J. I. Packer's Evangelism And The Sovereignty Of God

The person whom I intend to share the Gospel with is my friend Drew Harmatz. We have been friends now for over three years and over that time grown to be really good friends. Even though we are good friends we do not share the same beliefs. Drew is Jewish and has chosen to stick with his birth religion because he likes the Jewish moral compass. Basically, he has expressed that he feels the Jewish culture is more peaceful and presents a better moral basis than that of any other religion. While we have talk of God, Christ, and the Bible; I have never tried to relay the Gospel to him.

In William Fay's book, Share Jesus without Fear, it is a book about believers pointing sinners to Jesus Christ. The book is a simple, relational approach to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Fay opens with a fascinating introduction about his salvation experience and a call for Christians to start sharing their faith. He also tells his experience with many Christians who tried to share their faith with him, and how he has had the opportunity of sharing his faith on a one-to-one basis several thousands of times. However, he states that as an evangelist, he has never led one person to Jesus Christ. Fay makes the point that success with evangelism is not defined by bringing somebody to a point of conversion; instead, it is merely sharing the gospel and trusting God to do the rest. Fay defines success in evangelism as sharing your faith and living your life out for Jesus Christ, "It has nothing to do whatsoever to with bringing anyone to the Lord.” (Fay, 1999, 4)

In the book of King Jesus Gospel author McKnight seeks to reexamine our understanding of the gospel in light of scripture. The author also discuss the recounts of a story of evangelosing in order to get a decision for christ from someone who clearly wasn’t interested. McKnight concludes that the evangelical system is broken because of a misunderstanding of the gospel

• According to Dr. Wheeler, servant evangelism opens the door to share the gospel. (Be able to fill in the blank.)

The author, John Piper, is a retired pastor, author, and theologian. Piper wants his readers to know that the goal of preaching is the glory of God (21). Piper also states that the ground of preaching is the cross of Christ, and the gift of preaching comes from the power of the Holy Spirit (23). Piper accomplishes his goal within both parts of the book. Part one is dedicated to why God should be supreme in preaching, and part two is how to make God supreme in preaching. This a great book for students, pastors, and those within the church. Piper reminds his audience that God is the focus of preaching and nothing else. This review will summarize, review, and critique the work while providing a conclusion.

When we think of evangelism, we tend to have a few big names, like Billy Graham, D L Moody, George Whitefield, and John Sung. Our mindset immediately goes to “They are powerful Christians used by God, but I am just a common believer”. Later we will arrive at a conclusion: I can never be good at evangelism. Gradually, we lost the courage to even trying evangelism.

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.

It would be beneficial to lay a foundation of the gospel down for all readers in order to expose all the readers to the Truth, especially to those who may not be Christian, but are still required to read the book. Without this foundation, it is hard for a non-Christian to apply the things learned from this book and apply it to daily life. Another concern or observation would have to be that this book didn’t go in depth on evangelism, Yes, it talked about how to start conversation with non-believers, but it never really went past that. It would be helpful for Newman to go in depth on things he says after they get the conversation going. The majority of the examples in this book focus on how to start evangelism and less on how to maintain their attention and maintain the overall discussion.

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.

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

The “Intellectual” method of evangelism that I chose to research is the Four Spiritual Laws. In summary this method is one of the simplest to use when you want to present the Gospel to someone. It was originally written as a booklet by Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, who was motivated by the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) in 1952 as a quick and efficient way to teach people how they can be saved. The Four Spiritual Laws use Scripture to convict, convince and convert. They are:

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).

There are many opinions and philosophies concerning the dissemination of the Gospel. Some believe that spreading the Gospel is unnecessary because God chooses a select few to be saved, and that these “elect” are unable to resist God’s grace. Others teach that “lifestyle evangelism” is the correct method of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Still others believe that the proper approach of sharing the Gospel is through door-to-door soul winning and through preaching and teaching in the church. One person’s approach to the Gospel that has been widely debated is that of Anne Marbury Hutchinson. Anne was born to a clergyman influenced by the Puritan leaders. Francis Marbury, Anne’s father, disagreed with the church of England and got into trouble with the Anglican leaders on separate occasions. Her father taught Anne the Bible, as a result she received a better education than most of the girls in her time.

The method of evangelism that I used was the four spiritual laws. The reason why I used the four spiritual laws because I feel like the four main key points of explaining the Gospel are within the four spiritual laws. I had to explain to my sister that God loves us unconditionally that He sent His son to die on the cross for our sins. I had to explain to my sister that no one is perfect no matter how little or enormous our sin is that we committed. Every individual is sin natured and falls short of the glory of God, but that does not mean God does not love us. Our God is a forever forgiving God and that is one key point I wanted my sister to hold onto. I had to explain to my sister that the only way to spend eternity with Jesus is through accepting

Evangelism is a wide field of ministry that is captivating many, many ministers have been called into the field. It is one of the many fields we as believers are called into. We all have been given assignment before the beginning of time God knew what he would have us to do. Evangelist’s work in many different environments in their local community, nation, and abroad. We are being the hands and feet of Jesus. we should treat it as each and every person’s salvation is important to you.