Evangelism is inevitably linked with risk

Final part of the ongoing series
John Bowen (in Evangelism for “Normal” People) writes about rediscovering the stories of the first witnesses to Christ’s life, death and resurrection in the book of Acts, and realizing that evangelism is inevitably linked with risk:
    The risk of leaving the nest
    The risk of going to people
         who are different
    The risk of [...]

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Evangelism is a matter of words and deeds

[Part ten in an ongoing series]
Telling others what God has done is as central to our calling as it was to Jesus’ mission. Certainly we cannot avoid the fact that evangelism means speaking words of faith. But Jesus not only told others about God, he also demonstrated God’s love.
In John 5 we find the story [...]

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Evangelism is personal

[Part nine in an ongoing series]
In previous posts, an underlying assumption has been that evangelism is the work of the whole Christian community. I don’t want to sound like I’m completely contradicting that understanding, but evangelism also relies on each individual Christian doing her or his part. The problem is, viewing evangelism as the work [...]

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Evangelism is a matter of helping people move toward Christ

[Part eight in an ongoing series]
The doorbell rings; we open the door and a stranger demands of us, “If you die tonight, do you know if you will go to heaven or hell?” This kind of approach—while being a form of flasher evangelism and running contrary to everything we’re saying about good evangelism—is also based [...]

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Evangelism is based on prayer

[Part seven in an ongoing series]
Evangelism that is built on trusting relationships also requires that we be attentive to the discipline of prayer. We can begin by praying, “God make me aware of the people around me who are searching and want to hear about your love.” Bowen writes, “Whenever I get to know individual [...]

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Evangelism calls us to listen

[Part six in an ongoing series]
Since evangelism is built on trusting relationships, one often-overlooked skill is critical to the process: listening. While many church leaders like the one I encountered years ago attempt to motivate us—like salespeople at an Amway meeting—to get out there and “share Jesus” with others, Jesus’ own model suggests a different [...]

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Evangelism is built on trusting relationships, and it takes time

[Part Five in an ongoing series]
A few years ago, in an interview with some church leaders, somehow we wound up talking about my trip that day, and about the fact that I had stopped in a fast food restaurant for lunch. One of the leaders asked me, “Did you share Jesus with the cashier at [...]

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Evangelism is a result of vibrant faith communities

[Part Four in an ongoing series]
Beginning then, with the idea (expressed in Part Three) that evangelism is God’s idea, not ours, that evangelism is rooted in God’s continual movement toward the world and based on God’s desire to restore all creation, we move on to look at what evangelism is, or at least what it [...]

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