Hitch Hikers Guide to Evangelism Pt 1

I recently attended a seminar on ‘one-to-one evangelism’ (run by Mark Simpson & David Gibb of St Andrews CofE in Leyland) and thought it may be helpful to share some of my notes.

Evangelism Frustrations in a Large Evangelical Church
1. People come to the church with experiences of successful evangelism in CU’s, Summer Missions and other para-church events but don’t see the same results in the church.
2. The church runs evangelistic events and courses but the number of non-Christians brought along is often disappointingly small.
3. Most growth is from people ‘drifting in’ rather than from outreach contacts.

Result: is guilt about lack of evangelism (success) – often by leaders who then transfer their guilt to the rest of the church.

The problems (why are we so poor at this?)
Many of us are quite private people. We live in a society that is not very relationally motivated – individualistic and materially focused (Christians aren't immune from this). We are mobile and often don’t live or work in the same place long enough to build-up substantial friendships. We are busy both in work and in church.

Titus ch.2
Different groups in the church are addressed but a common theme emerges – there is a focus on how they live: their behaviour and lifestyle. Why? So that God’s word will not be brought into disrepute, to give opponents no basis for their attacks, and to make the Gospel attractive. Titus is a letter with a major emphasis on being people ‘eager to do what is good’.

The problem is that we often want to skip the above and go straight to a Gospel conversation – which can be personally wearing, turn others off and damage building longer term relationships.

Four Principles
1. Be Natural: Don’t force the Gospel. Be genuinely interested in others. Do things you actually enjoy (i.e. don’t do things simply to make contacts with potential converts) as then your friendships will be natural and genuine.
2. Be Long Term: Real friends will accept invitations. Give time to others – work often allows this best.
3. Be Gospel Ready: Have a Gospel outline practiced – you may not use it all but at least you’ll have something clear to say if an opportunity arises. Pray! This also has the side-effect of making us more sensitive to spotting potential opportunities.
4. Be Church Connected: Good Gospel preaching equips Christians to share their faith. Keep doing the evangelistic events so people do have a stepping stone for their contacts. Recognise the naturals ‘the people people’ and give them the freedom to be with others (i.e. not stuck behind the scenes or doing in-house church activities every night).