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The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West...Again

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In The Celtic Way of Evangelism, George G. Hunter III explores the spiritual landscape which made Patrick's Ireland (and my local pub) a ready recipient of God's grace. Hunter, dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission at Asbury Theological Seminary, developed his view of relational evangelism in an environment not unlike my own. He learned that "stained-glass jargon" doesn't play well on the sands and surfboards of muscle beach. ...Perhaps that is why Hunter's perspective of Celtic Christianity resonates so strongly.

Hunter's retelling of the story of Patrick the Precedent Postmodern provides an able framework for understanding the possibilities and priority of mission. Patrick's own spiritual quest, including rejection of his father's religion and discovery of truth in the midst of brokenness, is of foremost and foundational importance. A Briton, Patrick was captured as a teenager by pirates and enslaved in Ireland. During his time as a cattle-herder near the turn of the fifth century, Patrick experienced three transformations which would equip him in his calling. First, he experienced the truth of an intimate relationship with Jesus. Second, he learned who the Irish people were, of their customs and culture. Third, he grew to have genuine love for his captor-brothers. These experiences reflect the three conditions for dynamic and convincing communication found in Aristotle's Rhetoric. Patrick's personal conversion gave him ethos, his understanding of the Celtic people provided pathos, and his love for his captors was his logos.

Patrick was freed from his seminary of servitude after six years, but returned as a missionary nearly three decades later still with this passion within. His Irish pagan hosts were receptive to this message because many aspects of their tribal druidic religions could find relative comparisons in true Christianity. An appreciation for paradox, an acceptance of the complexities of deity, an awareness of nature, the power of tale and fable, common virtues and values, a love for the riddling rhetorical triads and even fascination with the number three were all relatable ways Patrick could immediately and extensively explain the Christ-story.

Patrick's Celtic Christianity also provides a model for community. The first of five distinctives in this model is intentional solitude, drawing away from the clan for time alone with the Creator. Second, this community called for each believer to have a companion in the journey, a anamchara (or "soul friend") who would be not a spiritual superior but a friend and peer who could nurture a safe place for transparency, vulnerability, accountability, support and challenge. From the one, to the two, to the three: the third element of this community was a mentor-led small group of fellow believers who would join in study and service. Fourth, the experience expanded to common life: meals, labor, Biblical teaching, prayer and worship. Finally, the impacts of these four aspects combined to compel each member of the community to interact with pre-Christians who had not yet understood the promise of the Gospel. While this fifth aspect of community may seem at first similar to contemporary expressions, an essential difference must be noticed. Modern methods of evangelism begin with a presentation of the Gospel story to those who may be no more than casual contacts. If successful, this effort leads to a decision for conversion. Upon conversion, the new believer is invited to community and fellowship. Hunter contends the Celtic approach is actually and appropriately an inversion of this conversion protocol. In the Celtic approach, the potential believer is first offered fellowship and hospitality, which lead to opportunity for service, ministry and authentic conversation. After this connection and commitment are built and trusted, the prospective Christian may choose belief and conversion based on the reality of relationship, leading to full inclusion in community. Certainly, Jesus' own practice was to call those who would be excluded from most modern Christian communities, never to be given an opportunity to discover His open invitation. (Luke 5:27-32).

Hunter is insistent that readers find within these ancient methods innovative avenues for reaching the "New Barbarians," those whose lifestyles seem unacceptable and unconventional, considered beyond reach by religious institutions tied to structure, tradition and presumed authority

Certainly, this reader agrees with the assessment Hunter discovered within the Australian Jesus Movement: the challenge is to see God's Kingdom "as a party -- where the doors are thrown open like an Irish pub to anyone who would come in." This "pub church" would be one where Patrick could be quite comfortable -- a church "festive, music, participatory."

