One thing I noticed brought up in a comment and in the review was results. I heard Voddie Baucham say something to the effect of “Sometimes we’re too busy counting nickels and noses.”

So too much time counting money given and how many people are in attendance at church. So I do appreciate your comment in regards to trusting in the sovereignty of God:

“I also admire his respect for trusting the sovereignty of God over the results of every contact, and the sovereignty of God in those whom God might bring before one who does contact evangelism.”

What is effective? There is a call to fulfill the great commission to all believers. We should be doing this out of thankfulness to God for the free gift of salvation that was given to all those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ. A measure of our effectiveness is our obedience to God.

Whether or not the ‘method’ given in the book is correct, I don’t see where your response of what works for you should be a rule for what type of evangelism you practice. The approach of what works for you is very dangerous regarding any teaching from the Bible.

Proper hermeneutics would only allow us to interpret Scripture in one that we could then use for application in our lives. Adding what works for you allows you to take the Scripture to mean whatever you want it to be or whatever is comfortable for you. We can go to Rev 3:20 where misinterpretation is the norm when this verse is brought up and where so many say accept Jesus into your heart. He is standing at the door of your heart knocking.

Are you serious??? We are painting a picture of Jesus as someone pleading you to let Him in. I’m sorry, but that is not consistent with the Jesus of the Bible. Just an example of what using the method of what is comfortable for you. We are not commanded to be comfortable, in fact when Jesus tells the disciples to share the Gospel He tells them many will die because of it.

Matthew 10:28
“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

I know you’ll agree that without proper training in a comfortable environment, say a sunday school or a Saturday class few would join real time training of any kind.

After seeing for myself many failed attempts to produce even one evangelism convert including myself most of my life, I thought like most, why try anymore? After the failed attempts I would thinkn that no one else is doing evengelism. Most engage one or two people a year to none at all about the Gospel. Those attempts may have been genuine but more than likely lacked content.

I think this way, 1. most people fear men more than God. 2. Most don’t believe the power in the Gospel to convert sinners. 3. Most have a cavalier attitude, for what ever reason.

Weather it is “contact” evangelism, “friendship” evangelism, or Will Metzgers evangelism, our churches fail to see the importance of evangelism.

That said, if a Christian needs evangelism tools and to be trained how to use the tools, then the tools shouldn’t be complicated to learn.
Many methods out there require memorization of Scripture, fine. These methods require you learn about who you might engage. Then depending on who you engage, the method trys to train you how to change dirctions for each group i.e., kids, adults, cults, non churched.
This is why it was intimidating for me. To memorize what I must say in all situations for all groups was overwhelming.

Here’s a plug for contact evangelism. Once I found a method to keep the same message for all groups of all people and only needing to know a few things from the Sriptures, freedom from the fear of having to be an enyclopedia of knowledge melted off my conscience. I literally became free from the bondage of fear which was nothing but sin.

Way of the Master material is made in such a way that even 5 year olds know how to use it. As I teach the same fearful brothers in their homes, their children listen and do what I teach without my knowing it. I’m sure you could say the same for other methods but there is so much more to learn in the other methods. Use WOTM for getting your “feet wet” until you get comfortable enough to add more material and personalize it. As you aquire the skill needed to confront family or stangers, depth of knowledge is also aquired. With the comfort of knowing there is nothing more powerful than the Gospel message, all other arguments fired at you become easier to deflect.

Because of WOTM, God has enabled me to proclaim His word to anyone. I can now use my own method because WOTM gave me insights on how to evangelize Biblically.

Finally, my concern regarding your concern:
The Scriptures do not command us to do signs and wonders. Because Jesus did those things as He evangelized doesn’t include our utilization of those ministries as obedience to Him. Our only directive is to preach, or evangelize. Paul healed the sick but he was also taken into heavenly realms. We are called to evangelize. We shouldn’t be using the Satanic excuse that men have fear so we need to come up with something that doen’t cause it. The Gospel should cause fear in the sinner who doesn’t repent not fear in the the Christian who wants to obey.
Thank you Ron