Exegetical Paper On Evangelism

In their book, The Great Commission to Worship, Vernon Whaley and David Wheeler takes an in depth look at commandment from Jesus for His followers to go out and spread the Good News of salvation. Today’s Christian seems to have a misconception about their role in evangelism. As the authors stated, “many times in Scripture it appears

In their book The Great Commission to Worship: Biblical Principles for Worship-Based Evangelism, authors David Wheeler and Vernon Whaley contribute their respective expertise in evangelism and worship in an attempt to synthesize the two categories by showing each fundamental imperative of the Christian disciple to be integral to and an outflow of the other. The impetus for evangelism par excellence is the “great commission”

The Art of Personal Evangelism: Sharing Jesus in a changing culture By Will McRaney, Jr. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Academic, 2003, 268 pp., $19.99 paper.

Acts 8:26-40 confirms that Missio Dei – is literally and unambiguously God’s mission. It was God who had previously drawn the Ethiopian eunuch to himself in preparation for the message (v.27) he would receive. It was God who knew the Ethiopian was returning from worship in Jerusalem and would be reading Isaiah (v.27-28). It was God who instructed Philip via an angel where to go (v.26) and via the Spirit, when to approach the chariot (v28). This passage teaches us that evangelism is an important part of mission (v.31) but it doesn’t mean we should “imagine ourselves as those responsible to spread or expand the reign of God.” It was God that initiated all facets of the encounter and conversion. Conversion from Luke’s perspective, Gaventa affirms, is God’s gift “it is not an act of the church nor

Galindo analyzes that the fundamental “mission” of a congregation is the same as any other congregation that exists in any part of the world. He argues that though every congregation has a mission and a vision, at the same time, it shares a basic common mission. (43) This reminds me of my home church The First Church of Evanston and my Field Site, The Evanston Vineyard Church. Both churches have a common mission of welcoming people to the church, irrespective of their ethnic, cultural, racial, and economic and, gender backgrounds. The mission is to help people be received in the house of God with due and deserved Christian love so that they feel loved and welcomed. Both these churches encourage church attendees to attend the service and receive the Eucharist.

didn’t she want more out of her life? Or more precise a life after death? This gave her a means of

This book calls the church to rethink and modify its practices, by providing a middle path between the emerging church and the conservative that aims to benefit all. There are major shift happening in the Western Church that has people talking. The problem is that churches fail to follow a mission-centered approach. Chester and Timmis have found that in order to refocus the churches

In the book, “Announcing the Reign of God,” Bishop Mortimer Arias’, provides illustrations for Christian evangelism based on the teachings of Jesus. Which is grounded in the ministry of Christ and affirmed by evidence and experiences contributed from a diverse group of witnesses. Arias’, main point of view, analyzes the Kingdom of God as the governing authority for the proclamation of the gospel in word and deed. He explores biblical sources, particularly the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke with the intent to examine Jesus ' evangelization. The titles for the readings appraises the Kingdom of God’s: Good News, Presence, Imminence, In-Breaking, Eclipse, Announcing as Gift, Announcing as Hope, and Announcing as Challenge End of the Eclipse? Most importantly, Aries probes how we should answer the questions of: “What it means to be evangelical?” Also, “What would ‘kingdom evangelization’ look like?”

Subsequently, the church has a mission which is to go into all the nations making disciples, baptizing them, and to teach them to observe the ways of Christ as noted in Matthew 28:19-20. When looking at the differences between the missional model and the attractional model is the missional goes out to win the lost, and the attractional seeks to bring the lost in not focusing the cultural boundaries. Stetzer and Hirsch state, “Missional represents a significant shift in the way we understand the church. As the people of a missionary God, we are entrusted to participate in the world the same way He does—by committing to be His ambassadors.” In retrospect, Hirsch cites that, “The attractional model, which has dominated the church in the West, seeks to reach out to the culture and draw people into the church—what I call outreach and in-grab. But this model only works where no significant cultural shift is required when moving from outside to inside the church.” Both have their uniqueness, however, they are designed to seek and make disciples.

In the book, “Breaking the Missional Code,” Ed Stetzer and David Putman lay a foundation for church leaders and pastors to break the missional code that has caused so many churches today to decline or worse, shut their doors. It is not easy to grow a church because there are many factors that have to be dealt with when dealing with people. This book does a great job to connect the dots in showing how churches can achieve their mission to connect the message of the gospel with the community at large. It is also evident that others are equally frustrated, following the exact same model for outreach but with lesser results. The authors go to great detail to show that just because a missional breakthrough occurs in one place that does not mean

Randy Newman’s book, Questioning Evangelism, is a book about on how evangelizing is to ask questions, and therefore, letting people communicate with questions about their own truths about God. Newman writes this book hoping that anyone who reads it will gain a better understanding of what evangelism is. Newman’s book is divided into three parts: why questioning evangelism is needed, considering what questions non-believers are asking, and observing why asking questions and knowing answers doesn’t mean a Christian’s own problem like cold-heartedness or anger. Throughout the book Newman brings readers right back to bible scriptures. Even though he appeals to accounts of people like Paul in Acts preaching on Mars Hill, he also shows how the wisdom literature is applied to our evangelistic attempts.

The “Confrontational” evangelistic method I chose to research is Evangelism Explosion. This method was started in the early 1960’s by James Kennedy, pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Evangelism Explosion is a ministry that trains people how to share their faith in Christ and how to bring people from unbelief to belief.” Groups of three, after initial

Diane J. Hymans suggests that evangelism and education suggests a variety of meanings and that it is a matter of language that is clouding what the connotation of the definitions of evangelism, discipleship, and education are (Hymans). She states that evangelism is “making the gospel known in church and world”, while education “invites people to understand and claim their identity as baptized children of God and to clarify their vocation as people called by God to live lives characterized by love of God and neighbor” (Hymans).

This course has had a great impact on my walk with Christ as well as my witness for Christ. I pastor a church and teach two classes and for me I thought that I was doing plenty. However this course has helped rekindle my passion for sharing Jesus Christ with people through personal evangelism. This paper will demonstrate what I have learned throughout this course.

First of all, any missional mental model should be derived from missio Dei itself, which is "the mission of God to bring about redemption of the world" (Sunquist 2013, 7). When we carry this mission out in suffering for God’s eternal glory, we need to imagine how in the future his goodness, his beauty, and his harmony will cover the entire creation. I think it’s necessary for us to have this vision of his glory and be aware that whatever we do is not our own ministry. The idea of us joining the ministry of Jesus Christ is