This book is part history and part "how-to." There is a lot of good historical information in a very short space on Patrick and some of those he influenced. If, like me, all you knew about Patrick was that he had something to do with the Irish people, wearing green and shamrocks, then this book will introduce you to the real reasons for Patrick's fame - his bold missionary ministry to the Irish.
As far as the how-to's go I think the gist of the book can be summed up in a little summmary table that Hunter gives contrasting what he believes is the Celtic Way vs. the Roman Way. The Roman way said that a person has to believe before they can belong. The Celtic way said that a person must belong in order to believe. Therefore, the Roman process of evangelism was 1 - Preach the Christian messsage, 2 - Call to a decision for Christ, 3 - Invite into the fellowship of the church. In contrast, Hunter says that the Celtic was is to 1 - Invite the unbeliever into the community, 2 - Engage them in ministry and conversation - a kind of conversational evangelism focusing on answering the questions of the unbeliever rather than pushing them along a predetermined path or presentation, and 3) Invitation to commitment to Christ and the ministry of the community. Hunter says that, in the Celtic community, "seekers" often came to Christ in a matter of days or weeks as a result of participating in the life of the Christian community.
Hunter suggests that our evangelistic methodology today looks more like the Roman way and that we would be well advised to adopt the Celtic way. As evidence he cites some of his own research showing that most people who do come to Christ come to Christ along a more "Celtic" path - i.e., being welcomed into a group where they can hear and see the gospel lived out over time, and gradually embracing this gospel. Hunter says the Celtic way affirms that the Christian faith is more caught than taught.
If we were to take Hunter's insights seriously, many churches would have to seriously re-evaluate how they do "evangelism." If Hunter is correct, the standard confrontational approaches of evangelism, where we give the whole gospel presentation at one time and call for a decision right then and there, would need to be modified to allow some time and breathing room for the "seeker" to "catch" the gospel.
If you read this book in conjunction with Richard Peace's book "Conversion in the New Testament," you will find that such a "Celtic" methodology dovetails nicely with the way Jesus evangelized the disciples. Peace demonstrates that the book of Mark is the story of the conversion of the disciples, which took place in the context of a group, over a long period of time. This is what Hunter is advocating as the "Celtic" way of evangelism.
There are a few places I wondered about in this book. In talking about the way the Celts presented the gospel, Hunter takes principles from Aristotle and Kierkegaard and reads them back into the Celtic way of evangelism. This seems a little artificial to me, although there is some food for thought there. Also, especially troubling, and this seemed to be troubling to Hunter to, is that the Celts seemed to portray Christ as one who brings fulfillment rather than the savior of sinners. This is espcially troubling because if there is no sin, there is no need for a savior. The essence of the gospel always has been and always will be that Christ is the savior of sinners. Finally, in their prudent zeal to contextualize the gospel to the Irish and find common ground, the Celts may have bluured the lines between contextualization and accomodation.
Overall, a tremendous book, a few things need to be theologically filtered, but as far as evangelistic methodology goes there is much to learn from here.

In this book, Mr. Hunter has written an excellent thesis on Celtic Christianity. This is not light reading, but neither is it too heady for the average reader to understand.

The basic thesis of this book is an interesting study of the fifth century evangelization of Ireland by Patrick and how his methods may be effective in today's culture. Mr. Hunter does a fine job of educating the reader about the ways Patrick used to reach a barbaric, pagan nation with the Gospel using very non-traditional methods. He theorizes that in today's world, there is a generation of "New Barbarians" - people whose lives have never been influenced by Christianity and have no true Christian experience. As in the days of Patrick, the religious institutions have failed to make the Gospel highly relative to this culture.

He concludes his study by giving examples of specific churches and ministries who have adopted creative new methods of evangelizing this largely unreached generation and have succeeded. He also issues a moving challenge to Church leaders to make the necessary changes to bridge the gap between the Church and the unchurched and bring in this vast harvest of people who are searching for God in all the wrong places.

I found this book very helpful and encouraging. I highly agree with Mr. Hunter's thesis and join with him in issuing this challenge to the Church. As a pastor, I began making these changes in our church years ago, with some success. More recently, we have been introduced to ministry groups who are literally going into the darkest parts of this alienated culture, living among the people and sharing the good news of the Gospel. The fruit of their ministry is tremendous and has challenged us to go even further to make the Church a place where everyone who is seeking God is welcome, regardless of how "uncivilized" they may be.

Those churches who are bold enough to make this change will be rewarded with an army of passionate young warriors of the faith who will go anywhere and do anything to share the love of Jesus Christ in the streets. Buy this book if you are serious about reaching the lost. You won't regret it.

