Skip to main content

Review: Evangelism More Caught than Taught

I teach Evangelism & Discipleship I & II online for a Christian University in Ohio. I was looking over an assignment that really threw me for a curve because the exercise goes against what the course is teaching.

The course uses as one of its textbooks, Becoming a Contagious Christian: Communicating Your Faith in a Style that Fits You, which teaches that there are several ways of evangelizing referred to as "styles" and that there isn't only one acceptable way. Those styles are: Direct style, Intellectual style, Invitational style, and Serving style.

Then the course has students read an article that emphasizes one style (Direct, or perhaps Intellectual) and asks them to attempt to do so. The article gives the following statement for its rationale:

"We are dedicated to equipping people for evangelism, not because large numbers follow us, but because it is the command Jesus gave to His followers. We don’t take others with us for OJT because it’s convenient, comfortable or easy, but because it is the Biblically mandated, time-tested, and historically proven means of producing disciples." 

This runs counter to the teaching in the course that was previously laid down as foundational. 

This article pulls from Dr. D. James Kenedy's Evangelism Explosion material which is hung on four principles: 
1) Every Christian is to be a witness, 2) It is the responsibility of the Pastor to equip the saints, 3) Equipping is best done by on-the-job training, 4) Training soul winners is spiritual multiplication--and Scripture verses are given in support for each of these. 

OJT is one method. EE states it is the best method, which means it may not be the only one, but (in Kennedy's debateable opinion) it is the best method. I am not saying I disagree. I am just seeking to establish consistencies. 

I agree that everyone who comes in contact with Jesus Christ and has a conversion experience where they are forgiven of sins and receive the Holy Spirit, will be Christ's witness (Acts 1:8-9). Therefore, every Christian is a witness (I speak about the difference between a religious Christian and a true disciple here). Paul writes the Ephesians that God has given the people of Christ, his body, the Church, people to equip them for ministry: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers (4:11-13). Jesus sends out his Jewish disciples into a Jewish area with specific instructions to preach the kingdom to only Jewish people in the way he has modeled but also with specific instructions on how: preach the kingdom, heal the sick, and cast out demons in my name. 

A walk through the book of Acts will show different methods are initiated when the disciples evangelize. There is Peter preaching, Peter with Cornelius, Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch, Saul/Paul and Jesus and later Ananias, Paul with Lydia and the Philippian jailer, Paul on Mars Hill, and a few more. None of these are exactly alike; there are principles that can be gleaned from each that are similar across the board. However, Paul changed his method, or his style, to meet the challenge of the people on Mars Hill he was speaking to so that "by some means I might save some." 

Maybe I am wrong in thinking that asking students to try a style that isn't there own or comfortable with runs counter to the training they are receiving. Maybe not.




Popular posts from this blog

I Wish We'd All Been ... Left Behind

  Perhaps you have heard the group DC Talk sing the remake of Larry Norman’s’ song, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”? There is something tragically deceptive about the lyrics though. As we sing along, we find ourselves participating in a couple instances where we wish we had been ready to be taken instead of left behind. But that is not how Jesus tells his side of the story. The words are inspired by Matthew 24:40-41. But let’s look more closely, shall we? MATTHEW 24:37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away . That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. ...

A Joshua-Veneered Judges

Without challenge there will be no growth. Without expectation there will be no challenge. Why is it that we think if we expect "too much" out of people they will turn away? Didn't Jesus issue commands and ultimatums? Why should His Church not remind His people of these things? I was challenged by a statement from someone in Sunday School that people "like" the way things are going. This "liking-ness" caused me to ponder the "state of the union" and internalize a "declaration of dependence" for the name of Christ. I repeat, Without challenge there will be no growth. Without expectation there will be no challenge. I do not want to bow down to "likingness" as the test for spiritual growth. What I see in fruitfulness is sporadic unquestionable commitment .An abandonment to the statements of Christ across the board. This is reflected in the hard work of hospitality we lack in our home-model of being the body of Christ. W...

Start With The Second Coming In Mind

If you could only answer questions, “Yes,” or “No,” and couldn’t ever use the word “maybe” again, would it make that much of a difference to your life? Take a moment and read James 5:1-12--it is especially very interesting to read in The Message translation. So often we are told to begin with the END in mind. The END is whatever or where ever the certain project we are working on is heading until we say it is DONE. We do need to begin with the END in mind, but James has a different END in mind. There are several things the people have done wrong in James’ mind: laid up treasures in the last days,  kept back wages by fraud,  lived in luxury and self-indulgence,  fattened their hearts,  condemned and murdered people. When James tells the rich to “weep and howl” what is he getting at? What good does it do? What does “the cry of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of the Hosts” mean? What does it mean for "the wages of those abused by fraud...

Family Time Videos