Speaking of Jesus: The Art of Not-Evangelism [Paperback]

Carl Medearis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2011

 

Some of us fear moments when we need to defend our theology. Some of us seek them out. But we are seldom ready the way Jesus seemed to be ready. So how do we draw others to God in the midst of these ordinary conversations the way Jesus did?

 

In Speaking of Jesus, Carl Medearis draws on his experience of international reconciliation between Muslims and Christians to remind us of the heart of the matter: Jesus. Here he gives us tools, stories, and the foundation we need to move beyond “us” and “them” and simply talk about the One who changes it all.

 

As Carl writes, “While others are explaining and defending various isms and ologies we’re simply pointing people to our friend. The one who uncovers and disarms. Who leads people right to himself. The beginning and the end of the story. A good story indeed.”

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

“You may not agree with everything in this book. I don’t. But you will be moved by it as I was... Carl’s way of speaking of Jesus is immensely attractive.” 
-Miroslav Volf, founding director of Yale Center for Faith and Culture and author of Allah: A Christian Response

“Speaking of Jesus is a beautifully framed rethink on what it means to champion Jesus.” 
-Hugh Halter, author of The Tangible Kingdom and Sacrilege

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From the Back Cover

Quit defending Christianity.

Author Carl Medearis is not interested in keeping Christianity alive. Not one bit. Carl believes it has grown into something that is rarely attractive, frequently divisive, and all too often embarrassing. He believes you may feel this way too. In his new book, Speaking

of Jesus, Carl gives us a wink and a grin and the permission to stop feeding this thing called Christianity. His offer is that doing so allows us the freedom to relax and feast on Jesus.

 

“You may not agree with everything in this book. I don’t. But you will be moved by it as I was…. Carl’s way of speaking of Jesus is immensely attractive.”

Miroslav Volf, founding director of Yale Center for Faith and Culture and author of Allah: A Christian Response

 

“Speaking of Jesus is a beautifully framed rethink on what it means to champion Jesus.”

Hugh Halter, author of The Tangible Kingdom and Sacrilege

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: David C. Cook (June 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1434702103
• ISBN-13: 978-1434702104
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (229 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carl Medearis is an international expert in the field of Arab-American and Muslim-Christian relations. He acts as a catalyst for a number of current movements in the Middle East to promote peace-making and to promote cultural, political and religious dialog leading toward reconciliation. He is the author of the acclaimed book on these issues, "Muslims, Christians and Jesus".

Carl, his wife Chris, and three kids lived in Beirut, Lebanon for 12 years. Through their unique and strategic approach around the Arab world, they encouraged university students, business professionals and political leaders to live their lives by the principles and teachings of Jesus in order to change their societies and nations.

Today Carl spends much of his time working with leaders both in the West and in the Arab world with the hope of seeing the Arab Middle East and the West experience full and fruitful relationships through the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

164 of 178 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Read, but with caution... October 12, 2011

By Greg Mathias

Format:Paperback

Does Carl Medearis really want people to stop evangelizing? In short, yes! Medearis enjoys playing the role of the provocateur. In fact don't stop with evangelism (125), go ahead and get rid of Christianity (47), Christian (121), along with church (123), and the Bible (124). Oh, let's not forget missionary, too (127). To be fair, Medearis is not advocating a denial of these ideals, but is challenging his readers to reconsider the use of `Christianese' and its potential impact in impeding people from coming to Jesus. Medearis's entire aim is to speak of Jesus, and the typical methods of evangelism simply get in the way. He pushes his thesis forward throughout the book, "If you don't feel like you have to evangelize someone away from their team and onto yours, you can speak of Jesus much more freely, and thus, more effectively" (103).

One appreciates Medearis's commitment to speaking of Jesus to just about everyone he comes into contact with. This book is replete with stories to illustrate his points, even if some are a bit confusing. The greatest strengths of speaking of Jesus are found in the constant focus on bringing people to Jesus as opposed to a particular theological system or evangelistic method. One also appreciates Medearis's model of asking penetrating questions and genuinely listening in his encounters with non-believers. This last point is clearly highlighted on pages 164-166, and within the Appendix.

