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Evangelism: Reasons of the Heart
4 Suggested Reads on the Topic
of Evangelism
- Building Bridges -
- Finding Your Conversational Approach -
- Starting the Conversation - Listening to Their Questions - Doing Life With Them - Belonging Before Becoming - Praying With and For Them -
Evangelism: Reasons of the Heart
- Building Bridges -
- Building Bridges STEP ONE: Believing that God is the author of salvation, and
therefore the main cause of successful and meaningful
evangelism. That building bridges to our non-Christian friends
and families didn’t begin with our desire to reach them but His.
“…the Triune God is the author of salvation. And, inasmuch as He has
executed in time the eternal plan of salvation, has revealed its execution in
the gospel, and has ordained the gospel as the indispensible means of
salvation, it is no less clear that the Triune God is the author of salvation.”
R. B. Kuiper, God-Centered Evangelism
- Building Bridges STEP TWO: Acknowledging the danger of finding the satisfaction
of intimacy inside the church so appealing that we no longer
have life investments with the lonely & broken people outside
her walls. While also realizing our need for that intimacy.
“To put it another way many Christians churches
these days are like a ghetto in one of our big cities –
a community of immigrants in a foreign country,
clinging together for warmth and understanding, and
surrounded by a society that does not understand or
seem to care. When churches have become like
this, their biggest need is to get out of the ghetto
and to put to rest forever their ghetto mentality. We
have got to build bridges.”
Michael Green, Sharing your faith with friends and
family
- Building Bridges STEP THREE: Building bridges by first acknowledging where we are
in relation to the world. If we’ve left it years and years ago, or
just emerged from within it, or wake up beside it each morning.
Acknowledging where we are is vital.
“Your neighbors door is not a Billy Graham shaped door but a you shaped
door. You are the best person to reach your neighbor in a non-artificial
manner where they can see the gospel is for real people too. But the
question remains who is your neighbor…”
-Anonymous missionary
- Building Bridges STEP FOUR: Seeing your weaknesses as a point of contact
rather than a reason not to believe Christ could use someone
like you to reach others with his Gospel.
“Faces were smiling and several hands reached out for
the pamphlets. I know that they were able to take them
instead of retreating in suspicion because they had heard
Rose Marie and me confess many of our weaknesses.
We have made a conscious effort to move with humility
into the lives of other people, to love them from below,
rather than from above. Our weaknesses have become
our point of contact, and this openness and vulnerability
causes people to open up to us in return.”
-Jack Miller, A Faith Worth Sharing: A lifetime of
conversations about Christ
Evangelism: Reasons of the Heart
- Finding Your Conversation Style -
- Finding Your Conversation Style THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSITY:
“God knew what He was doing when He made you. He did! He
custom-designed you with your unique combination of
personality, temperament, talents, and background, and He
wants to harness and use these in His mission to reach this
messed-up world. That means He wants to use you in a fashion
that fits the person He made you to be. God doesn’t call us all to
spread His truth in the same way. Instead, He built diversity into
the fabric of His body of believers And until we realize that, we’ll
find ourselves needlessly imitating each other’s outreach efforts,
wastefully duplicating some approaches while harmfully
squelching others.”
Bill Hybels, Becoming a Contagious Christian
- Finding Your Conversational Approach IDENTIFYING YOUR CONVERSATION STYLE:
CONFRONTATIONAL
~ direct, bold, and right to the point kind of approach, demanding action
immediately
INTELLECTUAL
~an inquisitive type who enjoys working with ideas and evidences, someone who not
only declares the gospel but also defines and defends it kind of approach
TESTIMONIAL
~focuses more upon the individuals journey with God, re-telling the drama of how
you moved from religion into relationship is a common part of this approach
INTERPERSONAL
~enjoys having long discussions over coffee with others, enjoys bringing people into
the web of your life, places friendships before ‘witnessing’ kind of approach
INVITATIONAL
~you constantly are widening the circle of people involved in your activities, and
you have a natural knack for getting people to come with you, you are good at
drawing people out – kind of approach
SERVICE
~you find it relatively easy to serve others, & if meeting peoples needs is what you
find to be the most compelling witness, then this is your kind of approach
- Finding Your Conversation Style THE RELATIVE WORTH OF LABELING YOUR CONVERSATIONAL STYLE:
“…nobody fits perfectly into just one of these styles. In fact, you’ll
probably find opportunities to use all of them. The point is that God
designed diversity on His team; and each member is stronger in some
styles than in others. You might come up with style number seven or
eight, and that’s fine, too.”
