Several years ago now, my wife and I and our young child were hanging out with our Muslim friends in Harmony Park, a central park in our suburb. It was a balmy summer evening. Our children were playing, when I noticed a huddle taking place in one corner of the park. It turned out to be an evangelism team from a local church, gathering round a leader, getting some coaching tips before they were sent into the park to do some evangelism. My friend Hasan chafed at seeing them. Evidently he had an encounter with them the previous week. I pled with him, “Give me a chance to listen to them before you react further.” Little did I know that Hasan would quickly be proven right.

I rushed over to a nearby park bench, where one of the courageous evangelists was making his pitch. I listened in. He started out with the predictable question, “Do you know where you’re going when you die? I’m sure you’d agree, that’s an important question?” The person being addressed was courteous but soon became annoyed and asked to be left alone. I returned to Hasan and we left the park. As we left, I looked over my shoulder. It seemed as if there was a clearing out taking place of that little park. Though I greatly appreciated the courage of that evangelism team, the reaction to their evangelism was stunning. People were leaving in droves. 

This anecdote illustrates at least two glaring missteps with these evangelism practices of the past:

1. A lack of any sense of context, quickly followed by
2. A presumptuous (even coercive) posture.

Permit me to address both in greater detail.

The Contextual Problem

First, these ways of evangelism seem ignorantly unaware of context. Whether it be through Billy Graham Crusades, Evangelism Explosion, the Four Spiritual Laws, or the Romans Road, our common ‘evangelical’ methods of evangelism presume one message in response to one existential experience: the experience of guilt and shame over sin, and our resulting worry about what comes next when we die. This was a very real existential experience among white European inheritors of the Catholic, Lutheran and other Protestant liturgical churches of the previous century. These existential realities lied resident in particular within the white European cultures of post World War 2, an anxious cultural season in the mid 20th-century whereby many longed for assurance from the global calamities around them. This assurance was offered by the Church and a more personal relationship with God through Jesus.

The success of these past evangelism practices however was largely among the white Caucasian middle class masses of post World War 2 North America. It missed significant other contexts within North America almost entirely: Namely, the black church context, the context of the poor, the context of other ethnic minorities, and the context of those secularized in Western universities. 

In 2025, most of us are more aware that we live among multiple cultures in North America. The past approach to evangelism no longer makes sense because it focuses on one entry point that fits contextually with just one culture. The past approach assumes a monolithic (even hegemonic) culture. Years later, amid a growing multiculturalism within the West, the approach of the Romans Road or the Four Spiritual Laws presumes to answer questions most people simply are not asking. 

We need fresh ways of entering a context and listening to people with patience, waiting for God to move (prevenient grace) and reveal Himself at work in people’s lives, social groups, and contexts. Only then, after deep listening has taken place, can we recognize the Spirit moving, drawing a person to Himself, and revealing what He is doing in the life and culture of a person. 

As we are ‘with’ people in their social situation, any number of things become revealed over time: guilt over sin, longing for reconciliation, a deep sense of emptiness and loss of purpose, an anger against the injustices of the world around him/her, etc. The gospel of Jesus Christ speaks good news to all of these people, in all of their experiences, within every single cultural expression that they live within. Our role as followers of Jesus? To simply continue to listen, understanding their context, and then when it is appropriate, to share the good news revealing who Jesus is and what He is doing. 

The past approach to evangelism no longer makes sense because it focuses on one entry point that fits contextually with just one culture, assuming a monolithic (even hegemonic) culture. (1/2) Share on X

Years later, amid a growing multiculturalism within the West, the approach of the Romans Road or the Four Spiritual Laws presumes to answer questions most people simply are not asking. (2/2) Share on X

I believe the gospel is the whole story of what God has done to fulfill His promises to Israel to put the world right, and that God has accomplished this in Jesus Christ, and is reconciling the whole world to Himself in and through Jesus Christ. Within this Grand Story of what God is doing, and where He is taking the world, there are many entry points. There is forgiveness of sin, reconciliation with broken relationships, recognizing God’s justice at work and joining with Him in seeking this justice, healing for a broken body or a broken soul, helping to break the hold of addiction, or of the principalities and powers over our lives, and many other things. All of these entry points are openings that if entered, must lead to Jesus and the whole Story. We cannot assume one entry point for all.

