Evangelism Made Personal
The Objective In This Study
(What To Expect In The Lessons To Follow)
The approach taken in this study devoted to the subject of evangelism varies somewhat from what youmight normally expect to find.
It is an effort to overcome the sort of problems that often followspecial classes on personal work.
Such problems as:
w
People losing their evangelistic zeal soon after the study is over, or soon after anyefforts are made to try to reach others for Christ
w
People who do not have the ability to teach being made to feel as though they arenot as dedicated to the Lord as those who do teach
w
People going out to teach before they are really prepared to teach, and often doingmuch harm in the process
w
People who are unable to teach not being shown how they can greatly assist thosewho are able to teach
w
Efforts in evangelism being carried out without being accompanied by ademonstration of the truth of the gospel in our own livesIn trying to overcome these and similar problems,
this study is based upon the followingassumptions:
w
If people can be properly motivated and maintain a positive perspective, they willdo whatever they can in this enterprise we call “evangelism”, both now and in thefuture
w
The Lord does not expect everyone to be a “teacher” in the formal sense of theword (
Ja 3:1; 1 Co 12:29; Ro 12:3-8; 1 Pe 4:10:11
), and we fail to appreciatethe diversity of function in the Lord’s body (the church) if we expect everybody tobecome a teacher
w
Developing the ability to teach comes only with time, study, and training, which is farbeyond the scope of any one course in evangelism
w
Those who may not be able to teach can still do a lot to greatly enhance theopportunities for others to teach, if only shown how
w
The most effective method of evangelism is one where the
verbalization
of thegospel is preceded by the
incarnation
of the gospel (i.e., demonstrating the truth of the gospel in our lives before we try to preach it to others)All may not agree with some of these assumptions. Given more time and experience, I myself maychange some of these views. But for now, and for the purpose of introducing this study, these remarksmay help to explain the direction this study takes...
Mark A. CopelandEvangelism Made Personal 3
Leave a Comment