Editor’s Note: Re-forming Evangelism

I think often about a conversation I had with a friend several years ago. He’d been a Christian all his life but was struggling with his faith and found it increasingly unbearable to consider himself part of the church. He told me how his local church had hurt him deeply, and we talked about how the church as a whole has inflicted hurt on so many. To him, the church had become a force that tears down instead of one that builds up.

Jesus is supposed to offer good news to the world, he explained. Yet he felt like all the church had for his life were a host of nos rather than a resounding, welcoming yes into life with God and God’s people. (He said this even as he acknowledged the reality of sin and the necessity of sanctification; resistance to deeper formation in Christ was not the issue here.)

Experiencing the church as a bearer of bad news is not an uncommon sentiment. Sadly, I likely don’t need to share another anecdote of church hurt or trauma for an example or two to come to your mind, dear reader. But Jesus says, in the Gospel of John, that he has come that we “may have life and have it abundantly.” Why did my friend feel as though the church offered anything but abundant life?

By God’s grace, the story of the church across history still brims with the joy-filled witness and testimony of those who have found new life in Christ. By God’s grace, the church has proclaimed the good news, and the good news has been embraced and has made lives new. By God’s grace, God has chosen an imperfect vessel to carry a perfect gift. By God’s grace, too, the Spirit steers us when we go wrong.

When we hear stories like my friend’s—in our own lives and throughout world history—of the church falling short of proclaiming the gospel, we might recognize the Holy Spirit’s voice inviting us onto a different path.

In this issue of FULLER magazine, guest edited by Soong-Chan Rah, we explore what it might mean for us to be faithful bearers of God’s good news in and for our world today. From the way we plant churches to our engagement with music and the arts, from models of children’s ministry to the task of reframing missiology in a globalized age, from our posture toward the unhoused to our relationships with people of other faiths, the writers in this issue offer fresh perspectives and insight into the church’s call to evangelism. With the Spirit’s guidance, may we re-form the way we share God’s good news in faithfulness, obedience, and love. May we offer the world even a glimpse of the goodness and beauty of abundant life in Christ.