Traveling evangelists are quietly disappearing. I’ve listed some reasons for the decline, but I believe there may still be a future for vocational evangelism.
Clayton King is the type of evangelist I hope we see more of in the coming years. His evangelistic ministry is church-based and Christ-centered. Though he is young, he is already mentoring those coming up behind him.
What I like most about Clayton is that his style of evangelism does not negate (in fact, it highlights) the paradoxical nature of Christian discipleship. The call to discipleship is not just a call to making heavenly accommodations upon your death. It’s the call to pick up one’s cross.
Clayton’s book, Dying to Live: Abandoning Yourself to God’s Bold Paradox
So the title has a double meaning. At one level, Clayton intends to pique the interest of people who are dying to live, people who want to experience life in its fullness and not settle for a mere existence with little purpose or direction. Only Christ offers the meaning and fulfillment our hearts hunger for.
But at another, more profound level, the title takes us into the nature of regeneration. Those who are dying to live in the first sense must realize that they must die to themselves, their sins, and their idolatry in order that they may be raised to a new way of life. By dying, we live. By losing our life, we find it. By taking up the cross, we receive the crown.
Ironically, we find purpose by abandoning ourselves to God’s purpose. Clayton makes the case for this paradox by telling personal stories, reminding us of famous movie scenes, and introducing us to biblical characters. Along the way, he rehabilitates the legacy of Jesus’ disciple, Thomas. Though we think of Thomas as “the doubter,” Clayton reminds us that Thomas was willing to go with Jesus to Jerusalem. “Let’s go die with him!” Thomas once said (John 11:16). Sure, he had his doubts, but Thomas is also a powerful example of following Christ – what it means to abandon one’s personal plans and look to the cross.
As the book progresses, Clayton focuses on what it meant (and means) to declare that Jesus is Lord. Quoting Bonhoeffer, he explains the difference between costly grace and cheap grace. It is only through embracing the costly grace offered to us through the death of Christ that we are able to trust God in the dark times and see our suffering in light of God’s purpose.
Dying to Live accomplishes two things at once. It’s a wake-up call to Christians who may have forgotten the counterintuitive, paradoxical nature of the Christian life. It’s also an evangelistic plea to non-Christians, showing them a great salvation bought by the costly blood of Christ. Clayton does not minimize the costs of discipleship. He emphasizes them. (And that makes him a fellow proponent of the “subversive evangelism” I write about in the last chapter of Holy Subversion.) Pick up Dying to Live and you’ll be challenged by this readable book that shines light on the paradoxical nature of salvation.
