A Code of Ethics for Christian Witness
Adapted from A Code of Ethics for the Christian Evangelist, © 1989 by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. As Christian evangelists, we accept the obligation to admonish anyone who represents the Christian faith in any manner incompatible with these ethical guidelines.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this article for educational purposes provided this permission notice, and the copyright notice below are preserved on all copies. Not to be reprinted in any other publication without permission. © 1989 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the USA. All rights reserved. This article first appeared in the Spring 1992 issue of Student Leadership Journal®.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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