Two Questions for Recovering Evangelism as Proclamation

1 - Stance of Blessing

“When you go into a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a person of peace is there, your peace will rest upon it; if not, it will return to you.”

Those words hit us right between the eyes. We had been raised and trained to seek out people that needed correcting and correct them. Jesus was telling us to seek out people that were willing to receive blessing--a very different search strategy. Because we weren’t actively searching for those people, we had been unwittingly seeking out people of conflict rather than people of peace.

As we delved further into the passage and how to apply it, another thing rose to the surface: He taught them to start with spoken blessing. Not a sales pitch, not a persuasion technique, not “you gotta get ‘em lost before you get ‘em saved,” just a blessing. When you come into someone’s house, literally speak a blessing over it: “Peace to this house.”

We began to wonder what would happen if we did exactly that. To be honest, we really didn’t know how. It’s not like we knew anybody who was setting a good example. In our culture, Christians operate from a stance of moral disapproval...and everybody kinda knows it. What would happen, we wondered, if we started operating from a stance of blessing instead?

So we started. We experimented a little, and then took the plunge: we made ourselves accountable for verbally blessing at least three people a week. It could be a grocery store clerk or a neighbor or even a family member (sometimes--we wanted it to be strangers most of the time). We decided that “God bless you” was off-limits because it’s just a verbal tic for some people, but it could be very simple (“May God bless you today”) or it could be more tailored to the specific person’s needs (“May God bring you 30 customers this afternoon.”)

It was uncomfortable.

But we did it, just because God said to. We figured He knew what He was talking about.

Here’s what we found: nobody was offended. Everybody was surprised. When they recovered from their shock, almost all of them were grateful. It was like we were giving away water in the desert--because that’s exactly what we were doing. We live in a blessing-starved culture. We curse people all the time, but speaking blessing over people is just not something that we do. We also found that our need to obey spurred further Bible study. If we were going to be blessing people every day, we needed ammunition. So we dug into the biblical examples, and we learned a ton. We grew skilled over time by obeying.

In this essay, we’re going to explore obeying another biblical command, just because God said to: the command to proclaim Jesus’ good news in the public square. We’d like to start by encouraging you on two particular points.

First, adopt a stance of blessing. It will transform your soul (and your reputation) in ways that matter for public proclamation. Proclamation lands differently when it’s coming from someone who habitually operates from a stance of blessing.

Second, as we’ve done with both these commands, we want to encourage you to mere obedience. Once you are persuaded of the command from Scripture, start obeying it. Of course you won’t really know what you’re doing at the start. God has made the world in such a way that we’re bad at things before we’re good at them; why should this be any different? Accept from the outset that your initial attempts will be unskilled, halting, generally poor--and do it anyway! Trust that God will honor your obedience and teach you the skill as you go. Believe us, He will!

2 - What Kerusso Means

I have a confession to make: I was raised and trained in the “expository preaching” tradition. To us, “expository preaching” meant the pastor would pick a book of the Bible, preach through it from end to end, one passage at a time. When he got to the end, he’d pick another and do the same thing, over and over, for years. There might be an occasional topical sermon or even series here and there, but the mainstay of pulpit ministry would be systematic exposition of biblical books to a predominantly believing audience.

That’s what I thought good pulpit ministry was, and that’s what I planned to do for my whole pastoral career. If you ever asked me why, one of the passages I’d point to would have been 2 Timothy 4:2: “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching.”

And that’s what I did, anytime I was behind a pulpit, for nearly two decades of ministry. Let me be really clear: I’m not saying expository pulpit ministry is bad. But it’s not at all what Paul is telling Timothy to do in this verse.

This is the last of Paul’s letters. With his execution drawing near, he gives his last instructions to Timothy, his faithful young protege. As we’ll see, kerusso, the word we translate “preach,” doesn’t mean “speak to believers in church.” It actually means something closer to “announce to unbelievers in the public square,” which means that Paul is calling Timothy (and me) to something very different than I thought.

But to really see Paul’s point, we need to go back to the beginning. So let’s start by looking at how that word kerusso is used in the very first book of the New Testament. (For the rest of this chapter, the English word translating kerusso will be in bold italics as it was in 1 Timothy 4:2, above.)

The first time kerusso shows up in the New Testament is the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry: “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the Judean wilderness, saying ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” Eventually “Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:5//Mark 1:4, 7; Luke 3:3, cf. Peter’s later description in Acts 10:37). Rather obviously, John is not speaking inside a church building or a synagogue, and he’s not speaking to people who already believe His message. He’s out in the wilderness speaking to anybody who will listen -- shepherds, travellers, anybody at all -- and he’s making converts (hence the baptisms). His reputation grew until everybody went out into the wilderness to hear him.

The second time kerusso appears in the New Testament is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, just after His baptism: “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17//Mark 1:38-39). This is the same message John started with (more about that later). Unlike John, Jesus does go into the synagogues, and also unlike John, He backs up His proclamation with miracles (Matthew 4:23, 9:35). Like John, though, Jesus is making converts, not just speaking to people who already believe His message.

Jesus commissions His followers to do the same (Matthew 10:7, 27//Mark 3:14, 6:12, Luke 9:2), and when He has sent them out two by two, He continues doing the same Himself (Matthew 11:1). He later prophesies that this same good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world before the end (Matthew 24:14//Mark 13:10), and that everywhere the good news goes, the story of the woman who anointed Him will also be proclaimed (Matthew 26:13//Mark 14:9).

Thus far Matthew. The other gospel accounts contain similar passages (noted above), and show how Jesus continued to call His followers to proclamation after the resurrection. Luke describes how the two men from the Emmaus road were telling the disciples what had happened to them when Jesus suddenly appeared in the gathering. After setting them at ease, He explained how “repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Mark’s version of the Great Commission also includes the word: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Mark adds, editorially, that they did so (16:20).

The gospels also describe people other than Jesus and the disciples engaging in proclamation. The leper Jesus cleansed “began to proclaim it freely” to the point that Jesus could no longer enter a city without getting mobbed (Mark 1:45). Likewise, the Gerasene demoniac “departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him, and all marveled” (Mark 5:20//Luke 8:39). Jesus told the witnesses to the deaf man’s healing not to tell anyone, “but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.” (Mark 7:36).

Luke 12 also contains an interesting passage totally unrelated to any kind of preaching. Jesus warns His followers against hypocrisy, and as He warms to His subject, says “There is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nothing concealed that will not be known. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light; whatever you whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops.” Similar passages occur elsewhere in the New Testament. In Revelation 5:2 a strong angel proclaims with a loud voice. In Romans 2:2, Paul’s Jewish interlocutor preaches that people shouldn’t steal, and Acts 15:21 acknowledged that Moses has people who preach him in every city.