We need therefore a practice of ‘Presence Based Witness‘ that teaches us how to be fully present to people who are carrying the struggles and pains of their neighborhoods, before we offer the gospel itself. We need a practice of ‘Presence-Based Witness’ that helps us see the whole gospel for what it truly is. Then, only after we see, hear, and discern God’s prompting in a person’s life, only after opening space for the Holy Spirit to work and move, can we offer an entry point to the gospel. It’s as simple as wondering questions like these:

• “Do you see what I see God is doing?” followed by
• “Are you interested in joining in?” followed by
• “Are you interested in making Jesus Lord of your real life in this world?” 

This entry point could be revealed in one’s personal life, or it could be communal, existing as a longing for justice in one’s neighborhood. In each case, the gospel made known leads to whole Story of who Jesus is and what He is doing in and among us. It could lead to a reconciled family becoming whole or a march through town praying against systemic racism. All efforts become a witness to what God has done and is doing, and an invitation to join in God’s restorative work. 

I believe my experience in Harmony Park with my friend Hasan would have been starkly different if we had taught that evangelism team to be “with” people, listening and discerning their context, seeking to hear both the groanings and longings deep within. After many months, as the Spirit works among us, the gospel can be shared in a way that gives everyone an entry point into the Lordship of Christ for their lives, their neighborhoods, and the world.

I believe the gospel is the whole story of what God has done to fulfill His promises to Israel to put the world right, and that God has accomplished this in Jesus Christ. (1/2) Share on X

God is reconciling the whole world to Himself in and through Jesus Christ. Within this Grand Story of what God is doing, and where He is taking the world, there are many entry points. (2/2) Share on X

The Posture Problem

There is also a posture problem in the evangelistic ways of the past. The evangelist entering the park that day carried a subtle posture of superiority: We know we are right, and therefore we are going to convince you of that fact. This comes across as an arrogant superiority complex. Furthermore, the lack of contextual awareness shapes a presumptuous posture: We presume to know what your problem is before we even talk to you. We are going to convince you are a sinner, and if you are not feeling guilt, you should be. All of this comes across coercive and unhelpful.

European colonialists of the past often went as missionaries to a foreign land, bringing a gospel, a salvation experience, and a cultural formation that was first worked out in their home cultures/home churches. They believed this gospel was THE gospel. These missionaries often did not listen long enough, with an open posture, to understand the people they were meeting before they brought their gospel formulations and imposed their cultural structures on a foreign people. These are the classic problems and false solutions that colonialism exhibits (Note: I recommend reading Rev. Dr. Willie Jennings’ The Christian Imagination for a powerful and prophetic critique of this colonial approach to Christian mission).

But there is no coercion to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The power of God at work in Jesus through the Spirit never coerces. Our God is a God of love, self-giving, and healing power. Instead of connecting with someone outside the faith with presumption, or even coercion, we must recognize that Jesus is already present and at work wherever we go. As Jesus teaches, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:1). Our role is to be present among people, tending to what God is already doing before you got there. Let the free-flowing, gentle healing work of the Spirit be revealed as you are with people. There simply can never be coercion where God’s power is at work. 

Gino Curcuruto and I call this “Presence Based Witness,” and our hope is to train persons and churches into this practice. We teach Christians how to be present, tend to what God is already doing, and cooperate with His work in and among a group of people. Only after discerning God’s work in the life of a person, and the struggles of a place, do we give witness to seeing God, and asking if others see Him too. Only then do we invite. Never coerce. This is what “presence based witness” is all about. 

There is no coercion to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The power of God at work in Jesus through the Spirit never coerces. Our God is a God of love, self-giving, and healing power. Share on X

Presence-Based Witness

I do not wish to disparage evangelism practices of the past. I am sure they were effective with a particular people group at a specific time when Christianized culture seemed monolithic. But for many of us, we are well past this era. We live and breathe amidst multiple cultures now, among people with various experiences of pain and hurt seeking a healing transforming Jesus. We live in a secularized culture with multiple struggles and pains, all of which God has come in Christ to heal and transform. 

We must move on from presumptuous ways of evangelism and go and sit in the ‘Harmony Parks’ within our neighborhood, being with our neighbors, praying that the presence of Christ becomes seen and experienced, and seeking to be faithful as laborers in the harvest. For we are “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing…we are not…peddlers of God’s word; but as persons of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the presence of God, we speak in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14-17).

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We must move on from presumptuous ways of evangelism, present within our neighborhood, being with our neighbors, and praying that the presence of Christ becomes seen and experienced. Share on X

*Editorial Note: David Fitch and Gino Cucuruto are long-time friends of Missio Alliance. Order Presence Based Witness, their short book, here. It releases today! ~CK