On 13 April 13th, a group of Christian leaders gathered in Auckland to discuss the challenge of preaching the Gospel in New Zealand today. In attendance were representatives of many of NZ's evangelistic ministries, leaders, pastors, and scholars with an interest in evangelism. Brief yet challenging presentations were given by Max Scott, Bruce Patrick, Anne Bowie and Mark Keown.

Some time was given to considering the nature of gospel, and particularly in what sense is the Gospel a message of individual salvation as well as a message for the transformation of all of life. It was agreed it is both-and, but that the personal dimension must retain a certain priority in the mission, for it is from individual salvation that all else flows.

That being said, contributors spoke of the need for the sharing of the Gospel to be holistic with the spoken word, the power of God by the Spirit, the power of love in community, the power of works and whole lives lived for Christ.

Culture was seen as critical, with deeper thought given to models of evangelism appropriate for NZ's post-Christendom context, where the Gospel has in many cases been rejected, but where there is openness among some. There is a need to dig deeper into the Scriptures and Church History to learn how the Gospel was preached in analogous situations.

A desire was expressed for the church and ‘specialists' in evangelism to work more closely in partnership. We heard of Northcote Baptist where evangelists work with the pastoral leadership in partnership - is this a paradigm for the future?
The challenge was given to theological colleges to raise the profile of evangelism and train all students and specialist evangelists for the task.

The overall thread was that the New Zealand church needs to rediscover evangelism across its every part. However, old models need to be challenged and new ways found that are appropriate to our context.

Evangelism is as much caught as taught; we learn by taking up the challenge of doing it, rather than merely talking about it. The Gospel mission needs again to become a priority for the church again as we face ongoing decline.

Finally, the leaders were excited by the opportunities the Greg Laurie mission and World Cup present for Auckland. It is hoped that Christians and churches will take up the task.

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