Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Spring 2014 Issue | Página 10

Where We’ve Been
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Some might say
that’s a pretty tall order.

What form does modern-day evangelism
take in the Diocese of Virginia? Presenters at
January’s Annual Council offered solid examples.
The Rev. Melanie Mullen of St. Paul’s, Richmond,

shared her ministry as a downtown missioner,
in which she goes beyond the church walls to
engage with the local community. The Rev. Connie
Clark of Buck Mountain, Earlysville, told a story of
how her congregation brought a worship service
to a local assisted living facility – and how that
community interaction in turn helped strengthen
the congregation’s other outreach ministries.

During a Q&A with the bishops at Council,
Bishop Johnston called upon the Diocese to join in

evangelism in a different way: “It’s a strong goal
of mine in 2014 to find increased ways to empower
advocacy for social justice, particularly engaging
political structures in the Diocese of Virginia,”
he said. That’s just one part of the equation in
the Diocese of Virginia, where the evangelism
landscape continues to grow and evolve with
changing technologies and changing worldviews.

Staff Q&A with Emily Cherry
In the Interactive Survey at Annual Council, participants
ranked evangelism toward the bottom of the list. How do you
explain that?

I actually think that the low ranking of Evangelism
and Proclamation on the list of priorities is not entirely
representative of the situation here in Virginia. And
that’s become evangelism can’t be achieved in a bubble.
Evangelism works in conjunction with and support of our
other priorities. In other words, we can be evangelists when
it comes to matters of multicultural ministries, or young
adult formation.

Another piece of the puzzle, though, is that Evangelism
and Proclamation isn’t as visible and tangible a concept as
some of the other priority areas. It’s a way of approaching how
we “do” church, and that can be a tricky concept to grasp.
Some folks in the Church seem to be uncomfortable with the
concept of evangelism. Why do you think that is?

Lots of us seem to equate evangelism with pushy
conversion, which can be repellent. So I think the problem
is one of perception and definition. How do we define
evangelism, and how do we think others perceive it? We’re
really comfortable about putting our arms around most
of these other priorities for mission and ministry – but
there’s a certain nervousness when it comes to embracing
evangelism. That’s why I like to think of Evangelism and
Proclamation in terms of communications.

Good evangelism means effective communication.
It means telling our story in a compelling way. It means
joining in conversations with the local community. And
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Virginia Episcopalian / Spring 2014

yes, it can also mean getting involved in social media, and
marketing, and public relations. But that’s just one aspect
of this communications-focused approach to evangelism. If
we focus on sharing our stories – in articles, in the way we
interact with others, in the way we live our lives – then we’re
being effect