Check out this brief video (about 1:30 or so) about why I find there is little fear in doing personal evangelism.
This little sample is a promo for the encore Fear Free Evangelism webinar coming up on June 3, 2008, 9pm Eastern. Follow the webinar link to register for the full event.
Sample is from a sermon preached March 2008 at Mt. Oak United Methodist in Bowie Maryland.
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Many books on personal evangelism tell stories of personal fear. Evangelism is scary for many, for a variety of reasons? Why does one have to be brave?
Here is a list that I have compiled over the years of teaching workshops and seminars and the most common responses that I get to the question “Why are you afraid of evangelism?”
Let me ask you this?
What would you add to this list? Feel free to add to this list in the comments below.
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I believe that it is both.
Evangelism is a series of kairos moments in a person’s life that have a cumulative effect of bringing a person to faith in Jesus Christ. That can be a series of conversations, deep thoughts while walking the beach, a series of events, a confluence of circumstances and conversations that ultimately bring a person to a full awareness of the need for Christ.
Yet Evangelism is also an event: A moment in time where the evangelist can sow a seed — one conversation. Or a moment in time where a seed can be harvested — one conversion. A kairos moment.
It’s not an either/or proposition.
Here is a reminder from Mark McCloskey, Tell It Often-Tell It Well: Making the Most of Witnessing Opportunities. (I’m guessing this book is out of print, though older copies are available still at Amazon).
Evangelism as a Process
In Acts 18:4, Paul gives us an example of the process of evangelism. In Corinth Paul reasoned with the Jews in the synagogue every Sabbath, with mixed results. The leader of the synagogue, Crispus, believed, but many of the Jews “resisted and blasphemed,” until Paul felt it necessary to leave and set up shop in a personal home next door. The point is that Paul kept coming back to explain, clarify and reason with these people. Paul followed much the same pattern in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9). Over a period of three Saturdays he reasoned with them, explained and gave evidence that Christ was the Messiah. Luke says that Paul did this “from the Scriptures.” The idea seems to be that Paul progressively built a case for Jesus as the Messiah. Thus, his evangelism in Thessalonica could be described as a process.
I have had many experiences like this. One young man in particular, John, would invite me to sit down with him almost weekly to explain more about Christ. He asked me many times to repeat things so that they would sink in. He asked me more than once to tell him how crucial this issue was and how he really needed to trust Christ as soon as he felt he could make a sincere decision. He was always eager to hear more, but for some reason the gospel never “clicked.” He later moved away, and I did not hear from him for a year. Then by divine providence, I’m sure, I ran into him. The first thing he told me was that he had finally put together all the pieces and that he had trusted Christ through the help of a friend in his new church. He thanked me for hanging in there with him. My evangelism with John was definitely a process of sowing, so that another could have the joy of harvesting.
I would have been greatly amiss had I told John that since he was not ready to decide for Christ I did not have time to talk with him. The fact that a person is not ready to make a decision to trust Christ now does not mean that he is not serious about pursuing the matter. I need to meet him where he is and be a patient ’sower’ in his life. I need to answer his questions, listen to him carefully, explain and clarify so that the issue of “Christ and Him crucified” is the only stumbling block to his receiving Christ. Misconceptions need to be cleared away so that the real matter at hand – “What will you do with Christ?” – can take center stage. Understanding evangelism as a process gives me the freedom to do this.
Yet in the same chapter, McCloskey gives us this reminder:
Whether evangelism is a ’sowing’ process or a reaping event is not so much to be determined by the intention of the evangelist, but by the response of the listeners. For some in Thessalonica, Paul’s first Saturday synagogue message was an evangelistic event; an experience of reaping the fruit born by God’s Spirit. They believed the first time they heard the gospel. For others it was the first step in a process that took weeks or even months and years. Paul assumed the role of sower in their lives and it would be up to others to reap where he had sown. He appreciated the truth that, at any moment, as he sowed the seeds of the gospel, someone could have his last question answered, his last issue resolved, and he would then be ready to be harvested. The persuasive nature of the gospel demands that it be shared with a sense of urgency grounded in an awareness of this truth. The time for decision is always now.
The danger is that the process can degenerate into a nonpersuasive dialogue that sacrifices the cruciality and urgency of the gospel for the sake of an expanded time frame. In such a context, it might be easy for both the evangelist and, consequently, the hearer to lose sight of the direction of their interaction. This is unfair to both the listener and the persuasive nature of the gospel.
Evangelism Book review: Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult
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As I search around the Internet for Evangelism Blogs, I see two main categories:
Using a blog to share your faith can be an effective evangelism tool.
I think of a blog that I follow where the writer shares a lot of her testimony — wrestling with suicide, the break up of her marriage, the raising of her kids — and how she came to faith in Christ because of that.
Who finds her blog?
People searching the Internet about suicide prevention, divorce care, and raising kids as a single mom. As the writer simply shares her life — what she’s doing, what she rejoices over, what challenges her — all along the way she talks about her prayer life, her relationship with God, and how important that is to her.
Basically, her blog is her testimony, a written journal of her life walking in the Love of God through the ups and downs of ordinary life.
A blog lends itself to easy maintenance, regular upkeep and continued development.
With many platforms easy to master (like WordPress which I use) the body of content becomes rich for search engines, and when you use some simple search engine optimization tools, people will find your blog.
EvangelismCoach.org is an evangelism training blog. It’s not my goal here to witness or share my faith, as it is to help the reader find practical tools for personal evangelism, as well as information on growing your church.
I simply write articles, connect some in a series, think about keywords, and do a few search engine tweaks, and people find their way here. This blog has been online since January 2007 and there have been nearly 30,000 visits, mostly from search engines.
