Coming up in a few weeks, I’ll be teaching at a missions base in the Far west of Panama.
I’ll be training missionaries in their concentrated lecture phase before they begin a 6 week outreach working in partnership with local churches among some of the unreached groups in Panama.
This has led me to reflect on different forms of evangelism.
Conversational
Conversational evangelism is one form of evangelism.
You talk one-to-one with a person for a while about deep spiritual things and perhaps get to explain the gospel. Your conversation is one of several that God has brought about in the life of the person being witnessed to.
This form of evangelism happens over a period of time, and requires fluency in the same language, and assumes that you can communicate as equals about spiritual things.
Children
You wouldn’t do the same for child evangelism. Your conversation would be at a different level, or perhaps more at a teaching level. The style is different. You means of communication is different. You might use object lessons or story telling to communicate the essence of the gospel.
Cross Cultural
I’ve been thinking recently about how would I explain the Gospel to an unreached people group? If I had 6 weeks or 6 years? What if they didn’t have a written language?
If I am privileged to train missionaries going to work 6 weeks among unreached peoples in the jungles of Panama, how I can prepare them for effective short term work in partnership with the local church?
Are there ways of communicating the gospel in a short term setting like this? Different worldviews for starters.
I am sure the question has been asked and answered in many different ways by mission groups all around the world during the last 100 years.
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Connect
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August 4th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Regardless of surroundings it is always important to make sure to give the person all the information that they need to be Saved. They need to know of their need of a Savior, that includes discussing the law of God and hell.
In Catholic regions it is important to talk about salvation through Grace alone in Christ. Where as in Muslim regions you need to focus on the divinity of Christ. In each area there are things that need to be focused on, however we must always preach Christ as the only way to God.