The common thread in the gospel usage of kerusso is announcement. There are other words that describe asking and answering questions, persuasion, and so on, but this word is about announcing something, like a herald proclaiming a decree of the king. From the promise that one day your innermost secrets will be announced from the housetops, to the witnesses of miracles announcing what they saw, to John in the wilderness and Jesus in synagogues and on hillsides announcing that the kingdom of God has come near, kerusso is about announcing the truth to people who don’t know it yet.

Jesus coached His followers to do the same while He was on earth, and commissioned them to continue after He left. They did, and they were conscious of what they were doing. Philip proclaimed Christ to the Samaritans (Acts 8:5) and Saul of Tarsus “proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20). Peter does the same with Cornelius, explaining that “Jesus commanded us to preach to the people, and testify that He is the one ordained by God to judge the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42). Paul summarizes his own ministry in Ephesus as “proclaiming the kingdom of God” (Acts 20:25), and Luke uses the exact same words to describe Paul’s Roman ministry at the end of Acts (28:31). Even the sons of Sceva recognize Paul’s proclamation ministry: “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches (Acts 19:13).

Paul also refers to this aspect of his ministry a number of times in his epistles. He speaks to the Galatians of “the gospel I proclaim among the Gentiles” (Galatians 2:2) and reminds them that he did not proclaim circumcision (5:11). He reminds the Thessalonians how he and his team (Silvanus and Timothy) worked night and day not to be a burden to anyone while “we proclaimed to you the gospel of God,” (1 Thessalonians 2:9). He reminds Timothy how God was “preached among the Gentiles” (1 Timothy 3:16).

Paul doesn’t speak only of his own ministry in this way. Colossians 1:23 speaks of the gospel being preached to every creature under heaven, and Philippians 1:15 even speaks of Christ being preached from envy--but Paul still rejoices, because the message is going out.

Of course there’s more to explore here. Kerusso has various synonyms we could look at (euaggelizo, kataggello, etc.), as well as a noun form (kerugma). It would also be worth studying the related words for speaking (persuade, rebuke, question, etc.) by way of contrast to get a better sense of the nuances of kerusso in contrast to the other words the New Testament authors could have chosen. We encourage further study--go to it!

Our purpose here is not to do all the relevant study for you, but to demonstrate a simple point: delivering sermons to Christians in church is not what kerusso is about. The overwhelming NT usage contemplates announcement to an unbelieving audience.

Knowing that, let’s return with fresh eyes to Paul’s final instructions to Timothy:

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Tim. 4:1-5 NKJ)

Paul starts with the fact of Jesus as the final judge -- a fact that figures prominently in Paul’s proclamation ministry (Acts 17:31, 24:25), as it also did in Peter’s (Acts 2:32-36, 10:42). In light of that coming judgment, Paul charges Timothy to proclaim the word. He bookends the other end of this exhortation with a challenge to do the work of an evangelist. He is talking throughout about proclamation to the world.

Because I’d understood this paragraph as speaking about expository teaching in church, I took verse 3 to also be talking about what happened inside church. Things would get so bad that people would not endure expository teaching of Scripture, but would want ‘sermonettes for Christianettes” that would tickle the fancy of churchgoing folks who wanted to be comfortable and not learn anything. We could, of course, point a finger at any number of famous preachers who, in our eyes, were doing just that. But that’s not what Paul is talking about.

Weak (and false) teaching in the church is a real problem, and Paul is clearly in favor of strong teaching in the local church. He wrote his very meaty letters to be read and discussed in local churches, regularly corrected false doctrine, and when he taught in person...well, let’s put it like this: Paul once taught so late into the night that a kid fell asleep on the windowsill and fell to his death! (Acts 20:9) But in this passage, Paul is speaking to a different situation. He’s charging Timothy with addressing the general public, not the church, and speaking about an intolerance for the announcement of basic Christian truth, not an intolerance for deep study. When Paul tells Timothy “Preach the word,” he is not telling him to deliver meaty sermons to Christians in church. He is telling Timothy to get out into the public square and announce the good news to people that don’t already know.

We should too. 

3 - Against Sharing the Gospel

The language we use when we talk about evangelism is telling. In the evangelical church, perhaps the most common phrase we use to describe evangelism is “sharing the gospel.” You almost never hear Christians use the biblical language: “proclaiming the gospel” or “preaching the gospel.” Ironically, even when proclamation language is used, the duty to actually proclaim often gets extracted out of it. You’ve probably heard someone say that the best way to proclaim the gospel is by living faithfully to Christ—the implication is that you can proclaim the gospel without ever saying anything. But that’s not what Jesus and His followers actually did. Proclamation is talking. The move away from proclamation language might seem like a minor shift, but I suspect there is something rather more tectonic going on.

Proclamation and Persuasion

As we saw in the word study above, the Greek word translated “preach” or “proclaim” (kerusso) is not particularly a religious word. It’s about public announcement: your innermost secrets will be proclaimed from the housetops.

Think about how public announcement worked back before mass media. When a king made an edict, he would send out a herald to publicly announce the new law or decree. The herald would literally shout out the new edict in the street to inform the public. The herald didn’t have to be persuasive or winsome or good-looking or a charismatic leader; he just had to be loud and clear. The announcement was binding, not because of the herald’s personal qualities, but because it came from the king.

Persuasion and declaration are both valid in the public square, but they’re not the same thing. Persuasive discourse aims to change people’s opinions and beliefs. It starts from common ground and proceeds by logical argumentation to the desired conclusion. Declarative discourse simply announces the truth from a position of authority. A philosopher persuades; a herald declares.

There’s nothing wrong with either one. In fact, God calls us to both persuasion and proclamation. But while we have many ministries and resources devoted to persuading unbelievers, we have neglected our duty to proclamation.

The Four Quadrant World

Proclaiming the gospel is a public declarative act⁠—an authoritative statement of fact in the public square. To develop this idea a bit more, let's consider the world divided along two axes: public/private and fact/value.

Each quadrant is the good and proper home to certain aspects of our lives. Your personal medical history belongs in the private fact domain. No one thinks your blood pressure or your family history of heart disease are matters of opinion; these are facts. But they’re not public information; in fact, we have laws that protect the privacy of these particular facts about you. In the realm of public fact, we have things like math. We all agree that numbers add up in the same way when we are shopping for groceries. Nobody gets to use a private mathematical scheme in which 2+2=3.

On the value side, we also have a public/private split. Public values are those that should be shared by everyone. In America, we accept liberty as a public value. We have some differences on the nuances of what liberty means and why it’s important, but in an argument about public policy, you can’t come out as anti-liberty; no one will listen.  Private values are things like personal hobbies. “Private” here doesn’t necessarily mean we keep them secret, but we don’t expect others to share the same values. Just because you’re into model airplanes doesn’t mean everyone else should be.

