversions and confessions of faith.” But Outlers work gives one a sense of the word as rightly understood.This short book of four lectures by the ecumenically minded Methodist theologian Albert Outler (1908—1989) consists of (1) an interpretation of John Wesley, as evangelist, (2) an examination of “his understanding of the fundamentals of the Christian evangel and the nature of Christian communication and communion,” (3) a speculation of the possibility for a “Third Great Awakening… a revival that might move beyond the stereotypes” of the first two which occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries, and (4) Outler’s vision of what a Spirit-filled church might look; and he suggests a means to get there – both clarified in the Wesleyan tradition.In Part I, “Wesley the Evangelist,” Outler doesn’t dwell on the public’s broad notions of evangelism, but rather attempts to examine it from a Wesleyan perspective and “suitably update it in our time and place….” Nonetheless, he acknowledges concerns within the Methodist tradition that evangelism’s “stereotypes…[are] one-sided and exclusivist and, worst of all, many of its characteristic negations have seemed…to breach the law of forbearance and charity.” In an appeal to honesty and openness, he says, “Convict me of error before these judges [Scripture, the Wesleyan tradition, and the living faith] and you can lead me to repentance. Otherwise, the wisest way is to follow Wesley’s advice to his people in the case of disputed questions: ‘to think and let think’.” I always liked that: to think and let think.Outler quickly delves into three “contemporary concerns” and what they mean to the “future prospects for Christian evangelism.” “The first of these is a widespread and spreading demoralization throughout the churches…” and he refers to an “ominous loss of nerve and poise amongst” those who “profess themselves Christian.” He adds, “Even the most self-assured and militant amongst us (whether self-styled ‘evangelicals’ or the self-anointed ‘prophets of revolution’) sound more strident and abrasive than truly confident or convincing.” He speaks of a laity in “ferment,” a “badgered and bewildered clergy” and “whipsawed” seminarians needing to learn and to do, right now. He further notes that “Extremists from both left and right have learned that the churches can be intimidated or embarrassed—but have not yet learned how to turn their dubious victories into anything resembling real renewal.” The third concern is what he calls “a radical mutation occurring in the depths of the human consciousness…recognized in the weakening of all the old taboos and compulsions that have served Western society (and Christian culture) as moral control systems for millennia, the radical dissolution of old linkages between psychological anxiety and religious guilt, [and] the swift fading of the church’s moral influence….” Outler says while our anxieties have not diminished, any guilt we might feel “is rarely related to [one’s] awareness of God’s relentless judgment against sin.” The discontent of the disaffected is typically vented on ‘those others…’” In other words, we blame somebody else for whatever we think is wrong with the world; and I love this line, also appropriate in current times: “Repentance comes hard to the self-righteous—and we are being drowned in a flood of self-righteousness, from all sides and of all sorts!”“All of this affects evangelism and our understanding of evangelism—if by evangelism we mean the communication of the gospel and the maturation of Christians in the community of the church and in the human community at large.” (Going forward, it is critical to keep this concept of maturation in mind.) Outler wonders how a polarized church can get anyone’s attention; and he asks, “How can a dispirited church renew her ‘life in the Spirit?’” Outler offers that successfully conveying the message of God’s “good news” means that the “massive confusion and disagreement” within the Christian community must be addressed. Outler says we should not, however, blindly imitate Wesley. “He was an evangelical, all right—orthodox in doctrine, zealous in personal faith, self-righteous and overweening—but with next to nothing to show for thirty-six full years of high-mindedness.” He also had “few political instincts and no power base…he was an obsessive compulsive neurotic all his life and his religion never really cured his neurosis…Aldersgate [his epiphany event] had warmed his heart but had not taught him how to communicate the gospel or how to guide men into holiness.” But, within a few years, he emerged as the “head of the most effective mass movement in eighteenth century England—a great upwelling of Christian faith and of social reform….”Outler says there is no formula to be shared of how this all happened. However, there are “some important aspects of [Wesley’s] transformation” that are relevant: “Wesley’s conversion from passion to compassion as his dominant emotion, his change from a harsh zealot of God’s judgment to a winsome witness to God’s grace, from censorious critic to an effective pastor, from arrogance to humility.”Outler says Wesley began to be heard when his “passion for truth” was transformed into “compassion for persons.” For Wesley, the prescription, “preach the faith until you have it” (Peter Bohler), was more a case of preaching until others had it—a lot of practice or trial and error, perhaps, until it became effective—which is what improved his own spirit. His published sermons suggest a teaching effort “to lead men and women into a clearer understanding of their faith and a more fruitful response to their divine imperatives in their Christian existence.” His oral preaching was “dominated by his effort to come close to people with God’s message…rather than flinging the gospel at them like a soteriological [the doctrine of salvation, i.e. deliverance] brickbat.”A key point of this piece: Wesley’s preaching “was aimed beyond confession and conversion toward the fullness of faith and the endless maturing of life in grace,” which is a life long