Evangelism Made Personal
The Objective Of 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 you might normally expect to find. It is an
effort to overcome the sort of problems that often follow special
classes on personal work. Such problems as:
- People losing their evangelistic zeal soon after the study is over,
or soon after any efforts are made to try to reach others for
Christ
- People who do not have the ability to teach being made to feel as
though they are not as dedicated to the Lord as those who do teach
- People going out to teach before they are really prepared to teach,
and often doing much harm in the process
- People who are unable to teach not being shown how they can greatly
assist those who are able to teach
- Efforts in evangelism being carried out without being accompanied
by a demonstration of the truth of the gospel in our own lives
In trying to overcome these and similar problems, this study is based
upon the following assumptions:
- If people can be properly motivated and maintain a positive
perspective, they will do whatever they can in this enterprise
we call "evangelism", both now and in the future
- The Lord does not expect everyone to be a "teacher" in the formal
sense of the word (Jm 3:1; 1Co 12:29; Ro 12:3-8; 1Pe 4:10,11),
and we fail to appreciate the diversity of function in the Lord's
body (the church) if we expect everybody to become a teacher
- Developing the ability to teach comes only with time, study, and
training, which is far beyond the scope of any one course in
evangelism
- Those who may not be able to teach can still do a lot to greatly
enhance the opportunities for others to teach, if only shown how
- The most effective method of evangelism is one where the
"verbalization" of the gospel 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)
I suspect not all will agree with some of these assumptions. Given
time and experience, I myself may change some of my views. But for now,
and for the purpose of introducing this study, these remarks may help to
explain the direction this study takes...