“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)

With Zaccheus, he declared:

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10)

In these statements, Jesus declares his pursuit of us before we knew Him.

In the three “Lost” parables of Jesus (Luke 15), we see the story

• of the lost sheep,
• of the lost coin,
• and of the lost son.

In these stories, Jesus communicates to us the outrageous love of the Father to go and look for that which was lost, to leave the 99 to find the one, to tear the house upside down to find the missing coin.  They talk about the celebration that happens when that which has been lost has been found.

The precious lost item

We look for things that are important to us that are missing.

I had to go to Venezuela on one of my teaching journeys.

Now, I was in Tampa for a conference.  I was to travel home, sleep for a few hours and then go to the Venezuela the next morning on mission work.

I was only going to spend 12 hours in my house before going on to the Venezuela.

When I got home to help my wife pack for our family, we discovered that our passports were missing.

That  was the most stressful night in the life of our family in probably 10 years.

My wife and I finished the evening at 10:00 or 11:00 at night after searching every corner of our house.

We were looking through the trash cans. We were looking through the safe. We were pulling out dressers. We were tossing things upside down. We looked through every single piece of luggage that we had. We were looking in all of our backpacks, and we went looking through the toy boxes in our children’s bedroom.

We made a giant mess in the process because those passports would determine our destiny.  Those passports would determine if we could get back into the country, exit the country, or enter the country with which we were going.

Those passports would determine if we were leaving at 8:00 the next morning.

Those passports would determine our destiny.

They were the most valuable thing in the world.

And when we couldn’t find them, we were breaking down in tears.  I can imagine the widow missing her coin, the stress that she was carrying, and tossing that house upside down.

We went to bed that night in tears. We cried ourselves to sleep.

I wake up at 4:30 in the morning just restless.  I started washing dishes, crying and praying, “Lord, I’m supposed to be in Venezuela this afternoon, and I don’t know how I’m going to get there because I just don’t know where the passports are.”

Then I hear the scurrying of feet across the tile floor, and I hear something some banging around in a seat bench where we store backpacks.

My wife had a dream, and in that dream she saw where she put the passports in her last trip. It was a secret compartment in a black bag that was invisible in the poor lighting in which we had.

There were four gorgeous passports.

We found them!  We found them!

Can you imagine the celebration that erupted in our house that morning? Can you imagine the celebration as that stress just washed right off our backs? When we finally got to the airport gate waiting area, we cried in relief.

Our taxi driver in Venezuela heard the story.

Our friends in Venezuela heard the story.

Those precious passports were the most important thing in the world at that moment and we had found them.  We wanted everyone to know we had found them.

As I ponder the story of the widow looking for her coin, and the celebration she had, can you imagine the joy in God’s heart when that which was lost has been found?

Can you imagine God’s heart for you as God sought you and brought you to faith?

God takes the initiative to seek after you.  Get to know the Father’s heart.

You can use your personal testimony to spread the Gospel of Christ.  Make sure you avoid the cheesy clichés – be authentic.

1.  Use your testimony.

You have both current stories of God’s work in your life, as well as your conversion story.

Even if you had a less-than-dramatic experience in becoming a Christian, it is still important.

You can talk about how the Lord is changing your life on a daily basis. Tell how He is helping you raise your children or do your job. This is particularly helpful if you sense a similar need in your friend.

Read  The power of personal testimony

You might want to think in terms of transformational stories, rather than testimony. Testimony may have been confined only to the conversion experience.  But we can talk of God’s current work in transforming our life today.

2. Your story has power.

First, it’s personal. You don’t have to memorize Bible verses, or worry about telling it correctly.

Second, it is conversational. It’s not a sermon. It can be shared over a cup of coffee or after a round of golf.

Third, no one can dispute it. If you have joy, peace, and love in your life as a result of knowing Christ, that will be evident.

Fourth, it is interesting. It’s natural for friends to want to know more about each other. Even if your friend is antagonistic to the Gospel, he/she may still be interested in why you value your relationship with a man named Jesus.

3.  Plan your testimony.

You can use Paul’s testimony in Acts 26 as your outline.

(1) Tell about your life before Christ. You don’t need to go into embarrassing detail, but you do need to be frank enough about your story so that those who hear it can compare the you back then with the you right now.

