Evangelism
Has anyone else looked at the Doable Evangelism website? I find the idea really intriguing. I first heard about it on an episode of This American Life entitled “Bait and Switch.” They were interviewing a guy who described his former involvement with bait and switch evangelism projects through the years.
I’ve always known how important it is to spread the Gospel, but I have never really wanted to evangelize. When I was a teenager, I remember learning about telling others about Christ using a kind of sales technique. The problem was that the other person really needed to know the script we were using or they would never get saved!
Most of the other times that I have looked at any evangelism material it all seems like sales programs. Though instead of selling a product we hope to close the deal and get someone saved. To tell you the truth, I have never been able to memorize any of the points that you are supposed to use with these approaches. I remember, there is one where you use the five fingers of your hand, something where you try to get someone to name ten beers and then the ten commandments, and something with a banana. It isn’t like I’m dumb, I have memorized lots of stuff in my life. I think it is a matter of my lack of connection with the programs that make it hard for me to learn, much less to actually try. And don’t even get me started on the tracts!
Anyway, the point is that I like the “doable” approach that is about living intentionally and making ordinary attempts to reach the lost. One of the ideas that I heard on the radio that suck with me was the idea that we are to make disciples and not just converts.
If you have time, check out the site: http://doableevangelism.com/ and see what you think.
Thanks for the shout out! I think you summed up our mission pretty well here. Our mission is to change the way Christians think about evangelism. We think it’s been too narrow and too undoable. And the Great Commission is pretty clear about making disciples, I think…not just converts. Do what’s doable!
Yeah the whole word evangelism has always had kind of a bad taste in my mouth. It makes me think about doing beach outreach in high school. The biggest problem that I always had with it was that there was no discipleship or follow up. We just went down to the beach talked to people and then walked away.
I really liked the idea of the Church survey on the DE site though. It would be a good way to see what how non-Christians feel when they visit.
cxlink,
thanks. I had a similar experience with beach evangelism. Scarred me for life.
If you like the church survey idea, you should check out http://www.churchrater.com. They will actually hire non-christians to come to your church and rate it (since they are the normal target of most churches).