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

From the preface, the reader will understand that this book is more than a chronical of events and mere story telling. This book is a wake up call to The Church to go back to its roots and find a way to do biblical church. Forget programs and forget 'high' church... what this emerging and increasingly pessimistic postmodern culture needs is bare-naked Christianity. The kind of Christianity that seeks to understand the individual and the indivisuals problem. This book sets out a framework for how the Emerald Isle was won for Christ and what it took for the (what was then unique) brand of Christianity to disappear. This book will fit right in with any reader who is involved in House Church or thinking of getting involved in Hosue Church. George G. Hunter finds several defining characteristics of Irish Christianity and they seem to mirror the Hosue Church movement. It is probably not a coincidence because it seems that both movements are based on an assumption that Acts 2:42-47 is THE blueprint for church life. A good book to read and hopefully it will shake-up a few pastors or denominations.

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

Finally, a book that takes the interest in "celtic Christianity" that seems to be such the rave now and applies it to the modern church in a life-changing way. This book re-visions evangelism in a way that will reach out to people who haven't grown up in a church setting. Through his study of celtic Christianity, George Hunter saw an evangelism that does not expect people to live by the "rules" of Christianity before they are even accepted into the doors of a church. Looking at a group of Christians who reached out to the world around them and asked them to be "christian" and not "civilized" is true inspiration for us today when our churches seem to want people to know how to act before we are willing to even let them in the doors. This book is well worth the read for anyone interested in bringing Christ to their world.

Hunter draws attention to the Celtic movement in Ireland and Europe. It is worth noting how "Rome" silenced this movement and how the author traces the same authoritarian attitude to modern Protestantism. When the ancients moved into to an area they established "muinntirs" or colonies to interact wholistically with the people they were reaching. I think this is a great example in history, but if we are to do it we need to GO TO WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE! Perhaps this is a call to the open-air rather than to ecclesiastical structure.

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.