Yet, with those commendations, Medearis's writing style is reactionary and his arguments are repeatedly against straw men. Often his statements are based on massive generalizations. For example, he states that everyone has been playing the wrong game when it comes to evangelism (18). It's not about us and them or different teams, it is about Jesus.... Equating missionary service with a time of ignorance, and then defining a missionary as something wholly other than it is, is not less than insulting (25). On page 45, Medearis posits that the majority of modern evangelism is based upon insecurity. At this point, Medearis has successfully alienated many within the Christian circle by his use of generalization. Elsewhere his examples of `traditional' evangelism are often tainted with overstatement and negative interaction. The lack of precision Medearis uses in defining terms is also troubling. Although he gives working definitions to some terms later in the book, they are truncated and often contradictory within his own illustrations.

My primary concerns about this book center on the way he handles potential theological landmines and the confusion it may cause for future readers. To focus on Jesus does not equal a sole emphasis on the Gospels (chapter 6). The Gospels are a part of the Christian Scriptures which begin with Genesis and end with Revelation. From beginning to end, the story is about Jesus. John the Baptist's proclamation about Jesus in John 1:29, only makes sense in light of the Old Testament. Medearis's admonition to saturate yourself in the Gospels as the primary way to know and speak of Jesus is in contradiction to one who actually spent time with Jesus--Peter. In 2 Peter 1:19, Peter speaks of a more sure word--the Scriptures. How do we know Jesus? According to the scriptures--all of them (Luke 24:44-45). At one point Medearis seemingly pits Paul against Jesus, which is misguided and a misunderstanding of both. The trajectory Medearis is on could point to the red letter only road, and that is a misguided one.

Still, the most troublesome idea is found on pages 137-141. Medearis admonishes his reader to allow Jesus to be a man. While I understand the need to focus on the life of Jesus, and not merely his birth and death, it seems that Medearis, again, overstates his point in writing, "The Western church has made the mistake of deifying Jesus too quickly" (138). At no point was Jesus less than God while on earth. I am not accusing Medearis of advocating an unorthodox position at this point, but am concerned that some readers might. Much of the confusion over these issues seems to stem from Medearis's lack of clarity and provocative style.

Medearis employs a self-deprecating style throughout the text in order to guard himself from any responsibility or liability over potential confusion. He repeatedly highlights his lack of doctrinal knowledge, his own fallibility, and is quick to point out that he is certainly no theologian. While these are all true sentiments, they do not recuse Medearis from taking responsibility for the impact of his sloppy thinking and writing. Any good missionary is also a good theologian, and a worthwhile theologian will be an insightful missionary. Jesus demonstrated this par excellence.

In the end I would recommend this book to the following audiences: (1) one who has grown up in the church but has not spent much time among non-believers, and (2) mature followers of Jesus who can read with discernment. Although there are some positive points and some compelling thoughts in this book, they are obscured by the many issues pointed out already.

Carl Medearis is a person I would jump at the chance to spend time with over a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, in his writing, I would encourage him to write with much more precision and a greater degree of generosity to those `within the circle' of Christianity. After all, "we are [just] people trying to follow Jesus" (129). Read more ›

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Christianity or Jesus? September 27, 2011

By Brian Johnson

Format:Paperback

"SPEAKING OF JESUS": the art of not-evangelism. By Carl Medearis

This book was about telling others about Jesus, not Christianity. The author having lived in Lebanon for a number of years, seen the problem of speaking of Christianity and thus realized he had to shed "Christianity" and begin with Jesus. Whereas Christianity is seen in a negative light Jesus is seen more positive. That problem is also here with us in the United States. As the author quotes Don Miller (author of 'Blue Like Jazz'), "ask 10 people what Christianity is and you will get 10 different answers."
The authors' contention that the word `Christianity' has come to mean almost anything except who Jesus really is. He feels that we should not even try to defend the term but ignore it. We need to get people's attention back to Jesus and his life.

I totally agree with the author that we need to be speaking and pointing others to Jesus rather than Christianity. I had a problem with the authors downplaying of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The author wants to talk about Jesus life and almost ignore his death and resurrection. The problem here is that if Jesus did not die and rise from the dead his life and teachings will become meaningless. I don't feel that people are interested in a good man or a good prophet as much as they are in a risen Savior. We cannot forget that it was his death and resurrection that makes his life worth studying.