The gospel is a public fact. After Jesus’ resurrection, His empty tomb was public knowledge. He appeared publicly to more than 500 people, ascended to heaven in the presence of His disciples, and is now seated at the right hand of God as the publicly declared king over all things. The fundamental Christian truths that constitute the gospel belong in the public sphere as public facts.

Pulling it all together: proclamation is declaring with the authority of King Jesus the good news of His kingdom as a public fact.

The Secular Truce

You often hear Christians decrying the advance of secularism, but feeling impotent to stop it. Actually, secularism is nothing new, it’s just the latest iteration of what the Bible refers to as “the world,” a political and social order designed to keep the true God out. Secularism is just a more advanced version of the same systemic anti-gospel discrimination Paul faced in the Roman world.

The problem for Christians is not so much secularism (we are always in the world); our problem is the secular truce. The secular truce is a set of rules Christians have agreed to that allows us to operate in a secular world without much friction. When we abide by the rules of the secular truce we are in the world and of the world, but we’ve modified our language and behavior to deceive ourselves about the second part.

Secularism imagines a world where all religious truth is extracted from the public fact quadrant and moved into the private value quadrant. This is a fantasy, of course, since public life requires a shared morality and indeed a shared morality is retained in secularism as public fact, but the foundations of that morality are moved into the private value sphere. In the private value space, your religious claims are all relativized⁠—you can have your hobby religion and I can have mine. It all seemed to work in the early stages of secularism because after 1,000 years of Christendom in the West, everyone actually shared an unacknowledged Christian moral framework. But if you remove the foundation from under the house, the house will fall. As we have slowly frittered away the accumulated moral capital of Christendom, secularism has begun to collapse on itself.

The secular truce is this: Christians have agreed to act as though the private value domain is the proper place for the Christian religion. The rules we have agreed to abide by are: thou shalt not bring your private religion into the public square, and thou shalt not treat your personal religion as a fact.

These rules, when followed, make proclamation impossible—how would one declare as true one’s own private religious values? That makes as much sense as saying your own hobby, say basket weaving, is the only true hobby.

But we do follow these rules. How many Christians would dare announce the truth of the gospel in a public space? How about while they’re waiting for the train? In the break room when their co-workers are gathered? In a public park on a nice Saturday morning? It would cost us tremendously, yet public proclamation is the command.

What about Persuasion?

Persuasion often accompanies proclamation in Scripture. Peter built a persuasive case from the Old Testament that Jesus is the Messiah before he proclaimed to the Jews that “This Jesus, whom you crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ.” Paul often made logical arguments to prove that Jesus is the Messiah when he preached. He did it when he stood before Agrippa in Acts 26. Furthermore, Scripture tells us that Paul often reasoned with the Jews and Greeks as a part of his proclamation ministry (Acts 17:16-18). Persuasion is fitting when operating in the public fact quadrant—public facts lend themselves to reasoned argument since they claim binding authority over everyone.

When sharing the gospel, Christians often trick themselves into thinking they are persuading someone of the truth when what they are actually doing is inviting an unbeliever to try out their personal religion. Since sharing the gospel takes place in the lower left quadrant; the realm of private values, persuasion takes on a self-help kind of tone. You share Jesus as you might share a bit of wisdom from Tony Robbins or Oprah: “You might find my own personal truth helpful for you.” This is why Christians start off with the phrase “I believe” when they are talking to unbelievers about Jesus. It signals that they are sharing their private religious values and is therefore acceptable within the secular truce, even if a bit awkward.

We share, but don’t proclaim the gospel. We privately invite unbelievers to see if they want to make our personal and private beliefs their personal and private beliefs.

Public Proclamation in a Secular World

Christians decry secularism but feel impotent to stop it because we have agreed to abide by the secular truce. It’s as though we’ve agreed to play a soccer game in which it is against the rules for us to score points. We run up and down the field with great speed, we pass the ball back and forth and then take an occasional hard kick at the ball, making sure to aim anywhere but toward the goal. Then we wonder why we are losing.

In order to score against secularism you have to break the rules of the secular truce. In fact, since (1) the secular truce says that it is against the rules to make authoritative religious claims in the public square and (2) that is exactly what proclaiming the gospel is, we must be very careful to do exactly what the secular rules say not to do.

This is not new. How did Daniel end up with the lions? Or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego end up in the furnace? Why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath? Or why did Peter and John defy the Sanhedrin’s attempt to get them to keep quiet about Jesus? This is as old as dirt. The unbelievers make worship, proclamation, and Christian charity illegal, and the Christians break the rules.

Recovering Proclamation

About five years ago, a quick word study on the Greek word translated as preach (kerusso) led me to the conclusion that public proclamation of the gospel outside the church was what was generally in view (rather than what we call preaching in the church). I was surprised that something so obvious never came up in seminary. And for the life of me, I couldn’t think of a single person I knew who was called to public proclamation or made any efforts to do so. I also couldn’t think of any church that had a ministry focused on public proclamation.

I had to ask myself what it would look like if I was to obey the command to publicly proclaim the gospel. Immediately I thought, with not a little disdain, of the proverbial soapbox preacher on the street corner. The guy yelling angrily about the fires of hell. But I couldn’t really shake the thought that there was some effective evangelist out there on a street corner somewhere preaching the true gospel and bearing fruit for the kingdom. Furthermore, I now wonder if the angry street preacher isn’t more of an exaggerated caricature crafted within the corporate mind of Christians to make us feel good about not proclaiming the gospel.

Indeed, proclamation outdoors in public spaces is the normal means God has used throughout history to announce the gospel of Jesus to the world. This was true from the beginning of the New Testament proclamation. Both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ Himself preached outside in public, whether in the wilderness, the temple court, on the hillside, or at the lake. The apostles proclaimed the good news on Solomon's porch, along the road, in the marketplace, or at the city gates.

Church history has been characterized by outdoor gospel preaching from Saint Patrick, to Martin Luther, to Whitfield, to Billy Graham, to Ray Comfort. Every era and every great reformation and revival came with open air preaching. Of course, these are the big names, but countless faithful gospel preachers proclaimed the good news in their town square or marketplace in obedience to the biblical mandate to preach the gospel.

If we are to recover proclamation we will need an army of people called and equipped to go into the street and declare with love and grace the kingdom of God and the good news of Jesus Christ. But it is equally important that all Christians begin to pray and look for places in their lives where they can preach the gospel. That's where my proclamation journey started.