(2) Describe the conversion experience that you had. Be honest and genuine and provide the relevant details. After all, this is when you receive the gift of eternal life.

(3) Explain what your life is like now. What have you stopped doing, or started doing as a result of your new life?

If you need help developing your testimony, start with this Personal Evangelism Testimony Questionnaire

4. Point people to Jesus.

This is your story, but it has meaning only because Jesus is part of it. The purpose of your story is so that the other person will come to Christ.

The key question to keep in mind: Where is Jesus in this story?  Where is the activity of God.

5.  Clearly explain the Gospel message.

Take pains to explain the Gospel clearly and simply.

Perhaps use one of the gospel scripts.

Make sure you know how to use a gospel script.

It’s easy to get caught up in the emotion of reliving your life-changing story, but the real story is the Gospel.

But be sensitive to the moment and discern if the Holy Spirit is opening the doors for this.

6. Share several key Scripture verses.

You’ll probably want to share John 3:16; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23; John 14:6; and John 1:12.

Add any favorite verses you may have.

Most gospel scripts have a string of verses that support their story.

7.  Avoid abstract Christian terms.

As a test, define the following terms as simply as you can, so your non-Christian friends understand them: saved, born again, sin, faith, repentance, receive Christ, lost, eternal life.

See my use of Christianese: What is a prayer burden?

8. Explain how you actually received Christ.

Share enough detail so the other person will know what to do if he/she has the desire to know Christ. Often, not knowing the logistics of receiving Christ keeps people from doing what their hearts long for.

For example, my friend last week asked me, How do I start following Christ – he wanted to know how to pray, how to receive that gift.  He actually asked me to help him pray.

Adapted from Sharing Christ When You Feel You Can’t by Daniel Owens.  Order your copy from Amazon.

• A message to share (“joyfully sharing the good news of the sovereign love of God)
• A destination (“calling people to . . . . . “)

The good news is the gospel.  This is what gospel means in its most basic form: “good news.”

However, we have developed a rich theological heritage around that word that gives it a more fuller meaning.  As such, we should ask “What is the gospel?”

What is the Gospel?

The PC USA definition of evangelism elaborates one aspect: “the good news of the sovereign love of God.”

The evangelism definition here doesn’t contain a mention of sin (though indirectly in the call to action part in “to repentance”).

This week, I’m reading Embracing Grace: A Gospel for All of Us, Scott McKnight.  It is subtitled “A Gospel for all of us.”

Scott is a prolific writer at JesusCreed and has a large following on his blog.  I had him as a exegesis professor during my studies at Seminary in the 1990s.  I’ve commented on him before.

In his introduction he writes that to get a conversation started among his students, he’ll ask the question “What is the gospel?”

He typically receives answers that fall into three categories:

• Jesus came to earth to die for my sins so I can be forgiven and go to heaven to be with God for eternity.
• Jesus came to liberate us from oppression, systemic evil, slavery, so there would be justice and peace.
• Being part of the church.

How does Scott’s answer the question?  It takes him the book to develop this:

“The work of God to restore humans to union with God and communion with others, in the context of a community, for the good of others and the world” (Introduction to Embracing Grace: A Gospel for All of Us, xiii).

Scott’s answer goes beyond focus on the love of God and into restoration of covenant community.

In fact, God’s destiny in history is a redeemed community.

Let me ask you this?

How would you define gospel? (I can’t believe I’ve not asked this question here before).  I invite your comments.

See our prior posts

• Part 1: What is Evangelism
• Part 2: Joyfully Sharing the Good News
• Part 3: The sovereign Love of God
• Part 4: Calling People to
• Part 5:

Praying for yourself:

Jimmy Kinnaird has developed a useful prayer acrostic called “BOLDNESS” to help you prayerfully prepare yourself. This is an awesome acronym and a helpful structure.

Here are some things I pray for:

• To live a consistent and holy attractive life.
• To be authentic and honest as I go through life’s ups and downs
• To sharpen my skills as an evangelist
• To have appropriate boldness and courage
• To have the eyes to see the opportunities and open doors for conversation
• To have frequent conversations with people.
• To taste the "Father’s Heart" for people who don’t know Him.

Praying for others:

For starters, I have a list of names of people that I pray for regularly.  Using names brings to mind faces of people that I know and love and are apart from the outrageous love of Christ. It moves beyond a nebulous "them" to my friends — its personal.