113 of 139 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Sigh... April 3, 2012

By Pages

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Let me first off say that this book has some very good points. One can certainly appreciate the desire to cut through the fat in order to reach people with Christ. The book contains some excellent appraisals of American Christianity (as can be found in numerous other books today), but this strength of the book leads to its ultimate weakness, as was the case with many Emergent Church authors a profound reality was displayed as a problem and then a solution to the problem was given. Often the solution was worse than the problem, however this was not grasped by many readers who were enraptured by the clever phrasing of the problem in a way they could relate with coupled with the confident way the author asserted their solution. This is the scenario we find in Carl Medearis' book, "Speaking of Jesus."

Medearis reasons that American Christians are weak in the faith, because they have been intellectualized into the Church instead of led to love Jesus. He believes that an evangelism of answers to questions serves only to convince the mind and leaves the heart out of the matter. Instead he opts to point people to Jesus by talking [about] Jesus with them, not calling people to conversion or salvation, but displaying Christ before them. His belief is that if you will display Christ people will come to Him, because they will inherently like Him. He sites as proof of this idea several surveys and encounters where people said they disliked Christians but liked Jesus. This all sounds like an interesting idea, until you evaluate the fruit of the process Medearis employs....

Not once in his book does Medearis tell of someone who has surrendered their life to "follow Jesus," or who has repented of their sins, who has accepted the gospel, who believed in Christ's sacrifice for them or who has received Jesus Christ as their Lord as a response to his methodology. Medearis even says at one point that this isn't really what's important anyways (145). Medearis claims he believes all these things, but his methodology seems to leave people far short of this reality. Instead of new creations, we see people becoming Jesus approving non-committers. Medearis tells the story of 30 or so Muslims standing up and saying something nice about Jesus and thinks this is victory. The truth is, every single one of them who will not accept the death of Jesus Christ for their sins will spend eternity in Hell. Having a nice appreciation of Jesus will not save, repenting and submitting to His Lordship is the only way and does not appear to be produced by the style of "witnessing" Medearis advocates.

Behind his claim that we should speak Jesus and not some message is Medearis' belief that Jesus equates with the Gospel, literally to Medearis, the gospel is Jesus, nothing more, nothing less. He quotes from 1Corinthians to support this idea. "I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ..." (2:2) He uses this to mean we should literally just talk Jesus, not about Him. He seems to do this by talking as if Jesus were actually there with Him in the room or by pointing people to the gospels since they portray Jesus. He so adamantly believes this that he even downplays the importance of the rest of scripture and especially the writings of Paul, saying that Christ's words are more important (82). He believes we have modeled our evangelism after Paul instead of Jesus (funny since he himself quotes how Paul ministered to the Corinthians). Of greater import, however, is that for most of the book Medearis leaves out the latter part of the text from Paul "...and Him crucified." What a fatal blunder! Medearis believes American Christians focus too much upon the deity of Jesus Christ and His crucifixion. As Medearis points out, these are two points lacking in the Muslim depiction of our savior. Let me ask you. If you do not trust in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross, can you be saved? The answer is: NO. You see, we cannot simply preach Jesus, but we must be committed to preaching His crucifixion as the full Corinthians 2:2 verse signifies: "I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

Even worse than not seeing good fruit from the Medearis' method, some bad fruit seems to be evident. A couple stories in the book allude to people who appear to want to "follow Jesus" but they are simply attempting to add the life principles of Jesus' way of life and teaching to their lives. They have no understanding of the depth of their own depravity and so they attempt to clean themselves up by doing the things they read or hear that Jesus did. They become as the scripture proclaims white-washed tombs (because we must be cleansed from the inside out, not the other way around). Last I checked this is the belief in a works based salvation. So this is the process I see with Medearis, 1) Speak Jesus to people 2) They will appreciate Him 3) Some will try to act like Him 4) Hooray, we didn't offend anyone and they say nice things about Jesus now as well!