After my kerusso word study, I knew I wasn’t ready to pull out the soapbox, so I prayed that God would give me some open door to proclaim the gospel in the course of my normal life. Not long after this, a local politician and group of angry citizens made an effort, using slander and lies, to shut down a local Christian effort to serve the homeless population. This required a public response; and during the back and forth over a period of a couple of months, I had the opportunity to address our city council several times during the public comment portion of the meeting as a representative of the pastors and churches in the city. The last time I addressed city council was the day after Easter, and so I proclaimed the gospel⁠—the death and resurrection of Jesus as not just the basis for all things being set to right in the end, but also the basis for any possible reconciliation for our community in our current conflict.

It was a small platform, but it was definitely public, and the gospel was doubly relevant. As far as I know, no one repented and turned to Christ that day, but that’s ok. The results are up to God. My job was to proclaim the good news in the public square.

I never saw myself as a politician; yet God called me to run for city council the next year. The city council member I ran against was the same one who had attacked our homeless initiative and also stirred up a tremendous amount of unnecessary strife in the community. I ultimately prevailed, and on the night of the election, we had a big party. In attendance were liberal and conservative supporters of my council campaign, Christians and non-Christians, and several former and current council members and mayors of a variety of political leanings. Again, I had a public platform to proclaim the gospel. So I just told the whole story, about how God had called me to run for city council, about how Jesus forgives all our sins, and how He is our only hope for a healed and restored community.

The most recent chapter in my gospel proclamation saga involved an article I wrote for our city magazine that gets delivered to every address in town. It may not surprise you that the claim that Jesus is king and therefore the government is limited met with some objections from both citizens and politicians in town. There were attempts to censor me, demands for my resignation, and threats to launch a recall campaign and remove me from office. What may surprise you is how many Christians and even pastors objected to using that space for proclaiming the gospel (doing their part to help enforce the secular truce). On the other hand, a number of unbelievers actually appreciated the column, and many Christians were emboldened by it.

I don’t have a method or script for how to recover proclamation. What I do know is that if you pick up the closest microphone connected to the loudest speaker you can find and proclaim the gospel with the greatest boldness and clarity you can muster, odds are good that God will give you a bigger platform the next time around. Who needs a formula? Let’s just go see what God will do!

4 - What did they proclaim?

John the Baptist announced the truth in the public square. So did Jesus, and taught His followers to do likewise. Peter did, and Stephen, and Paul, and then Paul trained Timothy to follow in his footsteps. Imagine for a moment that you’ve solved the practical problems, and you’re ready to join them. You have a public place. You have an audience. You step up to the metaphorical (or maybe literal) microphone. What do you actually say? 

In our evangelical culture, we have a ready-made answer for that. It’s in all our gospel tracts, all our evangelistic training, all our events that are targeted at unbelievers: the wording and setup varies, but the basic message is about how Jesus died on the cross for your sins so that He could offer you salvation from sin and everlasting life with God.

As evangelicals, that emphasis on personal salvation is rooted deeply in our history, and with good reason. There was a time when our churches were awash with empty formalism. People let themselves believe they were right with God because they showed up to church every Sunday, tithed faithfully, and lived (mostly) scandal-free lives. “Of course I’m a Christian,” they told themselves, “What else would I be?”

We had a series of Great Awakenings that specifically addressed this problem. The great revival preachers announced to the crowds that sitting in a church no more makes you a Christian than sitting in a stable makes you a horse. We do not go to heaven or hell by congregations, but by ones. You must -- you, personally, must -- be born again. It is an important message, and a true message. It is no wonder that we have placed it front and center. 

Paul taught that message. So did Peter, and Jesus. It’s true. But they didn’t place it front and center. The starting point and centerpiece of their proclamation ministry is another truth, foundational to the message of personal salvation, but bigger.

What could be bigger than personal salvation?

I’m glad you asked.

As we saw in the last chapter, New Testament proclamation starts with John the Baptist. Matthew describes John’s message thus: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (3:2). Jesus preaches the same message after John is thrown into prison in Matthew 4:17. But what does it mean?

Before we let ourselves launch into some complex theological jag, let’s just look at what the words mean. A kingdom is the domain of a king, the place where the king rules. The kingdom of heaven is God’s domain, the place where God rules. But what does it mean to say that a kingdom has come near? A kingdom is a place, and places don’t usually move.

If we say “The State of Rhode Island has come near” it sounds like nonsense. Does Rhode Island have legs? But suppose you lived somewhere around the Mediterranean Sea back in the day, and someone runs into your village shouting “The Roman Empire has come near!” That’s not nonsense at all, and it’s terrifying. Rome was an expansionist power, intent on taking over the world. It was a kingdom that didn’t stay put; it kept growing.

The Old Testament teaches that God would establish an expansionist kingdom that would eventually cover the whole earth. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, interpreted by Daniel, promised just such a kingdom, established by the God of heaven. (Daniel 2:35, 44) In a later vision, Daniel sees “one like the Son of Man” receiving a kingdom from the Ancient of Days. Psalms 2 and 110 likewise promise a messianic king who governs the world and crushes resistance. So when John and Jesus say that the kingdom of heaven has come near, they mean that the invasion is happening. (This is one reason, by the way, that Jesus uses the title “Son of Man.”)

One of the key ways Jesus demonstrates His claim is by casting out demons, and in order to grasp the importance of what Jesus did, we have to understand a little about Jewish exorcism customs at the time. In order to get rid of a demon, they would corner the possessed person and do things the demon wouldn’t like until the demon finally chose to go find a more hospitable victim. It could take days to finally get the demon to go, and even then, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t come back. Over time, the exorcists developed elaborate rituals, trying to find the best way to get them to leave. Because they had no authority over the demons, this is the only way they could proceed. They had to get the demon to choose to leave of its own free will.

Enter Jesus, preaching that God’s kingdom has come near. He doesn’t do any of the elaborate rituals to cast out a demon; He just tells the demon to go, and it goes. He empowers His followers to do the same thing. That’s why the crowds are so stunned -- He’s casting out demons with authority. He doesn’t have to hope the demons will choose to leave; He makes them leave. And then He says, “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:28//Luke 11:20) Has come. It’s not just around the corner, Jesus says. It’s here! God rules, and the demons flee.

The coming of God’s kingdom is the core of Jesus’ proclamation ministry. Announcing the kingdom is how He begins His ministry (Matthew 4:17//Mark 1:14, Luke 8:1). It’s what he announces in the synagogues (Matthew 4:23, 9:35, Mark 1:39) accompanied by miraculous healing and casting out demons. It’s what He teaches the Twelve to proclaim (Matthew 10:7, Luke 9:1-2), also accompanied by healing and casting out demons, and it will be preached in the whole world (Matthew 24:14).

