In this social media age, what is the most effective way to communicate the good news that God loves people and has provided the way to redeem wholeness in a person’s life through the saving work of Jesus Christ? With the shifting sands of culture, flexible forms for evangelism are needed to retain gospel faithfulness. The rich metaphors found in Scripture still communicate a gospel worth believing.

Bible Gateway interviewed Jonathan K. Dodson (@Jonathan_Dodson) about his book, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing (Zondervan, 2014), winner of the Christianity Today 2015 Book Award.

What do you mean by the title of the book?

Jonathan Dodson: Well, The Unbelievable Gospel is a kind of double entendre. In one sense, the gospel is unbelievably good because it’s honest to affirm the human predicament—sinfully broken—but hopeful enough to offer a divine solution—personal and cosmic saving renewal. The gospel is the good and true story that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil through his own death and resurrection and is making all things new; even us. It’s as big as the cosmos and as small as you and me.

The problem is that many people don’t find the gospel to be true. This gets at the other sense of its un-believability. J.I. Packer says, “Evangelism is man’s work but the giving of faith is God’s.” God is the granter of faith; we’re responsible for witness; and it’s here, in our evangelism, that the gospel often becomes unbelievable to many.

People find the gospel unbelievable because of what we say and how we say it. Often evangelistic efforts come off as preachy, impersonal, intolerant, and uninformed. The gospel is the opposite of each of these. Instead of self-righteous preachy, we preach Christ’s righteousness; instead of coldly intolerant, we preach the warmth of union with Christ and dignify others. You get the idea.

If we’re honest, evangelicals are often more intent in getting Jesus off their chests than getting the gospel into people’s hearts. We operate on checklist instead of investigating why people don’t believe the gospel, respecting their alternate beliefs, and sympathizing with their human struggles, where the gospel actually intersects human need; that is, hope of new creation for the addiction, perfect acceptance for the rejected or overworking professional.

Do you suggest that the word “evangelism” should no longer be used because it carries debilitating baggage?

Jonathan Dodson: No, I don’t think we need to dispense with the word. However, we do need to clarify its meaning. A lot people confuse evangelism with proselytizing. Proselytizing recruits to a cause, but evangelism reasons around Christ.

For instance, proselytizing recruits people to a view of the end times, a position on sexuality, or to a particular church. All of these are not Christ-centered. What people need is Christ crucified and risen with no agendas or pet causes. Paul insisted on clearing the obstacles in front of the cross, including morality, eschatology, and sexuality. We come to Jesus with our sin, not having rid ourselves of it, in the firm hope that he absorbs our guilt and remakes us in grace.

You write that in order for our evangelism to be believable, it must be biblical. Yet you say we live in a culture largely unfamiliar with Christianity and the Bible. In that context, how is the Bible relevant for sharing the gospel?

Jonathan Dodson: The Bible reveals the “eternal gospel” that is enduring and unchanging (see my earlier definition). However, this gospel also enters into culture and is particularized in order to make sense to us. Missiologist Andrew Walls shows how the incarnation is an example of this, where the gospel was manifested in a particular time, in particular ethnicity, in a particular gender, in particular clothing. John Mbiti refers to the eternal gospel as a beggar seeking clothing and shelter wherever it goes. So while the gospel is eternal and unchanging, it is constantly changing clothes in order to enter into culture and make sense to others. The gospel particularizes into Greek, Hebrew, American, hipster, and professional cultures, taking on their “clothing” and language in order to minister its eternal truth to human need.

So the Bible reveals the message and the messenger clothes it so that it makes sense to others. In particular, the Bible communicates the gospel in various metaphors. Jesus uses image-laden metaphors like living water, bread of life, treasure of heaven. Paul uses theological metaphors like justification, adoption, new creation. The messenger needs to know the multi-metaphored message so well that she can select the right one to interest a person’s heart longing—that is, treasure for the wealth hungry, adoption for the rejected or those longing for approval—showing a person that their deepest longings are met, not in creation but in Christ, uniquely and eternally.

You say a fundamental but overlooked question in evangelism is: “How is the gospel good news to those we evangelize?” What do you mean?

Jonathan Dodson: Francis Schaeffer was asked if he had an hour with a non-Christian how would he spend it. He responded by saying he would listen for 55 minutes, and then, in the last five minutes he would have something to say. We have reversed that. We look to drop doctrine, check the evangelistic box, and get Jesus off our chest without actually knowing a person’s hopes, fears, longings, or needs. If we do slow down, we can actually hear their story and show how the gospel story actually delivers on their longings, selects a gospel metaphor that will particularize the gospel in a reasonable compelling way.

What are a few “evangelistic defeaters” you identify?

Jonathan Dodson: “I don’t want to be preachy, intolerant, uninformed, impersonal.” We need to consider the defeaters that leap to mind in the moment of evangelistic opportunity and have wisdom to solve their questions and defeat their objections to gospel witness.

Bio: Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) founded City Life Church with his wife, Robie, and a small group of people. They have three great kids. Jonathan is also the founder of www.gospelcentereddiscipleship.com and author of several books including Raised?: Finding Jesus by Doubting the Resurrection (Zondervan, 2014) and Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Crossway, 2012).