Servant Evangelism Examined

A recent buzz word I have ran across is a style of reaching the lost called Servant Evangelism which is credited to Steve Sjogren. I decided I needed to understand its teaching so the following is my thoughts on its biblical basis. 

The basic premise of SE as stated on Steve’s website is for a “straightforward approach to sharing God’s love in simple, practical ways” which is further clarified as a “no strings attached’ method.

I have some reservations and concerns about SE after doing some research. The lack of biblical support or a clear declaration of what the Gospel is on the website prompted the need to look to the biblical text to examine if SE is really evangelism at all. 

The first point of contention I have towards SE is that it equates “sharing God’s love” with acts of service like: handing someone a free soda on a hot day, washing someone’s car then paying them, or cleaning gas station restrooms. We should ask the question to ourselves, what does God’s love look like? Let look at Romans 5:8.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Here we see that God’s love equals Christ dying. So when we do acts of service and say we are sharing God’s love are we saying that God’s love equals getting stuff? Acts of service are good things but our good works are a result of our appreciation for God “sharing His love” towards us in the atoning work of Christ.

The next issue I take with SE as it is described is that it appears to discourage biblical evangelism. In the FAQ section of the SE website it states: 

“To give out a tract as we serve would defeat the concept of free. If we served and distributed tracts, we would convey conditional love”…“Be careful not to come across as though you have an ulterior motive. Pre-Christians can sense a mixed motive from a block away.”

Are we saying that to want to proclaim the word of God is “an ulterior motive”? Doesn’t the bible say that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”- Romans 10:17

Lastly, SE emphasizes charitable acts over gospel proclamation. This has an inherited logical flaw. Examine the quote below:

“We lay down our lives through service. Church members have many opportunities to serve. We can do small acts of kindness for our neighbors, take part in community service, fulfill responsibilities within our local congregations or contribute to the Church's large-scale humanitarian efforts. These actions, whether great or small, let us feel the happiness of connecting with our brothers and sisters and remind us that God often allows us to be the answer to someone else’s prayers.”

SE promotes small acts of kindness in an effort to demonstrate God’s love towards other. The idea seems to be that if they see God’s love in us they may come to know Jesus. But which Jesus? The Jesus of the bible or the Mormon Jesus, or the JW Jesus, or some other man-made image. You see, the quote above is from the Mormon Church. It could have been just as well from any Christian denomination. But what do you do if hand out free sodas at one red light and then at the next red light the Mormons are giving away sodas and a sandwich? You can’t compete on kindness in the worldly sense. Only the love of God as describe in the bible as the His payment for sin leading to eternal life is true kindness. The Gospel is sufficient. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

But don’t take my word for this. Examine the scriptures as to what is the Love of God and by what means does God save sinners. If we do not follow God’s prescribed plan no matter how it may rub against the grain of worldly wisdom our efforts will be vanity.