Was that just something to proclaim before the cross? No. In Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, he announces the kingship of Jesus, explaining that God raised Him from the dead and seated Jesus at His right hand until all His enemies are put under His feet. Listen to the climax of the sermon: “Therefore let all the house of Israel certainly know that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah!” (Acts 2:36)

That word “Lord” is important. It’s a word that was used of the Caesars: “Caesar is Lord.” As a number of modern commentators have observed, the announcement “Jesus is Lord” came with the unspoken corollary “and Caesar is not.” It was overtly political, an announcement that above all the kings and emperors of this world there is another king seated at God’s right hand: Jesus Himself. John’s gospel makes the same rhetorical move with different terminology: Augustus Caesar adopted the title “Son of God” for himself; John responds, “These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God….”

What does that have to do with the message of personal salvation? Everything! John continues that sentence: “These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.” Because the ultimate king is Jesus (and not anyone else), we can have eternal life.

Peter’s audience saw the connection too. Their immediate response to Peter’s proclamation was “Men and brethren, what do we do?” (Acts 2:37) They had just murdered the king of the universe; they were the enemies that God was about to put under Jesus’ feet! They needed personal salvation from God’s coming judgment.

The message they heard is the message we all need to hear. Jesus is King, and all His enemies -- all of us -- are destined for destruction. “He will break them with a rod of iron; He will shatter them in pieces like a clay pot.” But in His infinite kindness, Jesus has provided for the rescue of His enemies. He not only offers us a way to escape judgment; He invites us to be adopted forever into His family. His Father becomes our Father. Jesus remains our Lord, but He becomes our High Priest and elder brother, who advocates for us before the throne of God. And we live with Him, now and forever.

Here and now, God is reconciling all things to himself, and He takes us into the family business. Sanctification is the process of our Father helping us get ready for greater levels of responsibility in His work. He will not be satisfied until we’ve grown into representatives that He can trust to reflect His image and likeness to the whole creation. He means for us to live the kind of lives that will let Him justly welcome us into heaven with “Well done, good and faithful servant!” To borrow a phrase from C. S. Lewis, He intends to make you fit for your role in His kingdom, and He doesn’t care what it costs Him, or what it costs you.

Is this message of the kingdom of God just a Jewish thing, something to be preached to the specific people who were complicit in betraying Jesus to the Romans and getting Him murdered? No. Paul continued the trend. Listen to his own description of his ministry in Ephesus, a mixed congregation of Jews and Gentiles: “I have gone among [you] proclaiming the kingdom of God.” (Acts 20:25). Paul continues to proclaim the kingdom right up until the end of the book of Acts: “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” (Acts 28:30-31)

People will ask, “If that’s the case, why don’t Paul’s letters talk more about the kingdom of God?” Oh, but they do! Take, for example, Ephesians, which famously lays out all the benefits that are ours as believers. How does Paul explain these benefits? They are ours in Christ. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing because He is. We are made alive, raised, and seated in the heavenly places together with Christ. All these things are ours because they were Christ’s first; it is only because He is our victorious king that He has these rewards to share: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” Our personal salvation and all its benefits, in other words, are downstream from the historical fact that Jesus is King, and His Kingdom continues to advance.

Colossians is likewise built on the observation that the Father “has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14 ) Again, the message of personal salvation is right there, flowing naturally from the facts of the kingdom.

The same thing is true throughout the New Testament. The message they proclaimed, the message we are called to share, starts with a simple announcement of historical fact: Jesus is King. He was dead, and He is alive, ascended to the right hand of God Himself as King of kings, Lord of lords, and more to the point, President of presidents, Chief Justice of chief justices, CEO of CEOs, General of generals, and so on. Whatever you’re the boss of, Jesus is the boss of you. Whatever bosses you answer to, they answer to Jesus.

Because Jesus is boss, all earthly powers are subordinate to Him, and we owe him our obedience no matter what anybody else says. Because Jesus is boss, we can be saved despite our failures, despite our leaders’ failures, despite everything. He has taken it all into account, died for all of it, and delivers us from sin and brokenness into eternal life, starting the moment we believe and continuing forever.

That is the message they proclaimed. And so should we.

5 - Weaponized Worldview

Proclamation to the general public in the public square, as in open-air preaching, has historically been an important part of Christian witness. It can be really hard to overcome fear of public speaking in general, fear of mockery, fear of being lumped in with the stereotypes that aren’t at all what we’re trying to do. We don’t want to pretend that open-air preaching is somehow easy; it’s not. But in another way, getting up in a random public place and preaching Jesus to total strangers that you’ll never see again is the low-risk way of doing this, with the least danger of repercussions.

It’s another thing entirely to announce the gospel in public spaces where people know you, spaces where you’ll have to show your face again tomorrow or next week. But it is precisely in these spaces that you have the most impact. You’re there for the long term, and people have access to the witness of your life as well as what you say. (Of course lip and life should match, and we’ll come back to that later.)

So what does it look like to announce Jesus as King, with all its implications, in the arenas of public fact where you have daily access? One of the first things to do is stop pretending that you don’t know things that you do, in fact, know. Here are two examples, drawn from our respective areas of work: 

Joe: Jesus is King of Kings

After His resurrection, Jesus ascended to the right hand of God far above all rulers and authorities and principalities and powers. He was exalted above all spiritual demonic and angelic powers as well as above all human earthly rulers. He is King of Kings. This means that all political authority is expressly given from Jesus and that authority should only be exercised within its limited domain. As a city council member, I can’t legislate in areas where the state has constitutional power; so also as a political ruler, I can’t legislate where Jesus has retained authority for Himself or delegated it to someone else (Church or family, for example). In other words, in a world where Jesus is king, government powers are limited.

Governing faithfully means that I operate based on that truth and seek to discern the proper boundaries of my authority as a council member. Breaking the secular truce means that I acknowledge Jesus’ authority with my words in the public square, from the dias or other public forum.

By God’s grace, the United States constitution and the Colorado state constitution contain many provisions limiting the powers of government, but there is a higher authority that limits government, and in fact limits the government even at the constitutional level. I am not at liberty to pretend like the US or state constitutions are the highest authority. Jesus is King.

I gave an example of this above. One of the governor’s covid mandates was that we could not meet in person with our neighbors, even one-on-one outside. Now, I could have objected to that on the grounds that it was a violation of our constitutional right to freely assemble. I don’t think there would have been anything wrong with doing that. But in this case, I choose to publicly reject that rule because Jesus commanded us (everyone) to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus is King and the governor is not. Even if we didn’t enjoy the constitutional protections we have, the governor would still have been in violation of a higher law.

Tim: Jesus is King of Healing

The secular truce treats spirituality like a condiment, and assumes that we can just scrape it off to get down to the essential core of the healing interaction. In reality, when you take Jesus out of healing, the essential core is exactly what’s missing. Because God is kind, you can still manipulate the creation, sometimes to excellent effect, but why would you do that while ignoring the Creator? As a bodyworker that specializes in trauma and its effects on the whole person, deliberately breaking the secular truce means doing my work in a way that embraces the full spectrum of reality, not just some weak-tea secular version. 

