Understanding Evangelism

Evangelism has been part of my Christian life almost from the beginning. I became a Christian at fourteen years old, and before I understood ministry titles or developed formal methods, I wanted to tell people about Jesus. I began with Bible studies in my home under the light of a kerosene lamp. That small beginning became a doorway into streets, schools, homes, workplaces, beaches, tent meetings, crusades, missionary service, and ministry in many nations.This book grows out of both Scripture and experience. The teaching foundation comes from evangelism material I developed and used over the years, covering the message of salvation, repentance, true conversion, personal witness, Gospel literature, open-air preaching, reaching hurting people, community outreach, types of evangelism, follow-up, discipleship, and raising labourers. I have rewritten and reorganized those themes here as a book rather than a classroom manual.I also want the reader to meet the teenager I was. I want you to walk with me toward young men on the street, some involved with gangs and cannabis, and feel what it was like to begin talking about Jesus. I want you to hear the school nickname preacher boy and understand how being known as the guy who knows about Jesus created both pressure and opportunity. I want you to stand at doors, walk beaches, enter workplaces, sit in homes, and later travel with Kathleen into missionary life in Croatia.Some stories in this book describe settings and patterns from many years of ministry rather than reconstructing private conversations word for word. I have not invented named converts or attributed statements to identifiable people when I do not have those details. Where I describe the atmosphere of an evangelistic encounter, the purpose is to bring the reader into the kind of experience I lived while protecting the privacy and dignity of others.My conviction is simple: evangelism belongs to the whole Church. Some are called to the ministry of an evangelist, but every follower of Christ can be a witness. You may never preach a crusade or live in another country. You may reach a neighbour, co-worker, classmate, relative, or stranger. Heaven does not measure the value of a person by the size of the audience through which they were reached.The title Understanding Evangelism reflects what I want this book to accomplish. We will examine the message we carry, the mission Christ gave us, the many methods available to us, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet I do not want these pages to remain information. My prayer is that understanding will become action and that readers will begin seeing the people around them differently.Jesus said, ’Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation’ (Mark 16:15, NIV). The command contains movement. Evangelism cannot survive as a theory discussed only among Christians. The Gospel was given feet through the people who received it, and every generation must decide whether it will carry that message into its own world.My world began beneath a kerosene lamp. Yours may begin at a kitchen table, in a coffee shop, through a telephone call, at work, on a campus, online, or across a fence with a neighbour. The location is secondary. What matters is that Jesus is made known with truth, compassion, humility, and the conviction that the Gospel is still good news.