Bill Hybels, Becoming a Contagious Christian
Evangelism: Reasons of the Heart
- Starting the Conversation -
- Starting the Conversation Beginning the conversation within yourself:
Understanding what the gospel is, and isn’t.
Being real with them means being yourself
Valuing dialogue instead of monologue
Starting the conversation with in the right tone
- Starting the Conversation Beginning the conversation with a reminder:
Understanding what the gospel is, and isn’t.
“The gospel starts by teaching us that we, as creatures, are absolutely dependent on God,
and that He, as Creator, has an absolute claim on us. Only when we have learned this can
we see what sin is, and only when we see what sin is can we understand the good news of
salvation from sin. We must know what it means to call God Creator before we can grasp
what it means to call God Redeemer.”
J.I. Packer, Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God
“One part of providing clarity when we share the gospel, sometimes missed by earnest
evangelists, is the willingness to offend. Clarity with the claims of Christ certainly will
include the translation of the gospel into words that our hearer understands, but it doesn’t
necessarily mean translating it into words that our hearer will like. Too often, advocates of
relevant evangelism verge over into being advocates of irrelevant non-evangelism. A
gospel that in no way offends the sinner has not been understood..”
Mark Dever, The Gospel & Personal Evangelism
- Starting the Conversation Being real with them means being yourself
“There is no surefire way of going about evangelism, or of
adopting a Christian approach. Be yourself. Be true to your own
nature [not sinful nature, but rather your personality], your own
way of expressing things, your own special relationship with
that friend you are trying to help.”
Michael Green, Sharing your faith with friends and family
- Starting the Conversation Valuing dialogue instead of monologue
“Because of all the baggage and lack of trust in our PostChristian world, people need to be engaged in dialogue. Few
people are interested only in a monologue.
Creating a culture of dialogue requires us to walk in the
shoes of the other person. To consider how it feels to be an
“outsider” to the faith; desiring to understand, but not having a
clue; wanting to ask questions, but afraid to offend; needing to
fit in to explore, but not sure of the rules.”
John Burke, No Perfect People Allowed
- Starting the Conversation Starting the conversation with the right tone
Start by Asking Questions: It diffuses their assumptions that we’re only interested in
giving them answers to questions they may not even be raising. It makes our
conversation with them a two-way street.
Speak with Modesty: The world is too full of brash people, trying to sell you
something at any cost. We’re not selling Jesus to our friends, we’re sharing his
love with them.
Speak with Confidence: We may not always know what we believe but we know
who we believe. And he is the King of all Kings, He has answers for them.
Speak with Enthusiasm: Our conversations should be marked with celebration, after
all we’ve found Jesus, or better put he’s found us!
Speak Naturally about Him: Jesus is both God and man, he’s approachable, don’t
make your conversation about him feel like a bad Televangelist crusade on TBN.
Speak in Understandable Language: Whether we realize it or not we’ve learned
‘Christianese’ well, we need to be careful about what we assume they understand in
our language. Learn the ‘local’ tongue & translate in it (contextualization)…
Speak in Prayerful Timing: Be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading, asking the Lord
whether or not its time to take them further into the message of who and what
Christ has done, and demands.
Evangelism: Reasons of the Heart
- Listening to Their Questions -
- Listening to Their Questions - INVOLVES VALUING SILENCE “Real conversations, the ones that connect hearts and
transfer understanding, need breathing spaces. We don’t
have to jump in with words as soon as the other person
pauses. In fact, we need time to hear and digest what
has been just said before we jump in with the next
thought that comes to mind. Training our hearts to be
silent precedes our mouths’ doing the same. By doing
so, we can develop the self-control we need for sharing
the Good News-both with and without words.”
Randy Newman, Questioning Evangelism: Engaging
People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did
- Listening to Their Questions - INVOLVES KEEPING YOUR AGENDA TO LOVE -
“Actual conversations with other human beings rarely follow a script.
So resolve now to be OK with interruptions, awkward pauses, rabbit
trails, and even bursts of anger. Keep your agenda to love, but drop
your agenda for how the conversation has to play out.”
Walter Henegar, “Evangelism for Dummies: The surprising gift of
stating the obvious”
- Listening to Their Questions - INVOLVES PUTTING ASIDE THE AIR OF ARROGANCE &
BENEVOLENCE WE OFTEN DON’T REALIZE WE HAVE “Peter Berger captures the style of witness that is dead for most people
today: “A peculiar mixture of arrogance (‘I know the truth’) and
benevolence (‘I want to save you’) has always been the chief
psychological hall mark of missionary activity”. People can smell this
combination of arrogance and benevolence a mile away. At the first whiff
they will fly away-miles away.”