I pray for every client that gets on my table. I don’t pray out loud if the client hasn’t invited it, but I pray anyway. Over here in the real world, it actually matters, even if the client doesn’t know I’m doing it -- after all, the client’s not the One I’m talking to. The God who Heals us is revealed in Jesus Christ, and He’s right here. If I’m serious about seeking the best for my clients, why would I pretend otherwise? When they ask, “How did you do that?” or “How did you know?” my answer is always the same: “I have a deal with Jesus -- whatever He gives me for you, I’ll do.”

I don’t pretend materialism is true. There’s a lot more to a human being than just an interesting arrangement of matter. God has told us that He made humanity from dust and breath, matter and spirit. I don’t pretend like I don’t know that, so I’ll say things like “There’s more to this than what it did to your body” or “There’s more to this than just thinking differently.”  That may lead to more conversation, or it may not. I’m often content to just let my clients sit with the fact that Jesus did something significant for them.

I don’t pretend science is the authority. Science is a great tool for grasping the creation God made, but it doesn’t give us everything. Moses didn’t turn the Nile to blood with science; Peter and John didn’t make the lame beggar walk with science. We know that God supernaturally -- magically -- intervenes in the world. The real line is not between science on one hand and magic on the other; it is between hand-in-hand cooperation with God on the one hand, and on the other abandoning His will and ways in order to hack the creation for our own purposes. I want for my clients everything God wants to give them -- and I’ve seen God intervene in ways far beyond what I can do or explain. I tell the truth about that.

What About You?

We’ve shown you how we apply the truth that Jesus is King in our respective spheres of influence. In case we haven’t made it clear, we have no illusions that we’ve mastered all the possibilities that God has given us in these areas. We still have a lot to learn. But ya gotta start somewhere.

So where can you start? What are the public spheres of influence that God has given to you? How can you speak the truth in them?

A Warning

There’s a cautionary note that comes with this. Suppose a new family moves into your neighborhood. You strike up an acquaintance, and after a couple weeks they invite you over to dinner. The food is delicious, the conversation good. After the dessert dishes are cleared, there’s a long, awkward pause. They trade significant glances with each other...and then: “How would you like to own your own business?” they ask.

It doesn’t really matter whether they’re selling natural cleaning products, supplements, essential oils, financial services, makeup, or whatever, it’s kind of the same conversation, isn’t it? And it’s always awkward, and you always wonder if they actually even like you. It seemed like you really hit it off, but was any of it real? Or was it all just a recruiting tactic? 

Let’s not do that with Jesus, okay? We love the people we’re with because they’re worth it. They’re made in the image of God, and every single person is worthy of love, no matter what they do or don’t believe, no matter how they respond to you. We speak about Jesus when and where He leads us to, out of love for the people we’re speaking to. We’re not looking to carve another notch on our Bibles; we’re looking for the good of our fellow humans. So listen to the Spirit, and don’t be a jerk unnecessarily.

6 - Show and Tell

Once you begin loudly proclaiming the gospel in the public square, you will quickly discover that it’s not enough. The gospel has power unto itself, but people are also watching you. After the proclamation, it’s put-up-or-shut-up time. If we claim that Jesus matters in the public square, then we’re going to have to prove it.

Jesus did; Peter did; Paul did. What makes you think you’re off the hook?

Jesus’ ministry was a ministry of proclamation and demonstration. He healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the widow’s son and Jairus’ daughter, and obeyed the Father even to death. He taught His followers to do the same (Matthew 4:23, 9:35, Mark 6:12-13, 16:20). Paul reminds the Corinthians that he came “in the demonstration of the Spirit and power,” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5) and threatens to return in the same manner (4:19-21).

Not all of it was miraculous, either. Paul also reminds the Thessalonians that he and his companions did not “eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.” (2 Thess. 3:8-9) Tabitha clothed the poor and naked. The apostles--all of them but John--died a martyr’s death, as many did after them. During Galen’s Plague, the Christians stayed in the city and cared for the sick and dying while the wealthy (Galen included) fled to their country estates, a trend that continued until we finally shamed the unbelievers into better behavior. To this day, a large number of hospitals are Lutheran, Catholic, Adventist. We could multiply examples…and we should, every day, throughout our lives.

When Peter tells us to have a ready answer to anyone who asks a reason for the hope that lies within us, he isn’t really talking about being able to win an apologetic argument with a philosopher. He’s assuming we’ll be living the sort of life that makes people go “What the heck?!?” The ready answer is the gospel.

You should be living that life already. If someone hears your proclamation and starts asking around about you, or closely watching your life, they should see a life that makes them wonder “What the heck?” That’s the context within which your proclamation makes sense.

We spent 10 years taking a stance of blessing in Englewood. We started with an accidentally parachurch youth ministry, then as our kids aged out, we made a conscious discipline of obeying Luke 10:5 by speaking blessing over people, and making that our starting point for ministry.

Joe served as a pastor-at-large, helping the Englewood pastors stay united. He led the Neighborhood Rehab Project, bringing churches, the city, and the business community together to restore distressed homes, clear brush, and beautify neighborhoods. He fought for much-needed updates to water, storm sewer, and other city infrastructure in two city council campaigns. And he did it all while loving his wife and raising four (now five) children.

Tim served with churches that specialized in working poor and homeless folks. He laid hands on the sick, counseled the lost, heard confessions and pronounced absolution, helped felons re-enter society, fed and loved and prayed with addicts and drunks, served with the Severe Weather Shelter Network, fed people every Saturday night. While he was doing that, he became a bodyworker to extend the ministry of hands-on healing in our city. And he did it all while loving his wife and caring for his aging parents.

Why? Because Jesus is King, and this is what He called us to do.

When we proclaim the gospel in the public square, it’s against that backdrop. The people who know us might be mad about what we’re saying, but they also have to contend with what we actually do. The people who don’t know us...well, they ask “Who is this guy?” and then they have to contend with the answer.

As Elder Sophrony said, “For every argument there is a counter-argument, but who can argue with life?”

This is one of the things that separates biblical proclamation from unhinged lunacy howling through a loudspeaker. Anybody can get hold of a microphone and say anything at all, but all the biblical examples of proclamation backed up what they said with their lives, and if necessary, also with their deaths.

That is also the backdrop against which sharing your faith actually makes sense. We’re generally against “sharing your faith,” and with good reason. As we already discussed, “sharing your faith” usually means laying out some self-help Jesus stuff for your unbelieving friend to take or leave. (In other words, putting Jesus in the private values quadrant, down there with Tony Robbins and Dr. Phil.) Blech.

But there’s another way, a way that you really should share your faith. It’s not about telling other people what you believe; it’s about behaving in such a way that they reap the benefits of your faith even though they don’t yet believe. 