I would have given this book a higher rating had it not claimed to be the "celtic" way of evangelism. Hunter presents excellent concepts for evangelism but his study of the celtic church is unimpressive. He argues that there was a contrasting view of Roman vs. Celtic ways of doing things yet many of his examples of how "Celtic" monastaries would have done things are drawn from the very "Roman" rule of Benedict.
He also accuses the "Roman" wing of the church imposing her liturgy on the Celtic churches around the 5th Century. Sure, the tonsure and dating of Easter were brought in but this was quite a while before a standard liturgy was imposed throughout Europe. Check out the Gallican Liturgy and Stowe Missal. I get the impression that the author drew examples from some stories about St. Patrick and ideas of modern authors to back up his own ideas of evangelism. I appreciate his understanding of theories and theology of evangelis, I just don't see how it is based on solid study of the Celtic church.

George Hunter does an excellent job of tying history into current culture and challenging the church to see evangelism in a new way. A book such as this is badly needed today and I hope that every church examines these ideas carefully. Those who are willing to view past evangelism trends introspectfully and critically know that Christian evangelism in the United States has not been widely successful. Single contact point, aggressive evangelistic sales pitches bring a lot of people to the point of saying the "sinners' prayer", but they do not result in changed lives. Hunter argues powerfully to hold off on "closing the deal" until a person actually believes the gospel and accepts Christianity for himself or herself. This sort of evangelism requires more than reteroric. Christians must live their faith.

I wish I did not have to be critical of this book, but I believe there are a couple of weaknesses that could lessen its effectiveness. First, this is not a "how to" book. It is a lesson from history that requires the reader to think and decide how to apply its message in our present world. My experience has been that too many Christians' eyes glaze over when asked to read history and too many would rather have clear steps (1.2.3. etc.) laid out for them. The book's style may cause some people to stop reading after the first couple of chapters.

Second, the first 6 chapters of this book are rather general and then the last chapter becomes specific on how these ideas might be worked out in our present culture. When moving from the general to specific, I think the author went a little too far. He spent most of the last chapter describing how the Celtic methods of evangelism could work with people caught by addictions. I would like for this chapter to have been a bit broader. Addictions are strong in our society, but new age religions and world religions are so strong that this book would have made a natural introduction to evangelism in a world of religious diversity. That is where I think this book hits real treasure and the last chapter leans off on a tangent.

Still, when all is said and done, this is a powerful book that should be used in every church across our land.

George Hunter argues that the growth of the Celtic Church was essentially a movement from which we can learn lessons for church planting in the postmodern western world. He writes, "Patrick and his people launched a movement... An ancient document called the 'Annals of the Four Masters' reports that Patrick's mission planted about 700 churches..."

Pastors and missionaries working in urban and rural contexts who want to see churches multiply into movement, will be challenged and inspired by The Celtic Way of Evangelism. Hunter's insights into the history of the Celtic Church, show why it flourished first in Ireland, then in Scotland and the north of England, and then in Europe. He identifies key factors for the success of the Celtic Church as a multiplication movement (in contrast with the institutional Roman Church), and draws contextual parallels between that period and today, in order to show contemporary church planters the relevance of the Celtic paradigm.

Some of the key factors which Hunter identifies are apostolic teams; close identification with the people (including their language and culture); the formation of "apostolic" communities; their contextualized, holistic, Trinitarian faith; the guided, contemplative prayer life; and the discipleship, training and mobilization of laity. He says they were "essentially lay movements". Though he ordained maybe as many as 1000 priests, the movement featured "laity in ministry more than priests". Hunter describes Patrick as an apostolic bishop rather than pastoral one (as in the Roman Church).

Hunter helpfully describes the Celtic communities and their role in evangelism. From his description you can see that they were both centripetal and centrifugal. The community was established in order to bring people into a community of faith. Seekers would be intentionally engaged in conversation within the community and in time be invited to commit. The communities also sent out mission teams under apostolic leadership to plant new communities and churches. Hunter describes how Celtic Christianity communicated the Gospel. Perhaps unwittingly and perhaps partly intentionally, they employed effective strategies of communication.

I felt that at times Hunter verged on the point of romanticizing Celtic Christianity, even though he warns us of that possibility and notes how there is a postmodern hankering after Celtic values (without their Christian content and context). Nevertheless, this mild criticism does not detract from the pertinence of this book for church planters. His final chapter helpfully cites a number of recent movements, which consciously or unwittingly have put into practice some of the key factors of the Celtic Christian movement. Among these are recovery movements such as New Horizons in USA and the Jesus Movement in Australia and the St Martin's Community Churches, which it spawned. He also refers to the Alpha Course, which burgeoned from 5 "registered courses" in England in 1992, to 10,500 in 1998 and can now rightly be called the Alpha Movement!