process. Thus, “sanctification became the goal and end of all valid evangelistic endeavor.” Outler criticizes and questions any notions of an evangelism that stresses only the initial stages of conversion, attendance and financial support without ongoing nurture, maturation and becoming living witnesses. “For Wesley, the scope of evangelism was never less than the fullness of Christian experience—‘holiness of heart, and a life conformable to the same…’ [that is] the essence of faith was personal and inward, but the evidence of faith was public and social...the Word made audible must become the Word made visible, if men’s lives are ever to be touched by the ‘Word made flesh.’”And this responsibility falls mostly on lay people, which at the grassroots level in the early Methodist societies, was where the real work was done and which made Wesley the successful leader of the Methodist movement. “Wesley had somehow grasped the secret of the Word made social, and of the faith that works by love not only in the heart but in the world as well.” (And he had a well organized laity to reflect such love in the world—living as Christ following examples.) Outler says there is a crucial distinction between the sort of evangelism “that scores repeated triumphs that pass and fade” in contrast to “an evangelical reform movement that leaves a permanent deposit in the church and in the world.” This obviously implies a social dimension, and while Wesley never saw himself as a rebel, we can see in retrospect what this “revival” did: It was the driver of “an actual transformation of social morals and manners” in mid 18th century England. Wesley had created “a powerful agency for social change…evangelical and reformist…on the premise of the freedom and dignity of the Christian man whose love of his neighbor is a vital function of his love of God.”In Part II, “Wesley’s Evangel,” Outler says the words evangel, evangelical, and evangelism have “an honored history. They point to the heart of the gospel… ‘the glad tidings of our salvation.’ But these fine old words have also generated many a distorted image in many modern minds…” He also suggests that the “acrid image to the typical ‘evangelical’ is no mere illusion,” and I assume he refers to our modern American perspective. Outler says the main difference between “any clutch of ranters” on one side, and an equal number of effective fruit-bearing heralds of Christ on the other… [is] in the presence or absence of a quality of soul best labeled ‘gracious’ or ‘grace-filled.’” Reflecting on the great historical evangelistic characters, starting with Paul, Outler says they were all authoritarian personalities; and “in every case, but for the grace of God and the partial redemption of their power-drives, ‘obnoxious’ would have been an accurate enough designation of their respective dispositions.” Such attitudes too often ignore “respect for human dignity in every single manifestation of it… an openness of heart and mind that cherishes diversity within the larger unity of essential faith and commitment,” i.e. Wesley’s famous “catholic spirit.”“The essential fallacy of all unhealthy evangelism…is its hidden strategy of self-justification, masked by the flaming rhetoric of radical faith.” This is built on the idea of following a simple formula (for what ever aisles us) to get God on our side with self-satisfaction our reward. But Outler then makes this important and fine clarifying distinction: “God is on our side…” Christ was and is present in the Holy Spirit. “Divine power does become operative in our hearts and lives. God’s purposes for…all his children…[are] on his terms, at his initiative. It is not our part to control the dynamic equilibrium between God’s grace and man’s response, but rather to find and lose ourselves in participation in the divine-human relationship in which God acts and man reacts. The less self-conscious our faith, the less self-righteous our assurance of God’s healing love,” i.e. the doctrine of justification by faith.Good works out of obligation or our own self-righteousness do not cause any kind of saving grace on God’s part. “It is by faith alone (radical, buoyant trust) that self-righteousness is displaced by the righteousness of Christ.” Good works then are a result; and as Outler says many times in other writings, good works are a result of our gratitude! (We aren’t merely grateful for “largess or bounty…or indulgent treatment. The only thing that begets gratitude is grace.” We are primarily grateful for what Christ did for humanity. And gratitude is the only “reliable ethical energy that we know,” more so than fear, duty, utility, self-concern, or political ideology of whatever persuasion. The reference here is sermon #20 from volume 3 of the Albert Outler Library.)Outler shares the essence of Wesley’s sermon on “Catholic Spirit,” which lays out the essentials of Christian beliefs: “(1) faith in God and his providence, experienced by a ‘supernatural conviction’; (2) faith in Jesus Christ… (3) the love of God casting out the love of the world; (4) a life committed to God’s will, aiming only at God’s glory; (5) the hope of ‘a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward man’”; (6) the love of neighbor with visible evidence of that love in daily life.” With these as agreed upon foundational principles, Wesley “was prepared not merely to tolerate but actually to welcome theological, liturgical, and psychological differences across a broad spectrum.” Outler says this is a strength of Methodism—interpretations of the central mystery of God in Christ through the Spirit “are of necessity partial and plural…[since] no single conceptual system can ever exhaust this mystery….” Indeed, there is much we do not know of this mystery. Also, this thought struck me: It would be good if we could think and speak of our religious beliefs in terms of essentials, coupled with an open spirit about the less essential, rather than a Christianity defined—with self-righteous certainty—by our personal tastes or self-justifying inclinations.Outler further notes the demands Wesley set upon himself and