- As Christians called by the
living God,
we seek first of
all to honor him and his ethical standards in all of our
private and public lives, including our efforts to persuade
others to believe the good news about Jesus Christ.
- As Christian evangelists,
we seek to follow
the mandate,
motives, message and model of our God who is always pursuing
and reclaiming those who are lost in sin and rebellion
against him.
- We believe all people are
created in God's image
and are
therefore endowed with the capacity to be in relationship
with their Creator and Redeemer. We disavow any efforts to
influence people which depersonalize them or which deprive
them of their inherent value as persons.
- Respecting the value of
persons,
we believe all people
worthy of hearing the gospel of this loving Lord Jesus
Christ. We equally affirm the inalienable right of every
person to survey other options and to convert to or choose a
different belief system.
- We believe in the gospel
of Jesus Christ
and affirm the
role and goal of the Christian evangelist. However, we do
not believe that this justifies any means to fulfill that
end. Hence, we disavow the use of any coercive techniques or
manipulative appeals which bypass a person's critical
faculties, play on psychological weaknesses or mask the true
nature of Christian conversion.
- While respecting the individual
integrity,
intellectual
honesty and academic freedom of other believers and
skeptics, we seek to proclaim Christ openly. We reveal our
own identity and purpose, our theological position and
sources of information, and will not be intentionally
misleading. Respect for human integrity means no false
advertising, no personal aggrandizement from successfully
persuading others to follow Jesus, and no overly emotional
appeals which minimize reason and evidence.
- As Christian evangelists,
we seek to engage
people of
other religious persuasions in true dialog. That is, we
acknowledge our common humanity as equally sinful, equally
needy and equally dependent on the grace of God whom we
proclaim. We seek to listen sensitively in order to
understand, and thus divest our witness of any stereotypes
or fixed formulas which are barriers to true dialog.
- As Christian evangelists, we
accept the obligation
to
admonish anyone who represents the Christian faith in any
manner incompatible with these ethical guidelines.