Some evangelism training blogs simply teach you how to write an evangelistic blog. Internet Evangelism Day has many resources to help you start and keep going.
The challenge for blogging is the upkeep. In the last few weeks, I’ve been checking all the broken links. As I look at the broken links, most every one is in a Friday Find link roundup.
Bloggers start strong, and many seem to disappear after a month or two. For the most part, I’ve quit linking to new bloggers simply because they may not be around in a month or two.
I started a different blog in an entirely different field, and within two weeks, I had already quit. I’ve not posted a new article in nearly 5 months. It’s out there in cyberspace dead in the water. I’ve had to keep the focus on EvangelismCoach.org
There are other challenges in blogging about evangelism, but this is the biggest one — continuously generating content.
Evangelism Encounter Discussion Group
Internet Evangelism Day - April 27
God's Heart for the Nations, Part IV -- The Holy Spirit Empowers
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Something I experienced when I lived in the suburbs of Richmond VA was the lack of a sense of community in our neighborhood.
Sure we all bought nice houses, but with the exception of one family, we didn’t know any of the neighbors.
What a contrast to our former subdivision where we knew everyone on the cul-de-sac, and had regular time with them all. Over the course of 5 years there, we prayed with many of them, and several eventually came to faith in Christ and got connected with a church.
Jesus says that we are the light of the world, yet how many of us commute more than 10 miles to go to church, bypassing 40 homes in our same subdivision?
How can we live out the notion of “every house a lighthouse” or “every house a church?”
How can we break through the bubble of not knowing our neighbors?
If God has appointed the time and season of where you live, how can you be a tool in God’s use to impact your neighborhood with the Gospel?
For that last one, no matter where in the world we personally live, we are American that Super Bowl Sunday and will invite the neighbors over. Other times, we’ll join them for the World Cup soccer games, even though I still don’t know the rules.
Build genuine relationship that allows room for spiritual conversation. Once a good relationship is built, look for opportunity to share your faith in Christ in a manner that is appropriate and real.
Let me ask you this:
What do you do to build relationship with your neighbors? When was the last time you actually spent time with your neighbor?
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Steve Sjogren, in Scattering, Watering, and then…Waiting reminds us about how the role of the evangelist:
Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is like the wind – he (not IT – please, never refer to the Holy Spirit as “it” – that is incredibly offensive to him) is not one who can be controlled. We see the effect of wind on the trees when the wind blows, but where it comes from or where it goes, we do not know (John 3).
Lasting conversions are wrought by the power of the Spirit, not by a slick sounding, win-the-argument approach. How many of you have won the argument but lost the battle? Lasting, deep down conversions are very rarely quick.
Don’t fret about the waiting period between scattering your seeds of generosity and what is going to take place once the Holy Spirit begins to shape people’s hearts in a large-scale fashion.
That’s God’s business. You keep on scattering your seeds – ideally with your people living a lifestyle of generosity and kindness. Sooner or later your crops will come in…as Jude writes, “Walk by love.”
In The Practical to Becoming Worldly & Missional, Heath Watson gives us 10 practical tips on evangelism. Each item on the list below is explained further at the original article.
Heath Watson also gives us links from T4G, free MP3 downloads from this years conference are already available for all of the sessions. These include the following excellent lectures by some people you may recognize.
(Right click any of the following links and save to your hard drive. )
Blogger Glibert Kingsley writes an article for college students about using worldview to share the gospel. Ministries like Ravi Zacharias (www.rzim.org) use this approach. Nick Pollard’s book on Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult uses the same approach (see footnote for my reviews). Being Fluent in worldview issues will help you compare and contrast the world views and to help you see how a Biblical world view is the best option to making sense of reality.
Leonard Sweet’s podcast, “Napkin Scribbles.” Verbal images that can be drawn on a napkin. I wish it had the video to see the drawing.
Si no fuera por tu gracia y por tu amor
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In doing research for this series on gospel scripts, I found another outline called FAITH. It seems pretty good and could be a simple tool to share your faith.
The purpose of a script is to provide you an outline to share your faith when the Lord provides the opportunity. You have the flexibility to adjust it to your conversational context. As the conversation moves along, you can add details and back off on other points. The give and take of a conversation.Scripts are not meant to be followed in a legalistic format. There is no cause and effect as in “get the script right and they will believe, get the script wrong and you messed up their eternity.” God is charge of the whole evangelism process.The point of a script is to be very familiar with ONE so that you can confidently explain your faith when God provides the opportunity. It’s got a few choice scriptures, and you can likely pick some of your other favorites that make the same point.
FAITH Script to explain the GospelIn your personal opinion, what do you think it takes for a person to get to heaven and have eternal life?
Allow room for discussion on this question to help you discern what God is doing in the life of the other person.
F Is for Forgiveness
Everyone has sinned and needs God’s forgiveness.
Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
God’s forgiveness is provided by the work of Christ.
Ephesians 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace.”
A Is for Available
God’s forgiveness is available for all.
John 3:16 “God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
God’s forgiveness is available but not automatic.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
I Is for Impossible
According to the Bible, it is impossible to get to heaven on our own.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “By grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.”
So how can a sinful person have eternal life and enter heaven?
T Is for Turn
If you were going down the road and someone asked you to turn, what would he or she be asking you to do? (Change direction)
Turn means repent. Turn away from sin and self.
Luke 13:3 “Unless you repent, you will all perish as well!”
Turn to Jesus alone as your Savior and Lord.
John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
H Is for Heaven
Heaven is a place where we will live with God forever.
John 14:3 “If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also.”
Eternal life begins now with Jesus.
John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance.”
H can also stand for how.
How can a person have God’s forgiveness, eternal life, and heaven?
Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
By trusting Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
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