Evangelizing in a post-Christian Quebec from Exhortation to Incarnation

Research on Canadian Congregations

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Evangelizing in a post-Christian Quebec from Exhortation to Incarnation

Let’s start with a personal anecdote. It’s a normal Thursday evening, I’m on the subway, on my way home after a day of work at the university. As I’m about to leave the metro station, two women stop me, saying with a big smile: “Are you a Christian? Are you saved?” After a very quick chat, they invite me to read a short prayer where I recognize I am a sinner and that if I want to get eternal life, I must give my life to Jesus. Then, the two women explained to me that that they are from Nigeria and that their Church (the Christ Embassy, one of the most powerful and successful transnational African Churches) is about to launch a congregation in my neighbourhood.

Encounters of this kind happen daily on Montreal’s public transit systems, which is why a colleague and I decided to do some fieldwork about Christians who evangelize in such public spaces. The questions guiding our research are simple: can we identify different strategies in the task of evangelizing urban populations? What do the people who evangelize in the streets and public transit systems expect to achieve? Do they care about finding strategies for most efficiently proclaiming the gospel in a post-Christian Quebec, or do other concerns animate their activities? How do the province’s lively debates about the visibility of religion in public spaces impact their evangelizing activities?

To put it simply, we have identified two opposite models: on the one hand, some people consider that there is nothing more important than spreading the gospel and winning souls for the Kingdom of God (this attitude was epitomized by the two women I met in the subway); on the other hand, other people, while similarly motivated by a concern for evangelizing, believe that such an activity ought to be purposefully and holistically embedded within the local context.

In his book Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange World (2004), the British theologian Stuart Murray contends that “Incarnation and explanation evangelism is superseding exhortation and invitation.” According to Murray, evangelism must be adapted to the contemporary cultural context: in Quebec, like in other Western countries, secularization, state secularism (“laïcité” in French), and the memory of the “Quiet Revolution” (a period during the 1960’s when the Catholic Church lost its dominant influence over society) are factors that must be considered.

In a previous research project in which I studied two “urban churches” in Quebec (different locations), I was surprised to discover that they do not promote evangelism activities, at least not in a traditional way. When I asked the pastors why their churches did not do so, they gave me a very cautious answer that reflects a high degree of reflexivity: since religion is such a sensitive issue in Quebec and recent debates have challenged the legitimacy of religious activities in public spaces, they prefer to develop what I would call a “contextual evangelization” that fits better with what they believe Quebeckers are ready to hear. So, what exactly is this “contextual evangelization”? It’s mainly influenced by norms governing local non-profit organizations. The rules that church members receive are very clear: the aim of volunteer activities is not to convert people but to be the living examples of what God does in a believer’s life: addressees of evangelism will be impressed by what you do, not by what you tell them.

The picture below exemplifies what I call an “opportunity for evangelism”. With this expression, I mean a moment and a place where one feels comfortable to potentially hear about Jesus. A few years ago, Axe21, a church with local branches in Magog and Sherbrooke, two midsized cities in the Eastern Townships, organized a Halloween night activity called “Halte des lumières” (“pit stop of light”).¹ It is interesting because evangelical churches are often fiercely against celebrating Halloween and do not hesitate to condemn the holiday as satanic. But Axe21 decided to follow a different path. Every year on Halloween night, members of the church are invited to plant a sign (see below) in front of their house: it indicates that people passing by are allowed to use the bathroom where they will find a hot beverage (tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and candies). There is nothing religious in this activity, but it creates a sort of “safe space” where people can talk and share a friendly moment which may lead to a conversation about Jesus.