JUDITH PAULSEN. A New and Ancient Evangelism: Discovering the Ways God Calls and Sends. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2024. Pp. 207. $21.99 (US)
Paulsen pulls no bait and switch in her book A New and Ancient Evangelism. Sadly, we cannot say the same thing for the habits of North American evangelism, which generally could be categorized into a superficial presentation at best or used car sales tactics at worst. Paulsen is upfront about this and the book’s premise from the introduction. North Americans have a negative bias toward evangelism (3). Moreover, due to this, churches now avoid developing it as a practice (4). These first few pages invite the reader to know where the tension is amid these two realities: 1) Our broader society is done with evangelism, and 2) so are our churches.
From there, Paulsen engages readers with Scripture by anchoring every chapter in a sacred text. To explore evangelism with a fresh perspective, the author uses eleven chapters to tell the truth about conversion, as seen in the biblical text. Those eleven chapters follow the introduction, and two chapters close the book. One of the closing chapters explores the Great Commission, and the other explains why Jesus sends out followers to share the faith.
As a local church pastor, I appreciate how Paulsen’s book could quickly become an access point to the widely ignored topic of evangelism. Churches do feel stuck in this area. Churches have seen the way evangelism has been done poorly. In response, Paulsen offers room for Christians to wrestle with evangelism, heal from previous hurts connected to it, and reckon with an evangelism history that has damaged people. The book is emotionally safe, and the author brings readers into contact with evangelism in a delicate yet straightforward manner. The Scriptures that anchor each chapter are helpful because the book becomes an in-depth Bible study by default. I did find myself wondering at times from what Bible we were reading. It would help to include the biblical translation and perhaps even an introductory paragraph on why the author chose one particular translation over another.
As readers work their way through the book, they will find the author subtly repeating key points. Some of these refreshingly repetitious points are anchored in the biblical texts of each chapter:
- The Spirit is always working on someone or people before any human arrives.
- Conversion is a process.
- Conversion engages the complexities of pain and not only the niceties of promise.
- Many people will be involved in reaching one person, and the timeline, based on the Spirit’s work, is mysterious.
These points help readers gain a new perspective on the worn-out evangelism process to which most churchgoers are accustomed.
As the book continues, the author provides Christians in the West with a new paradigm, fresh ideas for local churches (58), and even better discussion questions to help us better understand evangelism. As a pastor, I am thankful for this work and contribution. Churches need a tool like this. While that is all true, one unaddressed problem is that Western Christians are exasperated—not just by evangelism but by all things, generally, to do with the local church and the Christian faith. A new evangelical paradigm may help fill a few Christians’ empty cups. For others, their souls must be healed before moving into a new intellectual space. We should still thank Judith Paulsen and see that a good coach does their best to energize a team—albeit a primarily tired squad.
One flaw is that the author leaves the suffering Christian out of the mix. The only area of the book that invited a theological understanding of suffering was the brief statement: “Most of us will live our lives without suffering for the gospel” (96). The Brethren in Christ Church has a historical mission focus. So, the theological understanding of suffering is often connected to what Paulsen showcases here—suffering for the gospel by going, sharing, and risking oneself in the travel to hostile or faraway places. This is part of understanding suffering, though it is incomplete. Our sisters and brothers who are grieving during cancer treatments or around burial plots, for example, have a mysterious opportunity to share Jesus. They do not need to travel or formally become missionaries to do so. Somehow, like Job, they simply need to take their next breath, lament, and grieve. There is a way for the Spirit to remind the world that Christ is the God who suffers with us, a deeply needed evangelistic message in a world filled with suffering.
But for the most part, Christians exasperated by contemporary evangelism can be encouraged by the avenues to evangelism the author suggests. I think even the weariest followers of Jesus will find encouragement by envisioning a church that meets around dinner tables (134), or how the work of arriving at a genuine heart is a precursor to any effective sharing about Jesus (161).
Our churches are in desperate need of a new perspective on evangelism. Paulsen’s book offers us a ready tool. It’s a Bible study, a discussion group guide, and an invitation to awaiting churches who have left evangelism in the dust. Judith Paulsen challenges us where we need it: What if Jesus is not calling us to shake the dust off our feet from evangelism just yet? Let’s leave behind door-to-door sales and find a new path for joining the Spirit’s work in sharing our faith. Thanks to Paulsen, that path forward is here, available, and ready for the steps of the faithful.