Evangelism Coach

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In The New Man Report: Evangelism Kirk Cameron Style (and Part II), the writer presents a critique of the script Way of the Master.  At the same time he critiques it, he also admire them for being active in evangelism.

The comments that follow each article suggest that his readership reacted pretty strongly one way or the other.  Following the comment trail makes for a good review.

If you are not familiar with the Way Of The Master script, it uses the Ten Commandments as a backdrop to help convince people of their sin.  I take issue with some practitioners who believe it is the ONLY VALID form of evangelism.

I personally do not use it.  Rather, I do my evangelism after the model of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch where I am depending on the Holy Spirit to lead me to the person that God has already prepared. 

It’s not so much about the script, as it is about you getting out of the church and doing some faith sharing.  Scripts are useless unless you are engaged in conversation with people.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Pick any blog on evangelism, and one will encounter an attempt to summarize the gospel. What points must one share? What happens if I forget a point? Can I mess it up?

On one hand, its great to be concerned about messing up. We always want to be prepared to explain our faith, and get better at it as we mature in Christ.

On the other hand, God is more sovereign than our mistakes and will not deny His grace to another because our explanation was as clear as mud.

God’s sovereignty is not an excuse to avoid evangelism, nor to be sloppy in our presentation.

What must a clear explanation have?

A good explanation of the gospel must convey information about

1. The nature of sin and our separation from God.
2. The love of God and his desire to be reconciled to the lost.
3. Christ as God’s plan of redemption:
4. That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
5. Christ died for our sins and rose again.
6. The promise of forgiveness of sins
7. Belief in Jesus is the response to God’s irresistible grace.

Scripts

One of most popular forms (see our series on evangelism scripts) to explain the gospel is the Law and Gospel script by the Way of the Master folks.

I like the theology of the Law and Gospel, but don’t agree with how some practicioners say its the only valid form of the gospel message.

The implication is that if you didn’t get the right explanation of the gospel, you are a false convert. Or if you miss an element in the explanation, the conversion has misfired.

In my own testimony, my conversion misfired 20 years ago because I didn’t come to faith in the right way.

Other scripts include Four Spiritual Laws, Romans Road, Good Person Test, Evangecube (video), the The Bridge Illustration, Do versus Done and so forth. There are plenty of scripts out there one could use.

Pick One

Each script has its critics, and its endorsers. It’s not my point here to pick one over the other.

My point however, is to pick a script and get very familiar with it so that you can explain the gospel clearly when given the opportunity.

I use the  Bridge Illustration as I think it covers a lot of ground. The imagery is clear.

Practice it over and over on a napkin until you can explain it clearly at any given moment. Learn how to share it lovingly and in the form of a dialogue (the script is not a tool to cream people).

Let me ask you this?

What script do you like you to use? Can you share the gospel message clearly when needed?  See our entire series on scripts.

Popularity: 57% [?]

In case any of you saw the Atheist/Christian debate on ABC last week, The Irish Calvinist has a good discussion happening.

The debate was organized after some words were traded between the Rational Response Squad (who is promoting the Blasphemy Challenge) and The Way of the Master promoters Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. So it was more of a follow up discussion between two organizations rather than the typical academic debate between incredibly deep thinkers.

If you care about it, feel free to read along at The Irish Calvinist.

The Way of the Master is a particular approach to evangelism using the Ten Commandments. It’s focus on the fact that we have violated God’s Law (what we do). It’s evidence that we are sinners (who we are). At its basic presupposition, it assumes that everyone believes in the authority of the Ten Commandments, which in this post modern age, may not be true.

If you desired so, you could google it all and see some of the discussions about it. It’ll come up here from time to time, but I don’t need to spend my time on it now.

Popularity: 24% [?]