Don't mention the E-word 1

A first instalment of the promised back-up - the overall write-up is too long for one post and I want to start with some experiences and motivations - and the main bulk will follow.

Way back in1978 I started my "professional ministry" at CMS as Youth Adviser, and in the previous edition of the CMS youth magazine there was a cartoon which under a caption of "successful evangelism" showed a man fishing on a peer and then leaving without catching and talking with a successful fisherman who had lots of fish - when asked whether he had caught any fish he replies rather lamely " no - but I have influenced a few".

I guess that this is the kind of evangelism which many of us shy away from - and the attitudes to it which give the word a bad name - certainly with the encouragement of Simon Barrington-Ward then General Secretary at CMS I proceeded to challenge the idea with youthful enthusiasm but little success.

Some months later I travelled to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire to speak at a meeting. At the end of the meeting a man came up and challenged me about the cartoon ( assuming that I had approved of it) saying that it had greatly discouraged his teenage daughter - and that it showed a noticeable lack of understanding about fishing.

It turned out that he was a water bailiff on a local estate, and he explained most fish don't come up to bait and take one big bite and get caught, they visit repeatedly and nibble until such time as the bait is small and irresistible and only then does the fisher'man' ( and perhaps not the one that originally set the bait) get his/her catch.

With the wisdom of many years experience as a Christian he suggested that really evangelism is like that too - only a small minority of people come to faith in a sudden single bite of the bait - most nibble at the edges of the Christian faith - and only make a leap of commitment after many contacts. What the Church needs to do is offer numerous different kinds of "bait" for different kinds of fish - and what individual Christians need to do is to make sure they fish without being over concerned about whether they catch anything - but have faith that in God's good time someone will offer the catalyst to commitment.

I forget the water bailiffs name - but he has been one the people that has inspired me to claim space for my understanding of evangelism - and not allow those with a narrow pressuring definition to hold sway.