Rick Richardson, Evangelism Outside the Box: New ways to help people
experience the Good News
“The primary reason outsiders feel hostile toward Christians, and
especially conservative Christians, is not because of any specific
theological perspective. What they react negatively to is our “swagger,”
how we go about things and the sense of self-importance we project.”
David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons, UnChristian: What a new generation
really thinks about Christianity…and why it matters
- Listening to Their Questions - INVOLVES BOTH BIBLICAL & CULTURAL LITERACY “Once he had absorbed Athenian culture through listening and
observing, Paul compared and contrasted Christian beliefs with those of
the Athenians. I call this skill dual listening, which is like holding the
Bible in one hand and a screenplay, script, lyric sheet, book, magazine
article, or newspaper in the other. Holding the two side by side, the
culturally savvy Christian engages in dual listening by assessing,
comparing, contrasting, correlating, analyzing, evaluating,
understanding, synthesizing, and conceptualizing in order to interpret
faith in light of cultural insights and to interpret culture in light of
insights from our faith. Dual listening requires both biblical and cultural
literacy.”
Dick Staub, The Culturally Savvy Christian: A manifesto for
deepening faith and enriching popular culture in an age
of Christianity-lite
Evangelism: Reasons of the Heart
- Doing Life With Them -
- Doing Life With Them MEANS REDEEMING THE IMAGE OF EVANGELISM:
“Let’s be honest, evangelism is not very cool these days. The word
‘evangelist’ conjures up for many people a slick, oily-haired man in a dark
suite and tie, smiling out of a TV screen, Bible in hand, with the phone
number for donations at the bottom of the picture. Most evangelists I know
are as far removed from this caricature as Brad Pitt is from the Queen of
England, but mud sticks. Like it or not, the word carries negative rather than
positive overtones for most people outside (and often inside) Christians
circles, and the image remains.”
Graham Tomlin, The Provocative Church
- Doing Life With Them INVOLVES LETTING THEM INTO YOUR DAILY ROUTINES:
“I was learning to let others into my life. Mel could see me studying the
Bible and finding something there that changed and satisfied me. That’s
why h wanted to study the Bible, too. And I lived close enough to John to
be fed up with his sins – and to let him know (less than perfectly) how
they affected me. There at the boarding house, the men could see that I
had the same sins and needs as they did and that my God had helped
me. The Holy Spirit did the rest.
So wherever you “cook breakfast,” there is your classroom for learning to
share your faith. The people you encounter daily are the ones Jesus
wants you to share the gospel with. But make sure that you are
understanding and loving the gospel more each day yourself or you will
not be able to love and understand the friends at your “breakfast table.””
Jack Miller, A Faith Worth Sharing: A lifetime of conversations
about Christ
- Doing Life With Them REQUIRES THE TYPE OF PASTORAL CARE THAT CAN ONLY
BE APPLIED IN RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM:
“[Gospel] communication sees through a person’s name, position,
reasons, and arguments and tries to reach the real life’s problems.
It involves meetings, but meetings filled with love. We recognize
ourselves in the other person…Missionaries are not annoyed by the
“stupidity” of the “natives,” at their “primitive” behavior. This
personal involvement with others determines the pastoral
dimension of our work. Bearing the balm of Gilead, and not patent
medicine, we are motivated by the heart of the shepherd.”
Harvie M. Conn, Evangelism: Doing justice and preaching
grace
- Doing Life With Them INCLUDES SEEING THEM AS BOTH SINNERS, AND THE
SINNED AGAINST; IN OTHER WORDS IT MEANS ‘MERCY’:
“The New Testament church does not escape the obligation of doing
justly for evangelism. We are marked as those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness (Matt 5:6). And that righteousness, as Herman Ridderbos
points out, is not righteousness in the Pauline sense of imputed forensic
righteousness. It is the kingly justice that God has promised for the
salvation of the oppressed and the outcasts. It is the kingly justice that
God has promised the Messiah would bring. We live in a new day, the day
of the promised King. And His coming was to be a coming on behalf of
justice for all, “fairness for the afflicted of the earth” (see Isa. 11:1-5). The
Old Testament promise of the Messiah’s jubilee year meant justice and
freedom for the oppressed, the broken (Isa. 61:1-2). In Christ the jubilee
year of restoration for society has begun (Luke 4:17-21). [It will not be
finished until Christ returns and consumates all creation being regained.]”
