Vietnam, B52’s and Evangelism
I’m been reading Ray Bakke’s book, “A Theology As Big As The City.” Ran across the following paragraph that really caused me to think about the role of mass evangelism in the work of transforming cities with the gospel.
“In 1971 Billy Graham held an evangelistic crusade in Chicago while the Vietnam protests against Richard Nixon were permeating the city. Television was making an enormous impact on the practice of mass evangelism, forcing me to reflect on John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” In the name of this incarnate Jesus Christ, it appeared we now were implementing media strategies to save the city from which the church was physically withdrawing. I thought of the Vietnam War, where we parked our B52s on Guam, flew at 37,000 feet, bombed the Vienamese and returned for our night’s sleep while we pulled out the ground troops. It didn’t work, of course. We lost the war. Our technologically advanced strategies did not work. Cities are far too complex a matrix to yield to ministry from a safe distance through the media. All this forced me to ask myself, Is Jesus just our message or is he also our model? In fact, we know now that nearly all urban persons come to Christ through relationships, not through media. The bigger the city, the higher this percentage seems to be.” P. 27-28
For me, the incarnation is a terribly profound statement regarding the best medium to present the gospel. God choose to send his “word”, but it was incarnated. Our message of the gospel is an embodied message and requires our presence.
Mass evangelism and media blitzes are wonderful tools to complement our boots on the ground, but they must never be relied upon to do all or most of the heavy lifting.
The other piece that struck (convicted) me was the imagery of the bombers based a safe distance away, flying a safe distance over the target, then returning for a good nights sleep in the comfort of a distant land. It is not just the methodology that is being critiqued (technological strategies or mass campaigns) but those Christians that are fleeing the city to return to the comfort of their distant land (including me.)
A gospel that will transform cities cannot be proclaimed from afar. Similarly, the gospel that the urban areas of the world need cannot be proclaimed by those who are within but aloof.
Ouch.