The Evangelism Style of the Celtics

Much of the evangelism we have known is one-on-one, as urged by Soren Kierkegaard. One person, engaging another, presenting the gospel message and attempting to solicit a decision.

There is also street preaching, revivals and crusade evangelism. Often, recent approaches to evangelism, as we have noted, have had a confrontational edge to them. Many require learning a script and a bevy of memorized scriptures used as an arsenal. Evangelism feels to some like us-against-them and too adversarial. The great majority of Christians have opted out of evangelism as a result of these approaches – that number, according to some statistics, is as high as 99 percent of all Christians who have adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about Jesus.

We have encouraged in previous chapters triplets – a kind of mini-support team in which all three are aware of the other’s friends who need Christ and all three are willing to help with engagement and support. This encourages an informal accountability of one another.

The Celtics used a team approach. They would identify a village without a church, and as a team, they would engage the villagers in friendship, in conversations, and to ministry toward them (service: acts of kindness) all the while looking for opportunities to witness. The ultimate goal was to establish a church in the village with those who had become believers, but were also members of the community, and then move on. This was not extraction evangelism, but attachment, insertion, the integration of the gospel into the life of the community. They left the witness of changed lives who then attracted others to the church. The Celts believed that, as a team, believers could pray together, think together, inspire and encourage one another onward. Alone, an evangelist was easy prey to discouragement, self-doubt, the dulling of vision, and the dwindling of the inner fire of evangelism.

For a team member to prepare to be a vital well-functioning part of the group, the Celts had a five-fold preparation regiment. First, was solitude. Private prayer and meditation. This was voluntary but essential. Celtic leaders advised their followers, “go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.” This is right out of the tradition of the dessert fathers of the Eastern church. Get alone with God – and that has the power to change you. Second, find a “soul-friend,” a peer, who is on the journey with you. Not a pastor, not a spiritual director – but a partner. Be vulnerable and accountable one to the other. Support and challenge each other, as iron sharpens iron. Third, join a small group of ten or less people – again, peers, and yet, with a leader whose life is marked by devotion. Fourth, participate in the life of the community/church – shared meals, work, learning opportunities, biblical readings, prayer times, ministry outreaches, and worship when the entire community was gathered. Finally, learn from evangelism ministry experiences.

The purpose of the multiple engagements was to be rooted in the gospel and scripture. Together, we experience the presence of God and His power for witness. We are moved to fulfill our Christian and we gain confidence as we minister together.

Two distinct models of evangelism are dominant in looking back into church history – the Roman and the Celtic model. In the Roman model, evangelism was a presentation. In the Celtic model, it was embedded in fellowship. In the Roman model, the goal was a decision. In the Celtic model, the goal was conversation and ministry. In the Roman model, fellowship was offered following the decision to follow Christ. In the Celtic model, fellowship led. Out of relationships, conversation and ministry, beliefs were engaged with the invitation to commitment to Christ. The Roman model emphasized content, the proposition, the decision, and only then, the relational. The Celtic model emphasized the relational, care, sharing – a more casual approach, an invitation to belong, before the invitation to believe. One is truth based. The other love based. In the first, love follows truth. In the second, truth follows love. The Celtics believed, “Christianity is more caught than taught.” George Hunter asserts that in his work among Gen X and Gen Z converts, they felt like they belonged before they came to believe.

Jesus called his disciples, a rag-tag group, whose faith was inconsistent at best. It was late in his ministry when he asked the question that we might have assumed should have been asked at the beginning, “Who do men say that I am?” And, more probing, “Who do you say that I am?” (Mt. 16:13-15). They belonged, and in their belonging, they came to believe that he was without a doubt, the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

A study by the United Bible Societies of Great Britain is telling. A research team reviewed 360 questionnaires from converts. They interviewed almost half of them – 151. Over 511 converts were from across the denominational spectrum, from Roman Catholic, Anglican to members of ‘free churches.’ John Finney, in Finding Faith Today: How Does It Happen? reported that today’s converts experience God first through relationships in a community of faith, formal or informal. It is not a decision with this generation; it is a process. In a sense, they are discipled to conversion. Finney noted, “belonging comes before believing.”

The Celtic model of evangelism impacted whole villages and here is how. First, the Christians were credible. They lived the values of their faith. Second, they engaged the village leaders first and explained their mission, seeking their blessing. Then, establishing their camp next to or near the settlement, they began to engage the people – not evangelize them, but befriend them. They sought to understand them. They did not assume a telling posture, but one that listened. They invited villagers into their community to see how they lived and behaved. That is, community preceded conversion.

In the model Jesus used, he invited those who were exploring, who had not made a decision about him, into his circle. He gave them opportunity to examine his life and hear his teachings in an intimate context. There, they heard the gospel, saw the gospel demonstrated and embraced, the message that invited faith in Christ as Savior and Lord.

Anselm, an early church father, called theology “faith seeking understanding.” The Celtic model gave inquirers the space to ‘seek understanding’ as they explored faith. A key part of the Celtic evangelism model was conversation. They called it ‘the ministry of conversation.’ Dialogue. Back and forth processing. Questioning was not only permitted but encouraged.

Another feature of Celtic evangelism was their flexibility. They did not have a one-size-fits-all wineskin. They allowed each community latitude in forging a profile of communal faith. They adapted to the culture. Their approach was indigenous, bottom-up, inside-out, and not top down but, outside in. The values were solid, but the culture and customs created varied from community to community. Many mission movements utilize extraction, extracting new converts from the old culture. Often called a ‘slash and burn’ mission strategy, it goes head-to-head with the existing culture and its faith practices.

The Celtics looked for parallels in the indigenous faith, and drew on those, to help the transition to Biblical faith. They built on the native’s belief in God, for example, pointing out the uniqueness of the Christian’s God. They clarified creation accounts, pointing to God’s goodness, His sovereignty. From existing belief systems, they helped the people construct a Christian worldview.