2. Evangelization is
best seen as a subset
of mission. “Mission
denotes the total task
God has set the
church… Mission is
the church sent into
the world, to love, to
serve, to preach, to
teach, to heal, to
liberate.” (TM 412)
Evangelization
3. Evangelization is
the preaching-
teaching part of
this. It is “our
opening up of the
mystery of God’s
love to all people
inside that
mission.” (TM 412, quoting
Castro)
Evangelization
4. Since evangelization is
basically an
announcement (a piece
of news) about God’s
activity, it is always
connected to missio
Dei. The newsy nature
of the gospel has at
Evangelization is an announcement
5. 1. Words are
required. “This
message [of the
arriving kingdom and
king] is indeed
necessary. It is
unique. It cannot be
replaced [by
unexplained deeds]”
(TM 413)
Evangelization is an announcement
7. 2. Words must be backed up by
lifestyle and action. If the
arriving king has no impact on his
followers, why should anyone
else pay attention to them? If
their lives are unchanged
(unconverted), how can they call
others to “conversion”?
Evangelization is an announcement
9. 3. Church membership cannot be
the primary aim of the
announcement. At its heart, the
gospel is news about God’s
action and his reign, not his
institution. Evangelical leaders
and Roman Catholics have often
taken the mistaken view that the
success of mission correlates
Evangelization is an announcement
10. 4. There is no perfect set
of words that captures
the gospel. “We may
never limit the gospel to
our understanding of
God and of salvation. We
can only witness in
humble boldness and bold
humility to our
understanding of that
Evangelization is an announcement
11. The gospel is “the
announcement of a
personal encounter,
mediated by the Holy
Spirit, with the living
Christ, receiving his
forgiveness and making
a personal acceptance
of the call to
discipleship” (TM 416)
The announcement calls for a personal
response
12. 1. “Principalities and
powers, governments and
nations cannot come to
faith – only individuals
can.” (TM 416) Making
prophetic statements to
governments may be
mission but it is not
evangelization, for
evangelization is always
The personal nature of the response
has several implications:
13. 2. The personal response cannot stay on the
religious surface of a person’s life. It has to
penetrate all the way down to the core of a
person’s being. It cannot be motivated by
social respectability or cultural conformity. It
cannot aim “at satisfying rather than
transforming people.”
The announcement calls for a personal
response
14. 3. The personal response is
an enlistment of service.
“Jesus’ invitation to
people to follow him and
become his disciples is
asking people whom they
want to serve.
Evangelization is,
therefore, a call to
The announcement calls for a personal
response
15. “Evangelization is always
invitation.” (TM 413) It is not a
matter of coaxing people or
threatening them but, as a
matter of common courtesy,
joyfully letting them know
what is about to happen so
they can share in it.
The personal response must be free and
authentic
16. Those who decide to
welcome the king become
part of the church. To
disregard the church as
some “Christians” were
doing in the 1960s is
“totally inappropriate.
Without the church there
can be no evangelism or
The personal response must be free and
authentic
17. The king brings present salvation and
the assurance of eternal bliss; “however,
if the offer of all this gets center-stage
attention in our evangelization, the
gospel is degraded to a consumer
product. It has to be emphasized that
the personal enjoyment of salvation
never becomes the central theme in
biblical conversion stories… It is not
simply to receive life that people are
The personal response must be free and
authentic
18. Evangelization is “that
dimension and activity of
the church’s mission
which, by word and deed
and in the light of
particular conditions and
a particular context,
offers every person and
community, everywhere, a
valid opportunity to be
directly challenged to a
radical reorientation of
Summary
19. The reorientation
involves such things as:
Deliverance from
slavery to the world and
its powers
Embracing Christ as
Savior and Lord
Becoming a living
member of Christ’s
community, the church
Summary
20. The reorientation
involves such things as:
Being enlisted into his
service of
reconciliation, peace,
and justice on earth
Being committed to
God’s purpose of
Summary
