Is Evangelism an "Un Anglican Thing To Do" ?

By David Valentini
4/9/08

When the idea of evangelism comes to mind, many men and women may hold certain images; some of these range from a man impeccably dressed and zealously telling the audiences to commit their lives to Christ, to people coming to your door on a Saturday and asking if you have been "saved." This brings me to my first point.

In the Western World, a large number of people believe that to be an evangelical, one must be a member of a very fundamentalist Christian community or a "mega-church" that fills all the seats on Sunday morning. However, we are all evangelicals, whether we are High Church, Broad Church, Low Church or an "evangelical." After Eastertide, our Lord appeared to his disciples, and exhorted them to go throughout the world making "disciples of men"; this is called "the Great Commission." In fact, the Scriptures recorded this event prominently.This passage was not taken out by the Undivided Church, who edited the Bible that appears in its current form.

This is an important subject to discuss because, for at least 200 years, there has been a mild division between Anglo-Catholic, Broad and Low Churchmen, and Evangelicals; each side believes that their approach to the Faith is superior to the others. However, despite our different approaches to Christianity, we as Anglicans collectively are responsible for sharing our faith to those who do not know Christ, the second person of the Godhead of the undivided Trinity, "once essence and divided." This leads us to the next point.

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