1. Be clear about what you believe and why you believe it. Know the Scriptures and know the confessions and catechisms. The more you know about your faith, the easier it is to talk with non-Christians.
2. The essence of evangelism is communicating the correct information about sin and grace, simply and clearly. Talk about the law and the gospel, not about infralapsarianism and divine simplicity. That comes later!
3. Avoid the use of Christian jargon. Speak about real sin, real guilt, real shed blood!
4. Use tact and be charitable! Don�t talk about reprobation with someone who has just lost an unbelieving family member. Be kind and courteous! Many non-Christians act and speak out of ignorance, not malice.
5. Be sensitive to someone�s past�if they�ve had a bad experience in church, struggle with a particular sin etc., be understanding and compassionate! Non-Christians hate self-righteousness, and they have a right to do so. Do not soft-peddle the law and the guilt of sin, but make sure they understand that you are a justified sinner, not a self-righteous "know it all," who is here to correct them!
6. Stick with the subject�don�t get side-tracked. When the conversation wanders, pull it back to center stage�the law and the gospel.
7. Evangelism is not about winning an argument, but leading people to Christ. Discussions may get heated and intense at times�that�s okay. But the purpose of evangelism is not to show why you are right and they are wrong. It is to communicate the truth of the gospel. The message is to be the offence. Not you!
8. When people are apathetic about sin�use the law. When people have doubts or are skeptical�use basic apologetic arguments. When people express guilt for sin�present the gospel.
9. Evangelism is about leading non-Christians to Christ. Convincing evangelicals that Reformed theology is true, falls under the heading of polemics. Don�t confuse the two.
10. Stick with what all Christians hold in common wherever possible. Leave the internecine fighting among Christians aside when talking to non-Christians. A non-Christian will not care much about why the Lutheran view of the Lord�s Supper is in error, or why Baptists are wrong about infant baptism. That will come during catechesis.
11. Wherever possible, speak about Christianity as factually true� "Jesus did this," "Jesus said this," "people heard and saw him," etc. Keep away from the subjective line of approach� "it works for me."
12. Pray for wisdom.
13. Trust in the power of God the Holy Spirit working through the word! Cite texts directly from the Scriptures with attribution. Jesus says, Paul says....Not, "I think," or "it seems to me."
14. Don�t rush things. Just because someone is not ready to trust in Christ after one encounter does not mean that effective evangelism has not taken place. Pre-evangelism is equally vital. You may plant, but someone else may have to water.
15. Treat people as objects of concern, not notches in your belt. Establish relationships and friendships whenever possible.
16. Don�t forget that a prophet is without honor in his own home. The chances of you leading your own unbelieving family members [or someone close to you] to Christ are remote. Pray for someone else to come and evangelize your family!
17. Don�t force things. If people balk, ridicule and otherwise are not interested, back off. Find another time and place. If after repeated attempts to communicate the gospel, and someone still shows an unwillingness to hear what you have to say, "shake the dust off your feet and move on to a new town!"
18. Be willing to get people the resources they need: be willing to provide them with a Bible, the right book to read, and certainly an invitation to attend your church or Bible study, etc.
19. Pray for opportunities to evangelize. Pray for your church�that God would bless the preaching of his word, that he would bring non-Christians into our midst, and that he would bless the church with growth.
20. You don�t have to become a practical Arminian to be a faithful evangelist! A Reformed approach to evangelism simply means telling people the truth in love.
that list sounds like a legal document, cold calculating and chaffing to the very fabric of Love. are you God's lawyer? seriously get over yourself... it's about God's will, and his timing. the love of God cannot be learned it is to be experienced and appreciated and that is the only way one can convey it's power, not by any effort of our own. LET GO AND LET GOD.
I see the point Nyanda is trying to make. Making a list of what to do to save people takes away from the gospel. Firstly, it doesn't give God room to move. You have a set list to follow, and you're gonna stick to it. There are tons of different types of people who are in different situations in their lives, and it's impossible to cover all of those situations in a single list. Secondly, it doesn't feel very loving, does it? It makes people feel like they are an agenda. This is something that a lot of Christians, myself included, don't think about. We are so consumed with trying to win converts or un-believers that they simply become numbers.
Now, I'm not trying to say that your list was incorrect, because there were some really good things in the list. You simply pulled things you have read from scriptures and applied it to your personal walk with Christ. Nothing wrong with that, as long as we keep an attitude of love and humility.