In these moments, you embody your faith, and share the benefits of it with someone who’s not there yet. You know that God is here, sees and loves us, cares for the children, mends the broken marriages, and so on. The person you’re talking to does not have faith that this is the case, but you do. Your job in that moment is not necessarily to tell them things. Your job is to believe the truth enough for both of you, and help them do what they would do if they believed it too--even though they don’t yet. Because you give them courage, they find a way to trust God in the moment, even though they’re genuinely not sure he’s going to come through. And then, when He does...well, that’s pretty convincing, isn’t it?

What does that look like? Here are some examples:

“How could I get married? All my relationships just fall apart anyway.”

“Nobody can do this on their own. Not me, not you. It takes divine intervention, for real — and God really is ready to intervene. Ask Him to help you before you walk in the front door. There’s going to be a moment when you can see the fight about to happen, and you’re about to say something that’s going to make things worse. And you can’t stop it. You can’t think of anything else to say. In that moment, ask God to deliver you. Ask Him to show you another way. He will. And I’m with you -- pick up your phone and call me. I don’t care what time it is, just call.”

And then actually show up for them. Live your marriage in front of them, flaws and beauty and all. Let them see you love each other, fight with each other, haggle over what to have for supper or what movie to watch or how to spend your money or what house to buy. Take their calls at 2:30 in the morning when they’ve had it with each other and don’t know what comes next. Pray with them and ask God to show them a way through.

“Look around — how could I bring a child into this world?”

“You know I see all the same things you do, right? But I see something else, too—God is not done with this place. He’s not done with us. He is teaching us how to be His children, right now. I want my kids to share in God’s family.”

...AND THEN HAVE KIDS!! Read Isaiah 7-9. He’s writing on the eve of the ferocious 722 B.C. judgment, in which God hit the ten northern tribes of Israel so hard we still don’t know where they landed. Isaiah knows the judgment is coming; it’s his (very unpopular) job to announce to all Israel that their entire world is about to fall apart. So what does he do? He has another kid: “Here am I, and the children God has given me. We are for a sign and a wonder in Israel…” See, Isaiah’s ministry is to announce the coming judgment, but also to announce that God is not done with Israel, that God will preserve His people, that there is a hope and a future. Deliberately having a kid is a sign of hope that can’t be faked. It doesn’t make sense; makes people wonder what you’re thinking. Then you get to tell them!

Can’t have kids? (Tim speaking here.) Me neither. I get it. Serve the children and support the parents around you. It takes an extended family to raise children well, and every child that belongs to Jesus around you is part of your extended family. Get to it.

“I’m not necessarily an atheist, but, for real, where is God? Does he even know I’m here?”

“God knows every last thing about you, and He cares. But you don’t just need to hear it from me. [Don’t bow your head, don’t close your eyes, just talk like God’s standing right there with you, because He actually is.] God, this is my friend Jackie. She doesn’t know you’re there, so I’m asking you to show her, in the next 24 hours, that you see her. And she’s kinda skeptical, so would you please make it really obvious?”

God loves to do this kind of thing. Too often, we simply don’t ask Him to. Ask like He’s gonna do it. Coach your friend to just keep an eye out and see what happens. Call her up later to find out what happened. Of course the fear is that she’ll say, “Nothing happened. It was just a normal day.” If she does, get curious. Say, “Tell me about it” and see where the conversation goes. If nothing pops up, just repeat the basic message: “Huh. I don’t know what to tell you. I know God is present in your life, and I know He’s working. I’m looking forward to the day He decides to announce Himself to you.”

“I don’t live the kind of life where God would have anything to say to me.”

“You know how you’ve heard about Jesus dying on the cross? Here’s what they didn’t tell you: He did that so that every sin, every failure, every dark thing about you could be nailed to the cross with Him, and all of it could die there with Him, and all of it could be buried in the ground with Him. When He rose from the dead, He didn't come out dragging a Hefty bag full of your sins. It stayed in the grave; it’s done. As far as God is concerned, it’s taken care of.

And He did that so He can take you for His child, no matter what you’ve done. He’s a good Father and He talks to His kids. So what if we just ask Him to talk to you right now?”

This one takes nerves of steel. You rarely pray as hard as you do when you asked God to speak to someone right now, and now you’re watching the second hand of your watch tick away while you’re waiting for Him to answer. I suggest that you commit to trying it five times and just see what God will do.

Does it work?

Does what “work”? This is not a party trick. God is a real Person -- three, actually -- who is really present, with whom we have a personal relationship, who delights in bringing sinners into His family. We claim to believe that. All I’m suggesting is acting like it’s actually true, right out in public where everybody can see us do it.

Does living your marriage-before-God in public work? Let me answer that this way. My favorite witch was recovering from the rather spectacular demise of a badly dysfunctional relationship. Kimberly and I happened to be leaving an event at the same time she was, and as we walked out the door together, she stopped, faced us, and said “Thank you so much for being together. You guys give me hope.”

Does asking God to speak work? I was driving home from my morning shift driving a school bus when God nudged me to say something to a young man who was holding a cardboard sign by the highway exit. The light changed and I had to pass him, so I ended up turning around and coming back. God led me to give him $5 and tell him “God wants you to know He hasn’t forgotten about you.” That simple conversation turned into a friendship over the following months. One day we were sitting at a table having lunch and he told me about the five different churches he frequented (food banks, meals, chances to take a shower, and so on), and the opportunities he had serve in small ways at each place. He told me that people always appreciated him giving back, and tried to engage him in conversation about God’s will for his life -- but they all told him something different. “What do you think?” he asked.

“What, do you want me to be the sixth one?” I laughed. “Sound like you need to hear it from God Himself.” I invited him to just listen for 60 seconds. For the first 45 seconds, nothing happened. (This will supercharge your prayer life, I promise you!) Then his face changed.

“I just had this sudden thought,” he said. He told me about some opportunities people had offered him for housing and getting started with a job -- opportunities he hadn’t taken because he had no way of paying them back. “All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the thought hit me that I need to humble myself and take the help so I can get on my feet. Was that God?”

You tell me.

7- Proclamation Within The Church

We’ve spoken generically about the “public square” throughout this essay; as a space in which public truth can be publicly proclaimed. But what exactly constitutes public space? The Bible speaks to this. In Proverbs 1, wisdom publicly cries out: in the streets, open squares, from the tops of the city walls and in the gates of the city. These are common places in the city in which people pass through and gather. In modern society, these spaces are also considered public as are some privately owned spaces including shopping malls and marketplaces.

