Last night I went to a church service and the title of the talk was "Evangelism." The particular church is very artsy, very "emerging." A lot of people wear horn-rimmed glasses. They're influenced a lot by people like Rob Bell and Donald Miller. They like painting or writing or music, and more likely all of the above. They meet in a coffee shop. They talk about Revolution a lot.

Anyhow, the pastor, a very talented teacher, was pretty much raised in Campus Crusade, where Evangelism was/is explained to be about taking people through the four laws. He said he never felt like he could do it before; that this particular method made him feel incompetent, like he could never "do evangelism," if "evangelism" was just explaining tracs. His solution? Just make friends with people, and they will see the Holy Spirit working in your life and come to a knowledge of what the Kingdom of God is about.

But, see, I guess I have a bit of a problem with both of these modes of evangelism.

The trac method, as I see it, has a couple of flaws from where I stand. One is that it makes "evangelism" seem like something you "do" for a half an hour each week, instead of something you live every moment. Christians have really done a good job of making missions the same thing: It's become an event, not a lifestyle. The other problem is that while a person might get all of the information about the Gospel, they don't get to witness the power of God's love. This comes through relationship. And as Brad Buser once said, most of the world spells "relationship" T-I-M-E.

The problem with the relational model that was explained to me yesterday is, of course, the opposite. The way this pastor explained it was that the people you reach out to might not get a clear grasp of who Jesus is, but they will see his power in your life. They might not be able to grasp the four laws, but they will see your love for them (a channeling of God's love for them). Which is nice, but does it make a difference in eternity? "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

Why does evangelism have to be one or the other? Why can't evangelism incorporate both the love and grace of relationship and also the clear explanation of the Gospel so that they might believe and be saved?