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The Community
 of the 
King
 
 by
 
Howard A. Snyder
 
Taken from "The Community of the King" by Howard A. Snyder. Copyright (c) 1977 InterVarsity ChristianFellowship/USA.
 
Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515.www.ivpress.com
 
 
Chapter 6
 
THE KINGDOM MANDATE
The very existence of the Christian community is a sign of the Kingdom of God. But, aswe have seen, the Church also is responsible to walk in those good works which God prepared before hand. It must continue in the world the works of Jesus Christ.The role of the Church is both evangelistic and prophetic, without being exclusively oneor the other. Authentic evangelization is itself prophetic, and a truly prophetic voice isevangelistic. The Church is called to be prophetically evangelistic and evangelistically prophetic.In one sense evangelism is good news and prophecy is bad news. Evangelism and prophecy make up the positive and negative charges of the Church's spiritual power.Evangelism proclaims the offer of forgiveness, new life in Christ and new lifestyle inChristian community. Prophecy proclaims that even if this offer is rejected, God is stillsovereign and will finally establish his Kingdom in righteousness and in judgment.Evangelism is the offer of present salvation; prophecy is the assurance of final judgment.There are many ways the Church's kingdom tasks may be viewed. One might simply listthe kinds of things the Church should be doing. Or the Church's responsibilities inrelation to the individual, the family, the State, the environment and the world might each be considered. In this chapter, however, I have chosen simply to outline the Church'sevangelistic and prophetic roles while emphasizing that this implies no dichotomy between the two. The Evangelistic Mandate just as most biblical images for the Church imply life, so dothey suggest growth or reproduction. It is of the nature of the Church to grow andmultiply itself, just as God's plan has always involved the charge, "Be fruitful andmultiply" (Gen. 1:28). To this life principle is added the urgency of the GreatCommission, the words of the risen Christ.The mandate for proclamation and witness is central in God's cosmic plan, for this plancenters in what God is doing for people (the redemption that brings eternal salvation and builds the Church). And it should be equally clear that the evangelistic task is not -merely the task of individual believers but is a function of the Church as the communityof God's people. Two of the most characteristic words in Acts are marturein, "to bear witness" (from whichcomes the English word martyr) and euaggelizesthai, "to proclaim the gospel" (fromwhich comes the English word evangelize). Both these words occur in one form or another over twenty times in Acts. The great concern and dynamic of the early churchwas to tell the good news about Jesus and the resurrection; to bear witness to what had been seen, heard and experienced.
 
Some writers on the Church have emphasized the word kerygma, referring to the preaching of the early church. It is clear from the New Testament documents, however,that the essential message of the first Christians was more than a fixed kerygmaticformula, and it was more than formal preaching. Most certainly it was more than thedisciples' proclamation of a subjective, existential interpretation of the "resurrectionevent." Rather the kerygma or preaching was grounded in the telling of the good newsabout the resurrection of Christ which the first Christians had witnessed. Both the clear meaning of the book of Acts and a more technical word study reveal the priority of witness and gospel proclamation in the early church .Michael Green suggests in Evangelism in the Early Church that marturia rather thankerygma (witness rather than preaching) should probably be considered the characteristicword of New Testament evangelism . When the first Christians proclaimed the good newsthey were witnesses, and when they died as martyrs they were witnesses. The evangelistictask involved-and involves today-witness both by word and by life. The early Christianshad seen and experienced (I Jn. 1:1-3) the good news; their eyewitness formed the basisfor preaching.The evangelistic task of the Church is to proclaim the good news of salvation in JesusChrist throughout the world, making disciples and building the Church. It is to fulfill theGreat Commission of Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15 and Acts 1:8. Although the role of the Church in God's plan does not end with the evangelistic task, it begins here; therealization of God's purpose depends on this task being carried out.I would quickly make three points here. First, evangelism is the first priority of theChurch's ministry in the world. This is true for several reasons: the clear biblical mandatefor evangelism; the centrality and necessity of personal conversion in God's plan; thereality of judgment; the fact that changed persons are necessary to change society; thefact that the Christian community exists and expands only as evangelism is carried out.The Church that fails to evangelize is both biblically unfaithful and strategicallyshortsighted.Some object to what they call the "prioritization of evangelism" as betraying thewholeness of the gospel. Should evangelism really be put first? The basic priority of theChurch is to glorify God. That takes precedence even over evangelism, althoughevangelism may be a way of glorifying God. But evangelism can be either authentic or a betrayal of the gospel depending on how it is carried out. An evangelism which focusesexclusively on souls or on an otherworldly transaction which makes no real differencehere and now is unfaithful to the gospel. An evangelism of cheap grace which does notcall for true, present allegiance to Jesus as Lord is not true evangelism.What is needed is the kind of radical evangelism which calls people to Jesus Christ andhis body and to identification with the people Jesus showed concern for. Men and womenneed to have their sins forgiven; they need to be born again through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. But they must know that this regeneration means loyalty toJesus as Lord as well as Savior. Evangelism must involve, says Gilbert James, "a
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