In ancient times, religion was public and religious rites and festivals commonly occurred in public spaces. The court of the temple in Jerusalem was a public space as were pagan temple areas throughout the ancient Roman world. This is an area where secularism has redefined public space-- within secularism, religion is private by definition, so space devoted to religious activity is private as well. This raises an important question: is the church a private or public space? Obviously secularism would define it as private since the church exists for religious activity. But in God’s world, some religious acts, including communion, are seen as public (1 Cor. 11:26).

We’ve been using the word proclamation, but typically kerusso is translated “preach.” And when we think about preaching the gospel, the church comes to mind as the one place where it really is done. Many of the large evangelical churches have an evangelistic mission within the church. Certainly over the last century many people have come to faith in Jesus within the walls of a church. But that’s changing.

It used to be that going to church was considered a positive good. A lot of people didn’t do it faithfully, but in general, society saw church attendance as a good thing, and a lot of people would at least go at Christmas and Easter. That gave us a lot of opportunities to invite unbelievers into a church service and then evangelize them there. As our culture has drifted away from its Christian moorings, the perception of Christianity shifted. First it became neutral -- not particularly good, but a harmless eccentricity, like belonging to a quilting circle or being a serious model train enthusiast. Then, as the conflicts between mainstream culture and Christianity grew more pronounced, the culture began to see Christianity as a negative, a threat to society. In many parts of the country today, church attendance is more likely to make people suspicious of you than it is to make them think you’re a good person. That also means people in need who have traditionally looked to the church for help are more likely to look elsewhere. It still happens that some unbelievers show up at a church, but it happens a lot less than it used to, and we can expect the number to keep decreasing. We can’t count on them to come to us.

Furthermore, within secularism, the church as a religious institution is relegated to the private sphere. The secular truce allows proclamation within the church because by definition, religious claims made within the walls of the church are not considered binding on anyone outside the walls. Church-talk is for church members; it’s considered personal and subjective, not part of public truth.

This means that if unbelievers do come into a church, they expect to hear something optional that may provide them with personal spiritual benefit. They are not expecting a preacher to assert something that is true for everyone. This makes it particularly difficult to communicate what we’re actually saying, especially when the gospel is framed in terms of “receiving Jesus as your personal Savior.” If you’ve grown up in church this may be hard for you to imagine, but to many unbelievers, that kind of gospel presentation in a church sounds like subjective self-help. An altar call sounds like a membership drive to them -- that’s all.

Of course, secularism’s grip on the mind is not ironclad, and God cheats by speaking to people’s hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the church is not a private institution in God’s economy, and secularism can’t make it so by fiat. Nevertheless, the normal place for biblical proclamation is not within the church (notice how proclamation is not included in 1 Corinthians 14), but out where the unbelievers are (go into all the world). The notable exception to this is gathering for the Eucharist, which is proclamation by definition (1 Corinthians 11:26).

8- Boldness and Response

In scripture, the word “boldness” comes up frequently in passages addressing proclamation. After Peter and John had healed the lame man in Acts 3, they were taken before the rulers, elders, scribes and priests of Israel where they boldly proclaimed the gospel. That boldness was observed by the Jewish leaders and they realized there was little they could do to stop them. When they reported back to the church what had happened, the church prayed for their continued boldness. Throughout Acts, boldness is associated with preaching the gospel. Not only with Peter and John, but also with Paul, Barnabas and Apollos.

Paul speaks often of the importance of boldness throughout his epistles and specifically asks that the Ephesians would pray that he would be bold in preaching the gospel, as he ought. Proclamation requires boldness because the medium is the message—you are making a truth claim in the public square. Prefacing that claim with “I think” or “I believe” and stating it without confidence and conviction undermines the message you are bringing.

All the same, timidity is the perennial temptation when it comes to proclamation. This is doubly true today when proclamation requires you to violate the secular truce. In fact, it may feel wrong. It may even feel to you like you are doing something sinful because the secular arrangement is so ingrained in us as decent behavior⁠—like chewing with your mouth closed. People will feel as though you are being rude, that you aren’t listening, that you don’t care about their feelings or their beliefs or that you are arrogant. Nevertheless, boldness is needed because you are making a truth claim in the public square.

Proclamation will require many, especially evangelicals, to change the way they expect the world to respond to them. For many years, evangelicals outside the political sphere have defaulted to a strategy of being inoffensive. We hope that if we can keep on everyone’s good side, we might eventually win them over by our good deeds and kind behavior. Proclamation, especially when done boldly, is not nice. It’s loving, but it's not nice. People will react very strongly in an effort to enforce the secular truce. If getting along with people is your standard, their reaction will make you feel as though you’ve done something wrong. Your unbelieving opponents will try to stop you, censor you, or kick you out. Christians who are complying with the secular truce will feel that you’re making them look bad. Don’t be surprised if they join the unbelievers in trying to condemn and silence you. But you will also be giving your hearers a powerful challenge to their complacent unbelief -- a challenge that is not possible apart from proclamation. 

We need to recalibrate our expectations. “Blessed are you,” Jesus said, “when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.” And on the other hand, “Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” The kinds of people who crucified the Messiah, stoned Stephen and persecuted Paul may like the fact that you are nice (nice people aren’t much of a threat), but they are not going to be won over by the niceness. Expect to be hated. You are the King’s herald, sent out into a rebelling territory where the people deny the King’s authority -- and some of them even deny His existence! If you’re doing your job, of course the rebels will be offended.  

On the other hand, just because you’re offending people doesn’t automatically mean you’re doing it right. It’s easy enough to offend people by being a hypocrite or just an abrasive ass. Your life really does need to align with the gospel you’re preaching. Your character matters. But don’t stop speaking out just because some people object. The gospel is carried in words and goes out by means of preaching. How can anyone believe without preaching?

Some people didn’t believe Jesus. Some people didn’t believe Peter, or Stephen, or Paul. You will have opposition, because of the hardness of their hearts, their love for the world, or because of the works of the enemy. But some will hear and believe. Proclamation works.

Afterword

We originally composed this manuscript as a book, and it’s by far the shortest book we’ve ever written. It’s embarrassingly short. We considered making it much longer, but in the end, decided that the medium is the message.

The Church is failing at effective proclamation. We’re simply not doing it. It didn’t take a big fat book full of hair-splitting distinctions and subtle theological argumentation to make the point. It took this tiny thing -- more of a medium-length essay than an actual book. That’s how glaring of a failure it is.

So let’s fix it.

We have a lot to learn too, and we want to learn from your experience as well as our own. Where is the public square in your life? How can you speak to it? We want to hear your stories: what worked, what didn’t, what felt like a failure but in the end succeeded (or the other way round).

We have been greatly disobedient, and as a result, we don’t fully know what an obedient Church will look like. Let’s find out together.

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Tim Nichols pastor at large with Headwaters Christian Resources, Englewood, Colorado.

Joe Anderson works with Headwaters Christian Resources.

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