Proclamation & Demonstration

Last week I heard a missionary speak. He serves in Turkey, a country that he describes as culturally Muslim. To be born a Turk is to be born a Muslim, much as in bygone days to be born an American was to be born a cultural Christian; perhaps not so much these days. When asked to reveal his ministry approach to evangelism, he stated that he simply uses the evangelism model of Jesus, that being to proclaim the Gospel and to demonstrate the Gospel. According to this missionary, making their ministry visible by way of demonstration, by way of being the Gospel, lets people see the nature of Christ. As the Holy Spirit moves in the hearts and minds of people, those people seek out this new breed of people who have come to town, and find them easily because they are so visible in their actions.


I was profoundly struck by this simple model, immediately connecting the concept to my own model for reaching the lost which I describe as outreach coupled with evangelism, or deploying contact strategies and convert strategies. In short, I connected the demonstration of the Gospel to outreach or contact strategies, and I connected the proclamation of the Gospel to evangelism or convert strategies.


As I have considered the streamlined model of proclamation and demonstration, it seems to me that we in conservative evangelical circles are fully committed to proclamation, but fall woefully short in our commitment to demonstration. Yet it is in demostration that the opportunity for proclamation is nurtured. In practice, we proclaim to ourselves, while never getting the Gospel to those who need to hear it, the lost.


How visible is our demonstration of the Gospel? Do we, a la Acts 2, enjoy the favor of the people? Are people being winsomely drawn to the Gospel because of our visible outreach? Will we ever stop talking to ourselves?