Maybe that was said a little harshly, so I will close with this thought, before I fall into sin here. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ implies far more than just sharing stories from Christ's life. The gospel is a multi-faceted message that proclaims how someone can be saved (1Cor. 15:1-4, Rom. 1:16-17) and it draws a line in the sand that demands obedience and surrender (Mark 1:14-15) as 2Thessalonians 1:8-9 proclaim: "dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." True this is a harsh reality, but one that we must proclaim, lest they unknowingly suffer that fate. My fear is that Medearis will "delude" many into suffering this fate, and worse, convincing several other "Christians" to lead people to the same.

My recommendation: Don't read this book, you may find yourself sidelined for the impact you could have for the Kingdom of God. Read more ›

38 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pot-stirring, anecdotal, transformational... May 31, 2011

By Jared Scott Holsing

Format:Paperback

Speaking of Jesus is at once an antidote and a nutritional drink. The book alternates between neutralizing the toxic effect of overdosing on doctrine and religion and repeatedly leading the reader back to the pure well of Jesus himself. One comes away wanting to get to know him better. Some readers may feel knocked back on their heels, though many who are frustrated with the turf wars of the religion will likely find the candor and simplicity wildly refreshing.

Picture a chess game in full swing with pieces positioned in various places around the board. One by one Carl picks up each piece and chucks them onto the floor with a seemingly cavalier disregard for the intensity of the game you were engaged in. One piece at a time--doctrines, institutions, terminology, history, definitions, practices--he throws them to the floor. In the end, there is only one piece remaining: the King. Suddenly it dawns on you that all of the other pieces were only there to serve the King. While you were worried about protecting pawns and bishops, Carl was returning your focus to the true center of the Kingdom.

The wise reader will relax and trust that Carl has no desire to rip the gospel from believers' hearts, the Bible from their hands, or Jesus from their lives. Likewise, those who have not yet begun to follow Jesus can relax knowing that Carl has no group for you to join and no strange new set of propositional truths to argue with you about. Instead, his single-minded purpose is to remind us that "Jesus is, in Himself, the gospel. Once He makes contact, our hearts struggle within us, and we...have to choose to follow or not" (70). He simply wants to (re)introduce you to Jesus....

For Carl, following Jesus means, at least, studying Him, remaining consciously aware of Him, and imitating Him. All of this requires the mind blowing reality of having Jesus reside in you through the power of the Holy Spirit. While for many this sounds very simple, for others, this possibility itself is hard to comprehend. The simplicity of Carl's Jesus is freeing, yet the power is transformational.

As I've already said, Carl can easily be accused of being cavalier and confrontational. There is a frustrated tone that is never far below the surface as he "speaks of Jesus." Should we be frustrated that doctrine has eclipsed a heart-level commitment to the person of Jesus Christ? Should we be scandalized that "isms" and institutions have served as surrogates for following Jesus? Should we be worried that when presenting the gospel it is easy for many believers to emphasize the non-essentials and neglect Jesus Himself?

So, for those who are willing to let go of "isms," and begin simply following Jesus, the book offers some very straight forward signposts. Hang out with your friends and let Jesus naturally enter the conversation at appropriate times, as He would if he were really the center of your life. Let your talk about Jesus focus on that which would actually sound like great news to the person you're talking with. Learn to speak in normal descriptive terms about each aspect of our life with Jesus and avoid terms that would need to be explained or that are known to carry a lot of baggage. Fall in love again with the very folk-hero type of Jesus we read about in the gospels. Don't be so quick to rush to heady intellectual stuff that generates debates. Start with the stories and the compelling vision of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Allow yourself to be a bit confused and don't worry if others attack or criticize Christianity as a religion or the church as an institution. Your task, as E. Stanley Jones reminded us, is to "live and present (Jesus)."

Very accessible, often "pot-stirring," sharply focused, anecdotal, conversational, unpretentious, and potentially transformational. Those words can describe both Jesus Himself and the book "Speaking of Jesus." In this book, Carl reminds us what it looks like to speak of gratitude for having Jesus in our life and what it means to say that following Jesus is the ultimate freedom.

"Speaking of Jesus" is highly recommended for those who long to leave the nets of religion and follow the Master. Read more ›