Evangelism as exiles

Some lessons from 1 Peter

In the last Welsh census, Christianity officially became a minority religion. In the “land of revivals”, only 43.6% of the population identified as Christians — compared with 71.9% just 20 years earlier.

The reality is, of course, more complicated than statistics. But it’s certainly true that Christianity no longer has the same standing in society that it once did. My 35 years of life have seen a growing marginalisation of Christian influence and an increased suspicion of many Christian teachings. Church weddings and funerals have become less and less popular. All of this has an impact on our task of proclaiming the good news of Jesus.

Faced with this shifting cultural context, our instinct as Christians may be to panic. Or despair. Or get annoyed. But those are rarely good options.

Instead, like many brothers and sisters before us, and around the world today, “we must learn what it means to do evangelism as exiles, as strangers and outcasts in our own land.”

That’s the exhortation of Elliot Clark, author of Evangelism as Exiles (published in 2019 by The Gospel Coalition). His book explores how we can be Christian exiles on mission, based on the letter of 1 Peter. A friend recommended this to me recently, when they heard I was starting a sermon series through 1 Peter, and I’m very thankful for their recommendation.

It’s not a long or difficult book, but it is rich with both challenge and encouragement. Elliot Clark draws on his cross-cultural experience, illustrating his message with examples from the global church as well as from biblical history. Although it’s written with an American context in mind, it is very much applicable to the UK. And, even better, it’s free to download.

Here are a few of the lessons I found particularly helpful…

Rejoicing in hope

Here’s a fun fact: according to his great mercy, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That’s pretty amazing!

And it’s also a great encouragement when we are treated as cultural outsiders. We know that "earthly isolation and humiliation are only temporary". God will one day exalt us, "giving us both honor and also a home." (p34)

The challenge, of course, is remembering this hope and living in light of it.

We can be tempted to become overly concerned with our cultural influence, our social standing and our political power. Rather than remembering our imperishable inheritance, we can become “focussed on grabbing for power and recognition, for glory and honor in this life." (p35)

The result is both a loss of courage in our evangelism, and a distortion of our message — or at least what people interpret our message to be. We can end up communicating that our greatest hope is in the present age, rather than the one to come. We can end up communicating that "our greatest fear is the loss of money and power and influence, the loss of our beloved comfort." (p62)

We need to keep renewing our commitment to Peter’s exhortation, to “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:13). This is a hope worth fixing our eyes on, a hope worth talking about. It’s a hope that remains true whatever our status or circumstances. It’s a hope that the world won’t find anywhere else. Let’s not miss the opportunity to share it with them!

Reasoning with respect

One of the most quoted verses in 1 Peter is chapter 3, verse 15: “In your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (NIV).

That last word is important: Respect. You can’t witness effectively, especially not in exile, unless you treat people with dignity and respect.

For various reasons, Christianity does not have the same “respectable” status that it once did in the UK. In the eyes of many: “Pastors aren’t trustworthy. Churches are suspect. Bible-believers are bigots” (82). But even when people don’t respect us, we can respect them. We should respect them. And that respect is itself a positive witness to Christ.

It can be tempting for us to try and gain status for ourselves by disrespecting others. We can mock our political opponents, we can deride people for being “woke”, we can make derogatory remarks about those who we disagree with. But we shouldn’t then be surprised when the gospel of Christ’s love is dismissed by those on the receiving end of Christian disrespect.

The elect exiles in 1 Peter show us a different path: one of humility, gentleness and respect. They didn’t dilute the message, which would continue to be an offence and a stumbling block to some (2:8). But they were called to share this message with respect.

The path laid out in 1 Peter is the way of honouring everyone, even the Emperor (1 Peter 2:17). It’s the way of blessing even those who persecute us and doing what we can to live at peace with others (1 Peter 3:9-12). It’s the way of seeking the good of others more than we seek our own rights.

And so, we honour Christ as Lord.

Redefining opportunity

Meryem was a 17-year-old follower of Jesus living in a Muslim-majority country. One day, she decided to respectfully challenge a teacher who was repeating lies about Christianity. She put her hand up in class, explained that she had been reading the Bible, and began to outline some of its teachings. She knew there could be consequences, and she was right. The teacher stopped her and reported her to the principal, who threatened her with expulsion and the possibility of legal action.

Reflecting on her experience afterwards, Meryem said this was an evangelistic opportunity too good to miss. She had been “waiting for an opportunity” like this. But would we have seen the situation in the same way? Or would we have seen this repressive school environment as an opportunity to keep our heads down and stay silent?

Elliot Clark offers this perceptive assessment: “We increasingly define ‘evangelistic opportunities’ as those rare instances where we perceive others to be open to the gospel. When we think we have a willing audience. When we surmise that those around us are sympathetic to our perspective and will listen without rebuttal" (90).

As exiles, though, we need to acknowledge the error of this approach in our cultural context. If we depend on others to express an interest in the gospel, we will spend a lot of time in silence. “If we continue the pattern of waiting for perfect opportunities, they may never come” (92).

For Peter’s original readers, however marginalised they were, their calling was to “proclaim the excellencies” of their life-giving, life-transforming God (2:9). They may be reviled, they may be rejected, they may be persecuted. But they had an opportunity for proclamation — and so do we.

We’re capable of finding and creating opportunities to speak about a whole range of things we’re passionate about — football, music, holidays, pork pies, etc. Let’s not miss the opportunities to speak of the Lord!

Embracing weirdness

At the end of the book, Elliot Clark gives this summary diagnosis of our evangelistic reticence:

"As I see it, one of the greatest hindrances to everyday evangelism is our desire to fit in and be normal. But exile—coming face to face with the reality that we don’t belong—has a way of opening up our horizons to the possibility of being different and strange. We who by nature long to be insiders, to be accepted and approved, can be freed from that burden and as outsiders take the scary step toward being culturally inappropriate—in positive and proactive ways—and do the otherwise unthinkable." (156)

As I continue preaching through 1 Peter, one of my hopes for our church is that we’ll become increasingly emboldened by remembering our identity as “elect exiles of the Dispersion in Bridgend.”

In fact, that’s my hope for the UK church as a whole, whether we live in Bridgend or not. To quote one of the last lines of the book: "We should keep Christianity weird. And in so doing, we just might reach our neighbors." (156)

Links

You can download a PDF of Evangelism as Exiles for free from The Gospel Coalition here. If you like books with a paper back, you can get it from 10ofThose, the Evangelical Bookshop, or your local bookseller.

If you want to join our church’s journey through 1 Peter, you can listen in on YouTube here.