Local Impact Team
Foundations for Needs-Based Evangelism
Jan 1, 2003
Engel promoted a revolution. Not Engels the Marxist thinker, but James Engel the missiologist. He first outlined what has become known as the 'Engel Scale of Spiritual Decision'. This describes the way in which an individual, or by extension a whole group, progress in their understanding of the Gospel, as God's sovereign grace begins to illuminate their hearts. By understand the way God communicates, we can become better co-communicators.
+5 Stewardship +4 Communion with God +3 Conceptual and behavioural growth +2 Incorporation into Body +1 Post-decision evaluation New birth -1 Repentance and faith in Christ -2 Decision to act -3 Personal problem recognition -4 Positive attitude towards Gospel -5 Grasp implications of Gospel -6 Awareness of fundamentals of Gospel -7 Initial awareness of Gospel -8 Awareness of supreme being, no knowledge of Gospel
Don't be put off because it looks mathematical! For instance, when someone has come to realise they have a spiritual problem, they are at -3 on the scale. If we understand roughly where a person (or a whole target group of people) stand spiritually on this scale, we can adjust the way that we present the Gospel to them. [More detailed graphic of Engel Scale]
Others have suggested different refinements of the Engel Scale. Frank Gray of FEBC Radio, has proposed a horizontal axis of antagonism/enthusiasm to create the Gray Matrix. It is a remarkably simple but enlightening concept because it helps us to visualise important evangelistic concepts. Christian evangelistic communication has often failed to touch people who are low down the scale, because it has been presented in Christian language and thought-forms and has not engaged with those it was intended for. The tragedy is that so often, evangelism is only touching the 'once-churched' (those with some Christian background) rather than the 'never-churched' (those who know nothing of the Gospel at all). The lower-left oval shape represents a person or group of people who are fairly resistant and lack knowledge. The challenge to us is always to use approaches which reach down as far as possible into the bottom left-hand corner!
The lower-left purple oval shape represents a group of people who are fairly resistant and lack knowledge. The challenge to us is always to use approaches which reach down as far as we can into the bottom left-hand corner!
Lessons from the Gray Matrix Effective evangelism not only requires people to obtain more knowledge - they must also move from a position of antagonism/indifference to a more positive viewpoint. They are unlikely to wish to find out more until they view Christianity more positively.
Anything which moves people from left to right across the scale is 'evangelistic'. This might include acts of service and friendship, mum and baby clubs, medical and development work - many things which are not apparently 'preaching' but which minister to felt needs Yet in fact, the word Jesus used when he told us to 'preach the Gospel' has a much wider meaning than speech - it refers to communication. (There is a Christian debt-counselling service in UK, where 80% of those helped are eventually converted!) For some people groups, apologies offered for the past historical actions of groups perceived to be 'Christian' are also healing hurts and reducing antagonism to the Gospel.
If we can understand roughly where a single person or target group of people is situated on the scale, we can choose an appropriate approach to reach them - and we will need to understand their culture - how they really feel, think, and react.
If people are near the bottom of the scale, we must not use Christian language and ideas which will mean nothing to them. We must assess our message through their eyes, not ours. It may also be inappropriate to give a heavy 'preach for a decision' at this point. People need time to progress and understand. Instant conversions are rare. A style of presentation which bases everything around 'praying the prayer' without true understanding or preparation is counter-productive.
This validates the use of 'Chronological Bible Storying' [Ref 1] [Ref 2] used in many situations where the target group have zero knowledge of the Bible. It also highlights the need to contextualize the message to make it easier to understand for those with no biblical knowledge.
It is equally relevant in a cross-cultural or local church situation. An Australian church member writes:
"I love the Gray Matrix. I was wanting our small group to talk about reaching out to the community, and I found the Matrix. Our Senior Pastor took it home and loved it, and used it as a basis for sermons on vision and mission. 'Moving peple to the top right' has now become the catch-word for a visioning and strategic planning phase the church is going through. Our mission statement has become 'Working together with God, to help people grow from where they are now into fully devoted followers of Christ'."
Pressures of society and culture, and the strategies of the Enemy, will tend to pull people down towards the bottom left-hand of the scale. God's purpose is to draw people to the top right-hand side by His Spirit, through the witness of his people.
These vital issues of how to communicate the Gospel to people at different levels of understanding, in a local church situation, are covered in two signifant books: Sowing, Reaping, Keeping and I Hate Witnessing.
It is also very important to understand the ways that people actually learn anything because these closely parallel the way people gain (or fail to gain) spiritual understanding. These principles have important implications for every sort of outreach including Web evangelism.
