Let’s begin by evaluating the following (in)famous quote:

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”

- St. Francis of Assisi

Francis’ point was that our lifestyle and behavior should, in a sense, preach the Gospel. To this, I can say Amen; to put his argument in more modern terms, “you gotta practice what you preach.” However, even the slightest suggestion that words are not always necessary in preaching the Gospel should be cautioned against. Many people have taken Francis’ quotation and used it to justify a life devoid of verbal preaching; in their minds, good works somehow supplant verbal preaching and, because of this, good works become all that is necessary for evangelism. I’ve been over this quote many times. Yes, your life must embody the Gospel; however, you cannot avoid using words in preaching it. You don’t want to fall too far on either one end of the “Assisi spectrum.” Faithfulness to God requires preaching the Gospel in both word and deed.

However, in our postmodern culture, is this all evangelism takes? Surely a godly, upright man who decides to stand on the street corner and preach to passers-by is being faithful to God’s calling; he preaches the Gospel in both word (on the streetcorner) and in deed (in his holy lifestyle). But is this man being effective?

Of course, the Holy Spirit can use anything to bring about the will of God. However, I believe it is a matter of Christian responsibility to understand culture and pursue an effective means of evangelism. If we truly care about the lost, we will do our best to not only “win them over” and baptize them, but to do so in a way which disciples them and helps them continue to grow spiritually after their conversion. The man on the streetcorner, while perhaps completely faithful to God’s call, is probably not being as effective as he could be.

One of the problems with pragmatism, however, is that it can be easily absued. Faithfulness must always trump pragmatics. For example, the Crusades were a very effective way of converting people to Christianity—at least if you’re looking for notches in your belt—but were, at the same time, horrendously wicked and unfaithful to God. Let me be very clear, then, that faithfulness is what matters in God’s eyes.

At the same time, though, faithfulness to God should drive us to a certain level of pragmatic thinking. If we’re truly interested in advancing the Kingdom of Heaven, shouldn’t we want to become more effective in our evangelism? In this way, pragmatics can become an issue of faithfulness, as oftentimes they are neglected in favor of an easier way; if the man on the streetcorner is preaching in such a way to avoid investing his time and energy in other, more effective forms of evangelism, he is being unfaithful to the Gospel.

Therefore, with this, I suggest a third dimension to the “Assisi spectrum.” It is not necessarily an explicitcommand of Scripture, but I do believe it is visible in and wholly compatible with Scripture. Furthermore, I think our present postmodern climate calls for it. The “Assisi spectrum” included words and deeds. The third dimension we should consider is relationships.

Of course, I could talk about how Jesus didn’t just preach but called disciples, ate with people, travelled with people, and so on, but I assume most of my readers have an understanding of that. Thus, I’m going to talk about why relational evangelism is essential in the postmodern world; the problem of words without deeds (hypocrisy) or deeds without words (cowardice) is obvious; but what about when both of these lack relationships?

Words without Relationships
In today’s world, people think in such a way that there seem to be many ways to achieving truth. Therefore, “God” can mean a lot of different things; so can sin, grace, sacrifice, salvation, and the like. When we speak in these terms to Christians, we may have a common understanding of what it is we’re talking about. But to others, even these basic terms can very easily be misunderstood (not to mention the more complex terminology we tend to slip in, like “propitiation,” “total depravity,” and “parousia. “). Therefore, relationships provide the necessary means to define our terms; there’s much more time for question-and-answer, and confusion can more easily be ironed out.

Also, by having a relationship with those to whom we preach, we can use discernment as to how to preach. What idols can we tackle? Should we be gentle or more bold? What experiences has this person had which may influence their understanding of the Gospel? How much do they know about Jesus? What in their heart leads them to refuse the Gospel? Sun Tzu said “know thy enemy,” so that warriors would know how to strategically go about fighting. If we’re trying to conquer a heart for Jesus, we should consider the forces we’re up against.

Deeds without Relationships
I was once a part of a church that liked to hand out bottles of water and other random goodies to people who drove by after the service. It was a good deed, I suppose, but I always got the feeling that people were either creeped-out or annoyed by what we were doing. It’s not normal for a stranger to come up to your car and give you something. Who wouldn’t be at least a little hesitant to take what they give you? Furthermore, some people either don’t want to be bothered or see Christians as goofy.

Also, sometimes our good works and holiness can be seen as arrogance by others; without a relationship, people may assume we think we’re better than others because we behave certain ways but don’t take the time to get to know them (unfortunately, this is true of some professing Christians). If we have relationships with non-Christians, they’re going to come to understand why it is we do what we do or live the way we live, and in that way, our lifestyle will more effectively point to Jesus. Moreover, the way we relate to those to whom we are witnessing in itself has a part in preaching the Gospel. They may curse us, but we bless; they may persecute us, but we pray for them. We extend to them the love of Jesus, living in humility, and do not take advantage of them. We listen to them, we treat them as if they’re created in the image of God, and in doing so, the Gospel begins to be contextualized.

Difficulty with a Relational Approach to Evangelism
Our desire for faithfulness should generally drive us to a relational approach to evangelism, but we must not let those relationships we develop lead us astray; we cannot let our friendship with someone compromise our preaching or living out of the Gospel. In this way, relational evangelism can be very difficult and frustrating at times. It will be tempting to choose “niceness” over truth, to misrepresent the seriousness of sin, and to join nonbelievers in ungodly behavior. We will fail. But the Gospel is of supreme value, and it will restore us. It will be hard for us to get to know other people when it is usually easier to maintain the relationships we already have; for many of us, even the fact that we’re getting to know non-Christians may be awkward. But once again, the Gospel is of supreme value, and it should eradicate our lethargy. For we know the salvation the Gospel has brought to us, and we realize its need among others. As faithful servants of God, then, let us strive to bring about his Kingdom.