Round the Sphere Again: Evangelism

Its a Tough Sell
I’m reading Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living and Speaking the Gospel by J. Mack Stiles, a book on evangelism that I first heard about from a recommendation in a lecture by D. A. Carson. It’s a little book; I read a quarter of it in half an hour this evening. When I’m finished, I may review it; but meanwhile, here’s a quote on the bad news before the good news:

Have you heard people say that Christianity is a crutch? They’re far too optimistic. We don’t need crutches; we need spiritual defibrillators. The fact is, we were born rotten sinner to the cors. We may be upright physicaly, but spiritually, we’re dead on arrival. Left to ourselves we have no hope (Romans 5:19; Ephesians 2:1,12)

It’s not that we can’t do loving or even amazing things—after all, long ago we were made in the image of God. But these are fleeting and inconsistent moments, and no part of anything we do remains untainted by sin (Luke 18:19; Romans 7:18). We think acts of worldly goodness can mask sin, but they only add to our debt since worldly good deeds fill us with superficial self-righteous pride (Isaiah 64:6), as if we could smile our way out of treason. Our own meager good works could never help us avoid the death sentence that has been pronounced on us. We are chained to sin; we can’t help but sin, for it is in our nature (Romans 7:5). And this sin cuts us off from God. In our natural state we rebel against God and all his ways (Isaiah 59:2; Ephesians 4:18)— and this wickedness spits in the face of God (Isaiah 50:6; Mark 14:65). We are as attractive to God as a corpse at a dinner party (Matthew 23:17).

Tough sell, huh?

That’s one hard package to market. After all, it’s not exactly the generous orthodoxy that speaks to the postmodern world today. Not exactly a message that’s going to win friends and influence people, you say. Since this message is difficult to swallow, you can see why pragmatic evangelists leave it out and focus on other parts of the message.

But wait, there’s more…

Maybe I’ll tell you what the more is tomorrow. Here’s a hint: It’s more bad news.

For Those of Us Who Struggle
A list of resources to help “encourage and equip Christians to share the good news of Jesus Christ” from  John Starke at The Gospel Coalition Blog.

An Example to Follow
Dusman reports on the outreach conversations he had on a college campus (Triablogue). This time the discussion starter question was, “In your personal opinion what does it take for a person to go to heaven?”

Comments

[rosemary]

I appreciate this post and the links to other information/encouragement. Since we're moving from a very isolated location to a very visible 'main street' location in a small town, we're going to have many more opportunities for evangelism. I'm excited and also a little sheepish, to be honest.

[Victor]

Hey! You've got to call "IT" the way you think you see "IT" in these times! Right Rebecca?

I hear ya! Victor "IT" is a little cold in The Yukon nowadays if you know what I mean? :)