Evangelism Coach

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Check out this article about the impact a Maryland church is having in its community.

Church prays for passion for the lost.

McCready and 14 others began praying in January 2002 that God would give them a passion for the non-Christians in their community. In the ensuing six years, nearly 260 people have made professions of faith in Christ.

One of their core values is prayer.  Evangelism and prayer go hand in hand.  Prayer is what fuels their growth, and keeps their evangelistic passion high. 

Here are some other articles about Evangelism and Prayer:

• Ten Prayer Points For your Friends
• Prayer and Evangelism
• Ten Devotional Questions about Your Evangelism
• Three Verses on Prayer (in a book review article)
• Take a risk and pray.
• Prayer and Evangelism (Acronym to lead your prayer)
• HEART.
• Evangelism PAINS
• Martha Reese writes about how prayer shapes the growth of a church in  Unbinding the Gospel.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Do you want to see friends and family come to know Christ as Savior?

Then review these suggestions taken from “Praying Your Friends to Christ.”

• Ask God to open their spiritual eyes (2 Cor. 4:4).
• Ask God to give them ears to hear (Matt. 13:15),
• Ask God to give them faith to believe (Acts 20:21).\
• Ask God to give them the will to respond (Rom. 10:9).
• Ask God to send people into their lives to witness to them (Matt. 9:38).
• Ask God for ways to build caring relationships ((I Cor. 9:22).
• Ask God for opportunities to witness (Col. 4:3).
• Ask God for boldness to witness (Acts 4:29).
• Ask God for an opportunity to invite them (Luke 14:23).
• Ask God to set them free from spiritual captivity (2 Tim. 2:25-26).

Order info:
NAMB # 1-866-407-6262
ISBN #0840067283

See our other entries on prayer

Popularity: 29% [?]

The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism issued a report from their 2004 gathering on the work of prayer and evangelism.  It is a 52 page downloadable PDF direct from the Lausanne website.

Here is the table of contents:

Introduction
1. Theology and motivation of prayer in evangelism
2. Principles and guidelines of prayer in evangelism
3. Spiritual warfare prayer in evangelism
4. Healing and prayer in evangelism
5. The role of prayer and fasting in world evangelism
6. Children and prayer in evangelism
7. Strategies for prayer in evangelism
8. Life prayer plan for world evangelism
9. Supplementary material
    A. Strategic definitions and applications of warfare prayer
    B. Experiencing Jesus: inner healing prayer as a tool for evangelism
10. Conclusion
11. Bibliography
    A. Children
    B. Toward motivating, mobilizing and monitoring
    C. Toward designing, deploying and developing a prayer strategy 
    D. Toward understanding and undertaking spiritual mapping
    E. Other
12. Participants

I recommend that you download and read the report on Prayer and Evangelism.

Popularity: 19% [?]

1. When was the last time you had a conversation about faith with someone who wasn’t a Christian?
2. What was the last book on evangelism that you read?
3. When was the last time you preached (or heard) a series on evangelism?
4. When was the last time you took the initiative to greet a first time visitor, and took the time to converse with them, beyond the handshake?
5. How would you answer the question from a non-Christian: “Why do you believe in Jesus?”
6. When was the last time you prayed for your neighbor to know Christ like you know him?
7. How many friends do you “do life with” that do not know Jesus?
8. How many Bible studies or church events do you go to that keep you too busy to be with non-churched people?
9. What gospel scripts have you learned and are ready to use at a moment’s notice?
10. Who are the new believers in your church that you can help coach in evangelism?

Popularity: 40% [?]

I just finished reading Nick Pollard’s Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult: How to Interest People who Aren’t Already Interested (order your copy direct from Amazon).  Nick is a full time evangelist and speaker who lives in Great Britain.

With cover endorsements from Josh McDowell, George Verwer, and Lesslie Newbigin, I figured it would be a pretty good read.

Can  Evangelism be made less difficult?

I found the first chapter to be the best: “It doesn’t have to be quite so hard.”

It’s a look a Colossians 4:2-6

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.  And pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.  Prayer that I may proclaim it clearly as I should.  Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer every one.

Three verses on prayer . . . 

Evangelism begins in prayer.  (See articles on prayer to learn about praying for evangelism). 

Pollard elaborates on these three verses on prayer

That God may open the opportunity

This doesn’t mean that we have to make the opportunity, or seize the opportunity, or force it, or hint at it, or steer it, or otherwise manipulate the conversation in our favor.  We don’t have a script that we have to force.

so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.

Prayer can help us know the mystery, and help us share the mystery of our relationship with Christ.  Prayer helps us meditate on Christ, discover his love and work in our life, and we might be able to talk about what God is doing in our life.

clearly, as I should.

This is a big one.  We need to learn how to proclaim the message clearly, and not as muddy as a swollen river.  Pray so that you don’t “botch it up.”

Two Verses on Evangelism

Evangelism is expressed on our words and actions. 

In our words: “let your conversation be seasoned with salt”

In our actions: “be wise in the way you act towards outsiders.”

Together

Prayer and Evangelism go hand in hand.  They must go together. 

Some people spend all their time in prayer — never talk to people about Jesus.  Other’s talk about Jesus all day long, but without prayer, there is no advance prepartion of the soil or of the evangelist.

Make the most of every opportunity

Then Pollard goes into a section entitled — How to lose friends and Irritate people, exploring evangelism methodologies that manipulate conversations. 

We are told to make the most of every opportunity, not make the opportunity.  This I think is the best point of the whole chapter.

I’ve had many attempts where I felt like I was steering the ship.  I had to get my conversation partner to come around to spiritual thinks.  The feeling of anxiety as I tried to think “How does this connect to Jesus?”  “How can I turn the conversation to Jesus.

Let me ask you this.

Start with which one you find easier — prayer or evangelism.

If prayer is easy for you, start praying specific people and opportunities.  You’ll find that you’ll want to start talking

If talking about Jesus is easy for you, you’ll find that you’ll want to start praying.

The point is: start.

Evangelism Resource:

Nick Pollard’s Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult: How to Interest People who Aren’t Already Interested (order your copy direct from Amazon).

Popularity: 51% [?]