Why did the Celtic Church movement die out? Basically because it was forcefully institutionalized by the Roman Church! The Celtic Church was indigenous, organic and non-centralized. The Roman Church wanted control and conformity to the "Roman way". There is a sobering lesson there. Read all about it in The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West... Again!

"The Celtic Way of Evangelism" by George G. Hunter III is an interesting, somewhat informative, trite and simplistic study of early Celtic Christianity and its historical role in missions and evangelism.

The book begins strong with a solid synopsis of Patrick, the "Apostle to the Irish" and does a decent job of telling the high points of Patrick's life and ministry. Hunter does an equally good job in describing the community and lives of early Celtic Christianity, expressed in their loves for men and in their hospitality towards strangers. Hunter additionally goes to great lengths to articulate the Celtic Christian's superb ability to relate to the culture around him and to contextualize the Gospel of Jesus to a lost and dying world. He describes the Celts' love for art, music and story and he speaks of the Celtic Christian's ability to craft music and narrative in such a way as to present the Gospel message to the barbarians of their day in the British Isles and to the lost on the European Continent in a meaningful and powerful way.

Hunter spends much of the last half of the book postulating how contemporary Christianity can communicate the Gospel message in the Celtic Way. By itself, this is not a bad goal. Hunter rightly notes the emergence of the post-Christian "New Barbarians", making a semi-direct correlation between the New Barbarians of today and the barbarians of yesteryear. He notes in these New Barbarians the same worshipful regard for nature, the same disbelief in the God of the Bible and the same self-destructive behaviors of the barbarian. This is not necessarily a wrong correlation to make nor is it unwise to not only learn from past mistakes, but to learn from past successes and ask ourselves how we can use those means to communicate the Gospel. The problem in this book is with Hunter's approaches to evangelism and Gospel Communication. Instead of asking himself first what the Bible says about missions, Hunter considers the task from a uniquely American and Pragmatic standpoint and asks the dangerous question: "What Works?".

This faulty approach leads Hunter to trivialize the comparison of the Celtic vs. Roman ways of Christianity and because the Celtic Way "worked" in the British Isles, in Hunter's mind it so dominates Roman means so as to leave Roman methodologies impotent to affect true change (no matter that Roman Christianity ended up winning and "working" in the long run). Hunter does make a valid point in his comparison, namely that it is better to aim for a people's heart rather than the outward trappings of culture and society. Yet his pragmatic approach to applying the Celtic Way negatively colors his valid points and leaves the reader feeling his postulations are somewhat lacking.

The book is a good read and is, at the beginning especially, fairly thought-provoking. Hunter's analysis of the Celtic Way is beneficial and it will cause the reader to desire to study the topic further. Still, the lack of thought given to the Biblical Way of evangelism and Gospel communication is disappointing at best and a dangerous precedent for the serious evangelist.

Using Patrick of Ireland as an example Hunter shows the value of respect for others experience and their value as human beings in evangelism. He posits the Irish monestary (different from what we have become used to in the last 700 years) as a model for evangelism. Extending the relational emphasis of much recent writing (including his own) on evangelism, Hunter helps us to place emphasis on faith being caught in the day to day activities of living. Excellent book

"The problem is not that we are too traditional, the problem is that we are not traditional enough." - Leonard Sweet.

Hunter's work brings this reality to light in an engaging and helpful way. For those coming to grips with the need to find a foundation for bending the status quo, he gives us insight into the value of knowing the ancient ways. Ways that the Spirit of God has ALREADY endorsed. His study of effective personal and societal change through the application of the realities of Jesus' Goodnews challenges and encourages the Church that we speak to and live out of today. A worthy resource for those leading in the Postmodern World/Church.

What an exercise in wishful thinking!

Hunter's intentions are great, and his vision of what the church should be is definitely contagious and attractive, but he should not claim that this model is taken from the "Celtic" form of Christianity. First of all, most historians agree that if there is such a thing as a "Celtic" faith, it is almost entirely a modern contruct, stemming from the romantic notions of the nineteenth century. Secondly, his admitted lack of historical knowledge, while it allows him to postulate pretty much anything he wants about the Celts and their saints, leaves him rather baseless as far as factual support is concerned. Finally, his source material (which he proof-texts very dexterously, by the way) is composed almost entirely of popular sources, which academically are in the same boat he is.

By all means, let's pursue a more community-oriented, less institutional, more intuitive form of Christianity, but let's not support it by referencing a past that probably never existed.