Review of Michael Green's Evangelism in the Early Church

Green, Michael. Evangelism in the Early Church. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.

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Michael Green’s book makes some good implications for missionary praxis today. By looking at the history of Green’s analysis of evangelism in its first two hundred years after Pentecost, missiologists can draw comparisons between the background of the first two centuries and the modern situation. Because Green’s book is not an attempt to “give a comprehensive account of the mission of the Church in the broad sense” (p. 8), comparisons are limited to those issues related to practical evangelism.

            Green begins his book with a highlight of the 1990s as a decade that should have been a golden time of evangelism. However, he shows how the existentialism of the mid-twentieth century led to post-modernism and deconstructionism with their emphases on evangelism as a personal process for discovering God and a high value on relationships. This is somewhat like the background he describes for the first two centuries in Rome. If there is complexity in spreading the gospel in modern society, there is encouragement in looking at the obstacles faced by the Jewish and Graeco-Roman cultures. Green believes that although the strategies and tactics of early Christians were not “particularly remarkable, what was remarkable was their conviction, their passion and their determination to act as Christ’s embassy to a rebel world, whatever the consequences” (p. 23). Green posits that these characteristics should be the foundation for our present day evangelism efforts as well.

He emphasizes the three elements that allowed a pathway for facilitating the gospel in the first century. The Pax Romana gave an open door for easy movement throughout the Roman Empire. Greek Culture, expressed in a widely disseminated language, gave a structure to presenting the gospel within a single world-view. Judaism had a political appeal with the Roman society that gave the first evangelists a positive footing for sharing the gospel. As modern missiologists, we could say that the early Church contextualized its message for the Graeco-Roman listeners, but it is very clear that they utilized what was available to facilitate the spread of the gospel.

He also outlines the obstacles faced by evangelists. The early Church’s Christology as presented by untrained “nobodies” (p. 51) was a problem to Jewish scholars. The ecclesiology that empowered a local congregation also led to a split between the church and the synagogue. Roman culture also proved to be antagonistic to the private superstitio advocated by these new Christians, and Romans took offense at the Church’s reluctance to worship with the Imperial cult. Intellectuals objected to the wisdom of the cross, and social elites discriminated against the culturally inferior Christians. Truly, evangelism involved “social odium, political danger, the charge of treachery to the gods and the state, the insinuation of horrible crimes and calculated opposition from a combination of sources more powerful, perhaps, than at any time since” (p. 75). Yet, insight into their longsuffering under religious persecution is still apropos for many Christians worldwide today.

According to biblical prophecy, missionary practitioners must help the church face another wave of coming persecution. Of utmost importance is teaching young Christians how to stand under persecution in such a way that the message of the gospel still goes forward. Missionaries must constantly study the backdrop of his target culture to see what pathways exist for facilitating the gospel. And missionaries should help new church plants have a biblical foundation for understanding the primacy of Christ and how a true church behaves. Christology and ecclesiology may have taken some hits in the past, but missions will be impacted directly by a proper theology of Christ and His church.