others (the Wesleyan Quadrilateral): “…that they be rooted in the Bible, illumined by tradition, realized in experience, and confirmed by reason—all together, none apart from the others.” If any one of these becomes the main priority or focus, one will have abandoned the universal spirit. Wesley’s evangelism therefore reflected no formula or package, nor a “single doctrinal system, nor…a specific worldview or any actual political frame” other than maintaining a balanced perspective of the essentials of faith.Outler also sees a “distinctive Methodist emphasis in evangelism…the gist of sin is man’s false perception of God’s wrath, or of his mercy, or of his absence. The sinner supposes himself either able to save himself (which is false) or else as hopelessly lost (which is also false). The transit from the death of sin to the life of faith is made possible by the disclosure, in Christ, of God’s accepting, reconciling, love.” It is in this light that the believer can recognize himself as made in the image of God. “Wesley believed in original sin but as a tragic malignancy rather than the actual destruction of the imago Dei [image of God] in the sinner.” Prevenient grace is always available—the Spirit, the unmerited grace, is there before us. This means that the job of the evangelist, in Wesleyan thought, “is less that of imparting truth that would otherwise remain unknown than of stirring up the human spirit, of awakening faith…this is why pure doctrine…is less important in effecting the hearing of faith than loving witness is.”Outler says (and explains in greater detail) that the “main motifs of the…evangel run an impressive parallel to the first principles of the Christian life as a whole:”“The prime motive of the Christian life is gratitude, our deep thankfulness and appreciation for all of God’s providence and bounty…” summed up in the life and mission of Jesus.“The prime certainty of Christian faith and life is that God was—and is—in Christ…” reconciling the universe.The prime dynamic of the Christian faith is the vital energy of the Holy Spirit in every human heart… [and] the church.”The prime and constant end of the Christian life is the actualization in feeling and act of God’s righteous rule in the human community…the kingdom of God.” Here Outler throws in a but: “The Bible never falls into the utopian subjunctive. It says, rather, that God’s kingdom is ‘at hand,’ that God’s reign in righteousness, peace and joy is a present, live, possibility—not by coercion, or imposition but by repentance, conversion, obedience.”“Finally, the principle means in the Christian life for measuring up to God’s expecting love is God’s grace.” Here Outler explains Wesley’s phrase “the means of grace,” referring to activities which help us discover God’s presence and active personal love.Outler recognizes that the newly converted easily “sink into a spiritual slump” after becoming involved in church, “not a healthy setting for a newborn Christian,” where “nominal Christianity” reigns, where church is possibly “just another voluntary, cultural association.” Wesley understood that becoming a mature Christian involved long-term nurture and re-awakening. Outler writes that evangelistic mission to its own nominal Christians—to the church herself—is as vital as awakening the Holy Spirit in the unchurched.In Part III, “A Third Great awakening,” Outler says the first revival occurred in America running from the 1730’s to the American Revolution, with “the chief characteristic” being “a vivid personal experience of deliverance from the wrath to come…” It ran an uneven course during this period, including the growth of many denominations, but for Methodists there was no effective Anglican structure and Wesley disapproved of the Revolution, which left the churches in a “shambles” reduced to “five or six percent of the population in 1790.” The strong influence of the Enlightenment and Deism (which in the 21st Century still have their impact) raised questions about the survival of orthodox Christianity in such an “atmosphere of religious liberty and state-church separation.” The philosopher Voltaire even predicted its demise.The “Second Great Awakening… turned the tide again,” with a “radical Protestantism.” And its most “obvious feature…was its emotional fervor…focused on two points:” (a) salvation, i.e. escaping hellfire and damnation, and (b) “a self-inhibitory personal morality.” In other words, reflecting a self-righteous prudery for those who regarded “this world as a restless antechamber to the next” became the predominant behavior. “The personal life of the converted Christian was deeply moral. Sobriety, chastity, thrift, industry, decency, and a strict personal integrity were the evangelical’s cardinal virtues. But these high personal standards often failed to generate any acute social sensitivity,” Or if it did, their impotence, to end slavery for instance, was taken for granted. The Civil War marked the end of this Great Awakening and there has not been a third.There, of course, was the emergence of the “social gospel” movement during subsequent times and a liberalizing of theology where evangelical other-worldliness was beginning to be threatened as Christians became focused on preparing this world for the Kingdom to come. “And this led to the most crucial change of all, as far as the Wesleyan tradition is concerned: the displacement of the older optimism of grace…with a new optimism based on…progress.” But for the rough period of 1890-1930 plus, “the newly emergent liberalism was a minority movement followed by a swift and “drastic shift of the theological climate” where by the 1960’s Christian existentialism and the “death-of-God hurrah” resulted in modern forms of utopianism and the “spread of secular mysticisms….” Outler comments on the emerging “guerrilla activities” of the evangelicals and the formation of “pressure groups” but says that “if the cause of evangelism continues to be tied too closely to the resurgent residues of nineteenth century Biblicism, supernaturalism
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