Evangelism Coach

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Servant Evangelism

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.”

Getting into the World

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.

1. Build Genuine Relationships
2. Listen
3. It’s Ok to Say I Don’t Know
4. Pray for them
5. Invite them to Church
6. Tomorrow is not promised
7. Know your role in evangelism
8. Seek to Glorify God in your conversation and attitude
9. Meditate on the gospel
10. Review Your conversion Often and Never grow too familiar with it.

Audio Resources from Together for the Gospel:

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. )

• Ligon Duncan - Sound Doctrine - Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry (MP3)
• Thabiti Anyabwile - Bearing the Image: Identity, Work of Christ, the Church (MP3)
• John MacArthur - The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: Doctrine Absolute Inability (MP3)
• Mark Dever - Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology (MP3)
• RC Sproul - The Curse Motif of the Atonement (MP3)
• Albert Mohler - Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution (MP3)
• John Piper - How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice (MP3)
• CJ Mahaney - Sustaining a Pastor’s Soul (MP3)

Using Worldview to Share the Gospel

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.

Evangelism Book Review: Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult

Evangelism Book review: Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult Part 2

Another Podcast Resource:

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.

James Choung has written a few books on explaining the Christian Faith. On of the issues that he tackles is updating or improving the Bridge Illustration.  The whole article is here at The Big Story | Tell It Slant .

“Choung’s ‘napkin theology’ and its ‘four-worlds’ diagram promise to be for evangelism in the twenty-first century what the ‘Four Spiritual Laws’ were for the twentieth century.”
— Leonard Sweet, author of The Church of the Perfect Storm, podcaster of the weekly “Napkin Scribbles” podcast

Check out these videos to see the telling of the story.  There are two here.

It comes with it’s own training document and a complete write-up of this diagram.

Here is what I like about the illustration:

• It’s much less individual in it’s focus. 
• It adds in that we follow Christ to join in God’s redemptive story.
• It talks about worldviews
• It’s simple and can be reproduced on a napkin.
• It incorporates some of the social aspects of the gospel.

After sharing this video on his blog, Choung received lots of feedback and suggestions and created version 2, which continues from the prior video

Let me ask you this?

What do you think of Choung’s improvement?  What do you make of how he explains sin, righteousness, eternity, kingdom?  Join the conversation below and comment.

1. Be unashamedly spiritual.  People are tired of the modern belief that everything can be answered by science and reason. They are open to something mystical and spiritual.

2. Promote incarnational ministry. Authenticity is essential. Postmoderns are looking for persons who are genuine and transparent. It is not the job of the unchurched postmodern to enter our culture. It is our job to invade theirs (become incarnate) with the unchanging truth of the gospel.

3. Worship experientially. Postmoderns want to experience God, not just see a show about him.  A dynamic worshiping community becomes a powerful apologetic to a generation open to the spiritual but not knowing how to connect with the Spirit.

4. Preach narrative expository messages. Jesus frequently used narratives or stories in his preaching, and often the story was the point. Preaching biblical stories connects to a culture that sees stories as a source of truth.

5. Appreciate and participate in ancient patterns. Postmodern leaders are spellbound by the ancient- future faith of the past. There is a new interest in ancient things: Gregorian chants, Celtic Christianity, ancient art, etc. The church can embrace those that promote biblical truth.

6. Experience visual worship. Paintings, banners, candles and other imagery can help share the gospel message. In the postmodern age, truth can be expressed in images illuminating biblical truth.

7. Engage in service. Offer an outlet for their passion to serve. Genuine faith always expresses itself in ministry. As postmoderns see that faith produces service, the validity of the faith is proved. A wonderful outlet for this is to engage postmoderns in mission work.

8. Connect with technology.  Churches trying to reach postmoderns not only will use technology in worship, but they also will promote community through that technology.

9. Live community. Community is a central value in most effective churches reaching postmoderns. With a culture eager for genuine community, the Church can offer community with people and with God.

10. Promote team-based leadership. Leadership in the postmodern context tends to be dramatically different than it was in other models. In the modern context, the leader was penalized for transparency. Leaders who shared their struggles frequently regretted it later as it became an example in future arguments. In the postmodern era, struggle and consequently transparency is more valued.

Source: Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age Ed Stetzer.  Order your copy from Amazon.

