Lessons from a Chronological Bibliography of Evangelism

I recently updated a bibliography on the topic of evangelism that I have been nursing for 30+ years. It consists of a chronological bibliography that lists books by the year they were published. The list includes 750+ entries from A.D. 1523 to 2016. This study has caused me to notice several patterns.

#1 Only Those Who Write and Are Published Are Remembered

Perhaps this statement begs the question. My study is based on books that have been written in the past. Therefore the statement involves circular reasoning. Even so, it is only or primarily those who publish who will be remembered after they pass away. If the Lord allows us to leave a continued legacy beyond our lives (humanly-speaking), it is often directly proportional to our opportunity or privilege to write down what we have learned. While Proverbs 19:10 is true, “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable,” it is also true that words are necessary for teaching. There is a necessity for teachers to write for the benefit and training of others.

At the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary alumni gathering at the Evangelical Theological Society meeting last year, President Al Mohler firmly exhorted his alumni to make it a priority to write. It was a great admonition! Writing is time consuming and very difficult. And yet writing is a necessary spiritual discipline for those honored with the biblical title of “Teacher.”

This study is limited to gleaning insights based on past writings. It checks trends and movements based on books that were published of which I am familiar.

#2 Reformed Publishers Tend to Focus Primarily on Doctrinal Works

When perusing the catalogs of Reformed publishing houses, I noted an interesting tendency. They focus first on doctrinal books and second on methodological works. This emphasis displays a “horse and carriage”-type distinction.

It seems that for these publishers the doctrinal priority is of primary importance—since good doctrine always leads to good practice. However, the inverse is not necessarily the case. Apparently “good” practice or pragmatism does not always work its way back into “good” doctrine. In fact, most bad doctrine comes from unbiblical practices reorienting doctrinal viewpoints. Sound biblical doctrine must always inform practice and not visa-versa.

Doctrine is the horse, and practice is the carriage.

#3 Specific Patterns Became Evident in a Chronological Bibliography

While most bibliographies are alphabetical (organized by author from A-Z), chronological bibliographies (organized by year of publication) reveal waves, patterns, and trends. In Ephesians 4:14 Paul spoke of “winds of doctrine.” As the “Horse of History” passes by, movements and fads gain buoyancy and then submerge. Six trends become noticeable when studying a chronological bibliography of writings on evangelism.

• 1820-1960s: A revivalist trend began in 1820, gathered momentum in the early 20^th Century, and then slowly lost steam in the 1960s. There are a number of books in this long wave of publication.
• 1960s to today: A.B. Bruce’s Training of the Twelve (1872) and John Darby’s translating of Matthew 28 as “make disciples” (1884) fed a 20^th Century discipleship movement. The ministry of Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators  in 1933 electrified this movement. Upon Trotman’s death in 1956, Robert Coleman became its de facto leader after he authored The Master Plan of Evangelism (1963).
• 1960s-1990s: As the above mentioned revivalism waned, personal evangelism began to swell. Its programmatic emphasis on personal evangelism grew in the 1960s and continued through the 1990s. Publications in this wave included “The Four Spiritual Laws,” Evangelism Explosion, and Continuous Witness Training.
• 1970s-1980s: As personal evangelism took hold in one generation, the next generation rejected its confrontational elements. A new pattern of publications emerged, focused on lifestyle and friendship evangelism.
• 1990s to the present: Piggy-backing on the tenets of lifestyle evangelism, the servant evangelism wave grew when Steve Sjogren authored Conspiracy of Kindness (1993). This trend continues to merge its strength with friendship evangelism in an intersecting wave pattern.
• 1990s to the present: Meanwhile a new approach to sharing the gospel emerged: gospel-storying. Storying, while having its roots in the 1970s, gathered momentum after Leighton Ford wrote The Power of Story (1994). Since that time Storying has found its champions in academia, missions circles, and local church evangelism strategies.

Often the lines of demarcation between wave patterns are somewhat blurry. Solomon reminded his readers in Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl 1:9). While some waves overtake and consume prior waves, some waves combine to develop greater swells. Once a new wave saturates the church culture, its approach often becomes the new norm.

It appears that the doctrinal validity of a new practice is only minimally questioned at first—since practice is only loosely tied to doctrine. When a wave is found doctrinally wanting, some authors recondition it or baptize it riding its wave with more solid doctrinal underpinnings. Herein is the complexity of teaching in the area of Practical Theology—methodologies are constantly being invented, advanced, and repackaged.

Waves are not bad in and of themselves. However, we who seek to be obedient to Christ must to remain faithful to His written revelation in the Bible. This faithfulness is necessary both in doctrine and practice. And as mentioned above, doctrine is the horse and practice is the carriage. Right doctrine must always trump pragmatism. Practice must remain subservient to good theology.

Jesus warned His disciples, as He prepared them to go out on an evangelism mission trip:

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matt 10:16)

According to Christ the first need of His disciples was an uncanny wisdom. Then, that wisdom needed to be harnessed to His second admonition, the maintaining of an innocent, harmless, and gentle spirit.

So as multiple waves of evangelism methodology spill over American Evangelicalism, right doctrine will steady the ship of the church—which is why I am grateful for the current focus on Puritan theology. As right doctrine is applied to practice, the ship will arrive at its proper destination:

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Eph 4:11-14)

[FYI: A Chronological Bibliography can be viewed on pages 25-39 of this resource: http://www.evangelismunlimited.com/documents/evangelizology/evangelizology-2014-chapter-01.pdf]