"that list sounds like a legal document, cold calculating and chaffing to the very fabric of Love."
"If this is so bad, please share with us how YOU would share the Gospel with other people."
I don't think it's so much "the content of the list" as much as it is "the fact that there even IS a list". That kind of like having a list that you look over every night before you go home to your wife, or having a list that you look at before going to hang out with your friends. It becomes an agenda instead of a relationship (which, funny enough, is one of the bullets in the list. lol) Hope this helps.
James ~ I believe the openin line...Some Do's and Don'ts of Evanelism...starts off as that of a list as Nyanda stated...of Oks and No No's...Legalism/Calvinism/Armeneism....
Ya see...even though it all reads good or bad fer that matter...Its still a List...which Jesus did away with when he came here ta fulfill the Prophcies... ( meanin all the other not really needed stuff Man added upon the 10 commandments )....
IMO...its all jus more Poop an Arguen betwix mostly the Gents...its concider another one of those " Pre-Writ...Copy/Paste...Someone Elses Point or Article...an once again Evangelizion ta people that jus are so done bein Beat on the Head with words of Man an not bein feed with WORDS of GOD...
So...Ima with Nyanda...bring Us some MEAT we can naw on...xo
i'd do what the Spirit of God leads me to, it can be everything on that list, the difference is that it would come from the source of Love = God and the delivery would be according to his will, because it is him who ordained it in the first place. i'm just tired of people looking at the walls instead of appreciating the way it outlines, the ground beneath our feet that leads to the very heart of GOD. his heart, his heart! can't you see it? his heart and his hands and his eyes and everything about his looks like LOVE, not a description of LOVE.... but LOVE itself. it is written, 'ye search the scriptures, the very same testify of me[Jesus]' HE IS HERE!
I have a list to:Hebrew 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
I love this testimony of an man preaching to a large crowd of people, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, whatever you seen him do in the bible he will do for you if you just ask him. there was a Young lady in the crowd, that her face was deformed from birth, A few doctors had come to her and offered to do some reconstructive surgery for her at no expense, they let her no it would require many surgery's and that it would be very painful.
She had already had a few surgeries and when she heard that Jesus could heal her, she ask him to heal her face, right in front of everybody, Jesus gave her a brand new face, and when he was done they all testified she was absolutely beautiful, that is my Jesus,
Do you suppose anyone gave their heart to Jesus that day?
So far, I all I am hearing on this is "don't have a list"?
Wow. When I was a new Christian, I went to the Baptist church, and they taught me the "Roman Road" which is a list of Scriptures in Romans to remember when witnessing to others.
It was a great help to me.
Then later I became a member of Covenant of Grace, and we went door to door sharing the gospel using James D. kennedy's method called "Evangelism explosion", and we had to memorize plenty of scripture and several questions we would ask people when talking to them about the Gospel.
This was also a great help to me. If you are a Christian, and you want to share the good news on how they can know that they are right with God, then it does help to know some scripture on this, and how to say things so others will understand it.
I mean some Christians are shy and unsure of themselves and learning these things can help them.
Here are the two opening questions we asked people, and this is directly from Kennedy's course:
1 Do you know for certain that if you died tonight, you would go to heaven?
2. If you were to die tonight, and God said to you "why should I let you into my Heaven", what would you say?
Most people think they will go to heaven and they have convinced themselves that God grades on a curve, and then they start telling you what a good person they are.
Then we would ask:
Do you mind if we tell you how you can be sure that if you died tonight you would go to heaven?
And if they say, yes, we would tell them about Jesus, about how our sins separate us from God, and that if we repent and trust in Jesus, that God accepts us a perfect and forgives us all our sins, and that we are adopted in to God's Family, etc.
I posted this because I thought some Christians might want to share the good news with others but they were not sure how.
i hear ya. my point is if methods saved souls then the death of Christ is all in all vanity. the ism's and the skism's put the death of Christ to no effect. he came to earth and died for a reason, not to write a book, but to make a way. we must walk in this way, not write more books. i'm not putting down books, please don't get me wrong. but if your writing more than your walking then what it the point?
I think the problem here is styles.A lot of "men" think in a linear logical fashion.As opposed to women who,for the most part more emotionally driven.I dont see anything wrong with Sirjames list,I think it is very logical and helpful,you touchy feely christians out there need to understand that everything in life is not an EMOTION.Emotions are great,wonderful,and very useful,but so are calm logic and reason.God has given us both to use so a little balance is in order.