Emergent Churches and Postmodernism
One of the active discussions in evangelism these days is the influence of postmodernism and the development of the Emergent church. The Internet Monk writes up a good summary of this.

Virginia Tech:
There is a lot that is being said about the events at Virginia Tech this week. I was a youth pastor during Columbine, during Oklahoma City, during September 11, so I know that over the next few weeks, many youth pastors will have discussions with their groups about the love of God, God’s sovereignty, and the problem of evil. As our nation mourns, let us continue to look to God our strength. At Passion’s 286blog, there is an article that comments about heavy hearted, yet still with hope. The Christian has a privelge of an eternal hope, even when the world seems to be falling apart.

Questions and Discussions

Mere Orthodoxy raises a theological question about evangelism as a form of discussion. Can evangelism be conversational? Or does it really have to be a one-sided presentation. I simply point it out for you under an article that is titled “Fostering Conversations that count.”

A question that I’m asked often when teaching is “what is postmodernism?” It’s a term I throw around loosely, since that’s just part of my worldview. I’ve used it several times in this blog already and will continue to do so.

But often, my audience has only heard the word, not ever having thought about just what it is. I offer a few characteristics of it, such as relativity, spirituality and community, cafeteria style assembly of your personal worldview. I’ve not tried to define it, because its much easier to describe than define.

The web is full of much explanations, attempts at definitions, neither of which I will even attempt here. I came across a great article in the Presbyterian Outlook that does a pretty good job of describing postmodernism. If you can follow the link without registering, I hope you can read it.

Here is the description proposed there:

Postmodernity is a paradoxical worldview that flows from a modernist worldview
and is characterized by a shift in culture that moves from being scientific,
analytical, institutional, and mechanical to one driven by the mystical,
experiential, relational, and organic.

Presbymergent offers further comment on the article. To quote:

I found Bruce’s article in The Outlook incredibly helpful. For one, he has crystallized the “Postmodern” church—as much as something postmodern can be fixed—succinctly . . . . I believe Bruce summed it up with the simple phrase, “Jesus loves us.” This understanding, of course, transcends cultural shifts.

Jesus loves me!
Getting lost in the love of Jesus, experiencing it in its richeness, exploring its depths as we read the Word and meditate on it, gets us lost in the wonder of worship. We can describe it, we can experience it.

My favorite Spanish worship song by Jesus Adrian Romero contains the line “Si no fuera por tu gracia y por tu amor” which translates, “if it wasn’t for your grace and your love.” None of our pursuits for God, none of our worship, none of our evangelism and good works would matter to a hill of termites if it wasn’t for God’s grace — shown in His love for us.

I’m firmly convinced that experiencing God’s love propels us towards evangelism. Guilt compels, grace propels.

I can’t fully describe postmodernism. I can only disclose that I am a post modern. I don’t have all the right vocabulary, all the right connections, but this I do know — post modernism is here to stay . . . at least for a while.

This week I met a friend for coffee at the local Starbucks. He and I have had a long ongoing discussion about faith. He would consider himself an ex-Christian, having had some rough experiences with how Christians do things.

When we first met a few years ago, he was very angry about all things Christian, the church, God, Jesus, and the Bible etc. Yet in the two or three years since that first meeting, he’s mellowed out to the place of forgiving the church for how it’s behaved.

His criticisms about Christianity and his driving thirst to explore other world religions are an outgrowth of bad personal experiences with the church. He is propelled to seek understanding and dialog – a thoroughly postmodern commitment to tolerance. He has no desire at this point to put a stake in the ground and claim one for himself.

His quest is not one for truth, but for understanding, as if those hairs can be split.

Surely there are questions of truth buried in there, because religions make truth claims and ultimately, one does have to decide what is true. Christianity makes truth claims, and like any world religion ultimately makes claims upon one’s life. What my friend is trying to do is avoid allowing any religion to make a claim upon his life.

Can one really make a decision to be indecisive? Is it intellectually credible to never make up your mind about the truth claims of any religion? He would argue that it’s not doubt, its not even skepticism. It’s not atheism, which is built on belief in God’s non-existence. It’s a refusal, I think, to believe anything.

By not deciding to claim any truth, he prevents any truth claim from having control over his life.

Let me ask you this?
How would you continue this discussion with my friend? What questions might you ask to further the discussion and help foster spiritual thirst?