Book Review: Reimagining Evangelism

I found a book review on a book called Reimagining Evangelism: Inviting Friends on a Spiritual Journey.

I knew that I need to put this on the reading list for me and quickly acquired it.

If I was an evangelism professor at a school, this book would be required reading.

No more sales pitch!

Something that has always bothered me in typical evangelism trainings and programs is the sense of doing a “sales pitch” and “closing the deal” by helping people make a decision for Christ.

Memorize the formulas.

Deal with the objections.

Help people decide to buy your product.

Sprinkle in a few Scriptures to convict their heart and wow, you’ve got a convert.

Decisions are important, people do have to decide. I’m an evangelist at heart and call for decisions when I preach.

Scripture is important, it’s the Word of God.  Scripture speaks better than I can.

But the methodologies I trained in, read about and practiced all seem like sales.  I couldn’t get around the uncomfortableness and unsettledness.  This format for me was not as easy as breathing!

Partnership with the Holy Spirit

Evangelism is work best done in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

Richardson’s book maps this concept out from Scripture and from his life.  Instead of the salesman image, he lays out new images of

• travel guide,
• detective,
• collaborator,
• listener,
• story-teller and
• matchmaker.

When you see how the Holy Spirit is sovereign over the process of evangelism, you can see the links in the chain.

Richardson spends time encouraging us in the  Art of Noticing People.

You can see the Role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism.

Help people see God’s activity.

Richardson encourages us to look for opportunities in our relationships to help a person to discover God’s activity in their life.

One conversation with an ex-Christian friend involved this very observation. We had talked months before about the hatred my ex-Christian friend had towards the church.

I finished the conversation with a question:

“Do you think God can help you find the ability to forgive the church?”

He agreed to take a risk and try.

In the months between our last meeting, things had changed — some events had occurred, some healing had happened, and he had found a place of forgiveness.

I simply asked him:

“Do you think that God had something to do with this new forgiveness?”

He seemed to take a pause and say “Perhaps.”

After all, he considers himself an ex-Christian and so cynically skeptical that he’s not going to change overnight, but was re-awakening to the idea that God might still love Him.

All I did was suggest the working of God, a God who pursues us with revealing Himself as He sees fit.

In the context of a relationship, helping people discover that God is working in their life is part of the ordinary fun of being an evangelist — to help others see that God’s grace pursues them.

Pointing out where God is already at work can help others to discover God’s amazing grace.

Richardson’s book is helpful in this process and removes much of the fear that many may feel about personal evangelism.

Let me ask you this:

Are you close enough to other non-Christians to see and suggest where God is already at work?

Order your copy by clicking the title:Reimagining Evangelism: Inviting Friends on a Spiritual Journey

Do you need help in Personal Evangelism?

Start here with this MP3 Download on Evangelism Training from the store ($10) to help you see where you need to grow.

It’s a 80 minute audio file that takes just a few minutes to download, but it may help you answer the question:

What can you do in the next 90 days to grow in your evangelism skills?