The very word “evangelical” stands for someone who wants to bring the Gospel to others. But are current models — teach your children, entice your friends — working?

USA TODAY’s Monday Forum highlights a “recovering evangelist,” Jim Henderson, who argues for “new ways to be publicly and persuasively Christian in the 21st century,” according to an essay by religion commentator Tom Krattenmaker.

Henderson would drop the “bait and switch” tactics of relationship evangelism where every gathering is a set up…

designed to segue into a Gospel pitch. Henderson has a fascinating alternative to propose: all bait, no switch.

Call it promotion by non-promotion, evangelism by attraction, goodwill mongering, or letting one’s life speak for itself, but this is what will best represent the faith among the many Americans who do not share the evangelical faith. Henderson and his fellow travelers are right in urging would-be evangelists simply to get to know people, become their friends and let the spiritual chips fall where they may.

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SOURCE: USA Today | Faith & Reason

Cathy Lynn Grossman