Harvie M. Conn, Evangelism: Doing justice and preaching grace
Evangelism: Reasons of the Heart
- Belonging Before Becoming -
- Belonging Before Becoming KNOWING WE HAVE A ‘HOME’ INSIDE OUR LOCAL
CHURCH BEFORE WE INVITE OTHERS IN
“Always before, well-meaning people had told me that I just had to
have faith. Well, I didn’t have faith, so their answer never did me any
good. But Jim didn’t respond that way. He had thoughtful answers to
my questions. He admitted when he didn’t know something. He
seemed to be taking me seriously. I felt listened to and cared for.
And my heart began to open up. As I watched Jim, he seemed to
know who he was. He seemed to feel a sense of belonging
wherever he went, and he gave other people that sense. He was at
home with himself, and I felt more at home with myself when I was
around him.”
Rick Richardson, Evangelism Outside the Box: New ways
to help people experience the good news
- Belonging Before Becoming WE NEED TO REALIZE WE MAY NOT BE AS WELCOMING
OR ACCEPTING OF OTHERS AS WE THINK
“…most people assume they will not be accepted until they
change, not by God and definitely not by church people. So we
must tell them the truth over and over…Instead of acceptance
that draws them into relationship and says “I’m for you,” nonChristians pick up an “us versus them” mentality from many
Christians. It is subtle but deadly.”
John Burke, No Perfect People Allowed: Creating a
come as you are culture in the Church
- Belonging Before Becoming HELPING SOMEONE BELONG BEFORE BECOMING MEANS
TURNING TO THEM IN RESPONSIBLE SERVICE AND
OFFERING THE ONE THING NO ONE ELSE CAN OFFER –
ACCEPTANCE BASED ON THE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL!
“…the Christian turns both from the world and to the world. He turns
from irresponsible sin to responsible service… the evangelist, on
the way from Jerusalem to his city-wide crusade in Jericho, will not,
in passing, toss a tract or decision card to the man who has fallen
among thieves, but will stop and minister and care for him.”
Will Metzger, To Tell the Truth: The whole gospel to the
whole person by the whole person
- Belonging Before Becoming BEGIN THE PROCESS OF HEALING THE WOUNDS OF THOSE
WHO’VE BEEN DEEVANGELIZED OR DECHURCHED.
“First, notice that many of these outsiders were former insiders. And, second,
realize that what they see from Christians creates their ideas about the reality and
authenticity of following Christ. By our words and actions, are we boosting the
reputation of Christianity, or are we unwitting accomplices in presenting an
unChristian faith to outsiders?”
“In asking about how Christians come across to people, we interviewed Steven, a
thirty-four-year-old who moved to New York from Phoenix. During the interview, he
described his initial excitement when he met a peer in an unfamiliar city. “A young
guy approached me in a subway station once, friendly, full of questions, interested
in talking. He seemed really nice, and I couldn’t believe a New Yorker was being
so, well, nice! We exchanged numbers and said we’d hang out sometime. Next
time I heard from him, he invited me to a Bible study, and that was all he wanted
to talk about. When I said, ‘No thanks,’ I never heard from him again.” Rather than
being genuinely interested in people for their friendship, we often seem like
spiritual headhunters.”
David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons, UnChristian: What a new generation really
thinks about Christianity…and why it matters
Evangelism: Reasons of the Heart
- Praying With and For Them -
- Praying With and For Them - Praying With Them “John and I were sitting in the café, I was anticipating a good hardy
breakfast as well as some deep conversation about mission and
evangelism since John was one of my seminary professors who
taught in that area, and then it happened…Out of the blue John
introduces me to our waitress and says, “Hello, his name is Tony
and he’s a pastor, how can he pray for you.” Well, at that moment I
was praying but it wasn’t for her it was for me, the embarrassment
and out-of-placeness I was feeling. Then something amazing
happened, she just opened up her entire life to us and what she was
struggling with. After praying for her I realized that sometimes the
best witness I can give for my faith is a praying witness. Being
willing to pray with them on the spot…”
A testimony from my own spiritual journey while at Westminster
Theological Seminary. John Leonard Dr. of Missiology was
the John in this story.
- Praying With and For Them - Praying For Them -
“Prayer for others is the supreme God-ordained method in evangelism.
Unless God changes a person’s heart, nothing lasting will be achieved.
Prayer is a means of raising the dead sinners to life!...Until we see the
incapacity of sinners and our helplessness to save them, we will not commit
ourselves to pray; prayer is pleading our helplessness before God.” Our
prayers should be marked by expectancy and longing.
Will Metzger, Tell The Truth: The whole gospel to the whole person by whole
people
- Building Bridges -
- Finding Your Conversational Approach -
- Starting the Conversation - Listening to Their Questions - Doing Life With Them - Belonging Before Becoming - Praying With and For Them -
Evangelism: Reasons of the Heart