Jimmy Kinnaird has shared another useful acrostic called "HEART" to help you pray for your friends.

Here is what I pray for:

• To reveal Himself and draw my friends unto Himself.
• To open their eyes to see the emptiness of life without Him
• To open their eyes to see their need for forgiveness, to remove the confusion in their mind, to grasp the meaning of the cross.
• To help me see what He is doing in their life.
• To hear from God about how to engage them in conversation — sometimes God shares some information.

Let me ask you this?

Take a moment, write down the names of people you love who do not know Christ.  Spend time every day this week praying for them.

I share them here as a pointed reminder about considering our life and witness.

Three ways to repel:
1. “In your face Christianity” — the pushy Christian forcing spiritual conversations at the wrong time. The conversations tend to be one sided, with the Christian not even listening, but marching through an agenda.

2. “Holier than thou” — holding to “my life is better than yours” “you are a sinner and i can’t hang out with you” “I’m better because I’m not like you” etc. This may manifest itself in all sorts of other ways.

3. “Cosmetic Christians” — skip deep, hypocritical, and unchanged deep down. This is the salt that stings, or the light that glares.

Three ways to attract a seeker:
1. Costly Christianity — you live your faith even when it costs. People see how important your faith is.

2. Compassionate Christianity — love demonstrated. Christianity is not all about right doctrine, but demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ as well.

3. Consistent Christianity — being real, authentic and consistent.

Let me ask you this?
As you spend time with the Lord today, ask Him to show you how your life reflects the gospel.

Does your life help or hinder the advancement of the gospel?

One atheist encourages Christians to listen at the eBay Atheist.

Preachers Magazine gives a sermon about Peter and Cornelius, looking at all the conversion that occurs.

Glenn Hager has a good discussion happening about the church, doing vs. being. In fact, he’s written a series of articles called “Be the church.” Follow the related posts links.

Otto Ekk, in his first post on his new blog raises a question about the transforming work of the gospel. It’s just the beginning of a conversation, but he raises some good questions nonetheless.

Over at The Word on the Streets, the author is writing a series about Sin, God’s Love and the Gospel. Check out this entry on God’s love.

Have a great weekend!

Paul visits Athens

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.

The definition of Evangelism I use:

What we share is all about the good news of God’s sovereign love. In the Christian circles I run in, most of us would agree this refers to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the solution for our separation from God.

Joyfully sharing the good news of the sovereign love of God, and calling people to repentance, to personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, to active membership in the church, and to obedient service in the world.(Definition adopted by the 202nd General Assembly of the PCUSA, 1990).

What is Evangelism – Part 3 focused on the activity of sharing, while today’s focus on is on the content of what we are sharing: the good news of the sovereign love of God.

But the good news is more than that fact. So often we neglect the sovereignty of God.

• God’s sovereign love pursues us before we ever know Him.
• God’s sovereign activity makes us aware of our need for the salvation he provides.
• God’s sovereign love provides the solution and enables us to receive that offer.
• God’s sovereign love continues to pursue us as we walk on the path of discipleship.

Sovereign over the process as well

Since evangelism is a process that occurs over time, it’s the sovereignty of God that gives me comfort in the fact that I’m just one part of God’s pursuit.

Every conversation I have is part of God’s process in the life of the person I share with. I might have the part of planting a seed, watering what someone else has sown, or harvesting what others of planted, watered, and sown.

Whether with a stranger on the street, or a long term friend, any conversation prompted by the Holy Spirit is one conversation in the process of God’s work.

Some presentations want to do all three parts (plant, water, and harvest) all at one time, and guilt driven methodologies make the evangelist feel responsible for lack of response, mistake in the script, or even lack of a complete presentation.

But God’s sovereignty frees us from that guilt.

• It’s God’s sovereignty that
• draws people to faith,
• awakens their spirit, and
• helps one to respond to the offer of grace.

We are simply a tool in the proclamation.

Let me ask you this:

What role do you see about God’s sovereignty in evangelism?

For more in our series “What is evangelism?”

• What is Evangelism Part 1
• What is Evangelism Part 2
• What is Evangelism Part 3
• What is Evangelism Part 4
• What is Evangelism Part 5
• More Evangelism Definitions
• More Definitions of Evangelism