Evangelism
Evangelism
By: Sharonda Cooper
This book is part of a 6-part series Crossway put out called Disciplines of Devotion, meant to help women “cultivate a life of devotion to the Lord by building simple, biblical practices into their days.”
Other books in the series are Worship, Bible Study, Sabbath Rest, Prayer, and Fasting. As of the writing of this review, I’ve only read the Evangelism book.
They are all short, this one is only 60 pages and are easily read in one day or even one sitting, thus they are not exhaustive but brief and practical. They provide other resources as an appendix for further reading/study on the topic.
The chapters of this Evangelism booklet are:
What is Evangelism?
What Are the Blessings of Evangelism?
Evangelize by Asking Good Questions
Evangelize by Sharing Your Story
Evangelize Through One-on-One Bible Reading
Cooper offers this definition of evangelism: “Evangelism is explaining the gospel to a person who is not yet following Jesus so that he or she might obediently respond by turning from sin, trusting in Christ, and beginning a lifelong journey of following the Lord.”
This opposes the popular phrase- ‘preach the Gospel and if necessary, use words.’ I actually had a poster of this phrase on my bedroom wall growing up. (For those wondering, it is not present in Scripture.)
The heart of that phrase is admonishing believers to live a life that reflects the Gospel. And that’s important. That’s evidence of a changed heart. But actual evangelism requires words. Explanations. Conversation.
Evangelism is scary. Especially when sharing about our own faith and inviting others into it is often received as ‘shoving it down someone’s throat.’ We fear what people will think of us. We fear rejection. We fear doing it wrong and causing someone to reject God because we didn’t explain something well enough.
But I appreciated what Cooper shared in this book. She reminds us that the more we do it, the less scared of it we will be; we’ll see that it’s not as bad as we imagined. That doesn’t mean we won’t face rejection, but we’ll know that we are being obedient to God’s commission for us and we’ll remember that only God can change hearts.
There is no ‘quota’ of ‘conversions’ a Christian must get in order to keep their spot in heaven. Evangelism is merely an outpouring of what matters most to us to people we care about or people that God places in our path.
Most of the time evangelism is just sharing our own story of what God has done in our own lives or asking good questions.
It’s definitely easier said than done. I chose to read this book because I know I’m not intentional to do this and I was hoping it would help relieve some of the anxiety that comes with thinking about evangelizing.
I think for some who have not even thought about how to evangelism or why it matters, this little booklet is a great place to start. For me, having already read Greg Koukl’s book Tactics (which is recommended in the back) that book felt a little more helpful for me to hear actual conversations play out and consider more specifics.
Nonetheless, I clearly didn’t come away from Tactics with a passion for evangelizing if I still don’t feel like I’m doing it. And I think that just reminds me that I need to stop looking at it like something I do on my own.
I have the Holy Spirit inside me to help me and I need to pray for more opportunities and for open eyes and boldness to see them and take them. My fear keeps me from even looking to do it.
I can read twenty books about evangelism but I need to pray that God would help me take action. To be willing to try and to be okay with whatever results from it. If I really believe what I believe, and believe those who don’t believe it end up in hell, why would I let fear hinder my sharing. I should fear God more than man.
I don’t need to protect God from rejection. He doesn’t need me to shelter him from people’s reactions. It’s me that needs him.
So at some point, we need to stop reading books about it and just go and do it. (This is me preaching this to myself!)
Recommendation
I think the concept of this series is really good. Especially because most people aren’t voracious readers and aren’t going to spend the time reading longer books. Brief and practical is a great.
I think most people are going to find these really helpful. They are great resources and would make a nice little gift.
Personally, I’m in a place where I prefer a little bit more. I’m willing to read longer books and get more details and examples. That doesn’t make this a bad book, it just means some readers may need more than this. Which is why they included extra resources.
So I recommend this as a good starting place but encourage you to check out other books too!
Another one they recommend that I’ve reviewed is J.I. Packer’s- Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.
**Received a copy via Crossway in exchange for an honest review**
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