GOSPEL CAMPAIGNS ARE A COP-OUT - RIGHT?

by Adam Harbinson

‘Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once,

but of stretching out to mend the part of the world

that is within our reach.’

(Clarissa Pinkola-Estés)

So, Franklin Graham has come and gone. The publicity campaign is over, the fliers lie scattered in the gutter, for many, Sunday morning is grey and friendless again. And the horrible truth strikes despair into the hearts of thousands who made the pilgrimage; I’m still alone, I still have my addiction, still homeless and my pain has not gone.

How many people will remember him and what he said in six months time? In five years time? No doubt some will, no doubt lives will have been changed and that makes it all worth while, but there’s a nagging question at the back of my head. In one of the most religious, most over-churched nations in the world, why did the American evangelist have to come to tell us what we could have read in our own Bibles, or heard in any church down the road, or discovered for ourselves on our knees by our own quiet bedside? Why do we need Franklin Graham, the son of a great preacher, when the North of Ireland probably has more churches and ministers per square mile that anywhere else on the planet?

Now, I've no problem with Franklin Graham. I have only admiration for his father and sisters Ruth and Anne, they all share their father’s DNA. But the question remains, do we need an American evangelist to parachute into town, do his bit for a couple of days and then ride off into the sunset like a sanitised John Wayne?

It was Franklin’s father, Doctor Billy, who ten years ago at the age of eighty said, ‘The day of big Gospel Campaign is over. One to one evangelism will finish the job.’ Now, there are those who will say, ‘It’s OK for him, he had his day, and now that he’s old and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, it’s suddenly not a good idea anymore.’

Maybe, but I think he was on to something. And I think if we have the courage to think his argument through we might agree that there’s a lot of copping-out going on. Could it be that it’s easier to wheel in the professional to do the job that we’re too lazy or too complacent to do? When you look at the Bible model of evangelism you’ll see that the recommended method of sharing your faith is simple and effective, but costly.

Here it is: ‘… the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together, they met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity.’

And what happened? ‘The Lord added to their number daily.’ There’s nothing there about Gospel Campaigns – frankly, I think they’re a cop-out. And here’s why. There are 2.1 billion Christians in the world, that’s one third of humanity. If each of us were to lead just two people to faith in Christ, that’s it. Job done! And a year would do it.

Doctor Billy was right. God has empowered you and me to do the work of his kingdom, but we leave it to the experts. Now that’s what I call a cop-out!