The Church Planter 's Role Essay

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.

This is what lifestyle evangelism is at its core, living the Christian life in front of unbelievers. Joseph C. Aldrich explains, “In the truest sense, evangelism is displaying the universals of God’s character-His love, His righteousness, His justice and His faithfulness-through the particulars of my everyday life.” At first glance life-style evangelism may seem too simplistic to work, but upon closer inspection the power and effectiveness of it is seen. Evangelizing through everyday life and experiences takes the Gospel to every kind of unsaved persons. Plumbers on the job site, secretaries in the office, and children in the home all have a shining example of Jesus to reach for when their lives get tough. When they are overcome with guilt and worn down by this life, they know exactly who to go to. Jesus said in Matthew 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in

Henry Mitchell does a great job of focusing on a few main arguments in Celebration and Experience in Preaching. These arguments center around the experience of the Word and the vehicles of experience. Mitchell starts the book by stating that he believes that salvation and spiritual growth come through a spiritual encounter with the Word and that preaching at its best is used by the Holy Spirit makes this experiential encounter possible. Mitchell contends that this experience is not a coming to faith moment. But, rather the experiential experience is one that helps to “describe, interpret, and help communicate” the faith experience. An experiential encounter with Word happens when three major elements are present. The first major element that needs to be present for an experiential encounter with Word is a Biblical text that encourages trust in and obedience to Word, along with a behavioral purpose calling for real-life application. The second major element needed is a basic understanding of hearing and other senses and how they relate to belief in Word. The hearing experience must consist of vivid details and images, some sense of familiarity, and homiletic moves in consciousness. Mitchell believes that details allow for a greater sense of meaning for believers, familiar associations call to mind similar experiences that bridge the gap between then and now, and the homiletical moves break down abstract concepts bringing them to life for the hearer. The third major element

This article raises awareness of the historic value of open-air preaching, being seen as radical, in no way limits it to being a method utilized by such as Jesus Christ, Paul the Apostle, and in modern times Rev. Billy Graham. It is a great article for those that aspire to enter the ministry at the grassroots level and beyond.

Discussion of three Methods of Evangelism their effectiveness and possible shortcomings and which method would be suitable for the author to use.

Wesley’s sermons are characterized with the call to exercise personal faith in Jesus as a means to salvation (Hutchison & Wolffe 25). Although a bit detached from the time of Edwards and Wesley, Finney, a famous and yet controversial preacher, also exhibits the same emphasis on conversion and evangelism when he exhorts the preachers to preach in order to “convert his congregation,” (Finney Lecter 12, 203). It is

Among all the authors this semester that I encountered, my strongest connections were near the beginning of the semester. It is difficult to pick one favorite, because of commonality across the voices of Thomas Long, Paul Wilson, and Frank Thomas. In varying combinations, they share certain beliefs about both the form and function of sermons. Wilson and Thomas both structure their sermons around parallel points: trouble in the Bible, trouble in our time, grace in the Bible, and grace in our time. Long and Thomas share the belief that sermons should affect change of some kind in the lives of their hearers. For Long, “sermons make demands upon the hearers, which is another way of saying that they provoke change in the hearers (even if the change is a deepening of something already present). Thomas 's belief is that “in the pulpit, the preacher must influence behavior.”

This paper addresses the similarities and differences between the sermons of Jonathan Edwards and my own pastor, Pastor Leigh.

The extensive Gallup Poll conducted for Christianity Today in 1979 indicated that a large majority of American pastors (56 percent) felt that preaching was one of the most important things they did. Preachers invest much of their lives in thinking about sermons. However, if they preached regularly, they would be too aware that their praying, Bible reading, planning, studying, outlining, writing, practicing, and delivery involves a major time expenditure. Proper time and preparation are very important factors (Hamilton).

In formulating my MAP (Ministry Action Plan) for revival, there are several goals to be achieved. The first goal which is the primary goal is to get every church member to participate in fruitful evangelism because there is a sense of our church dying on the vine and they do not know it.

As he addresses extensively the subject of evangelism, it appears that Fay is very confident that is book is well needed due to the “sin of silence” that has gripped the Church and the body of Christ, in general. He has a powerful style that uses examples from his personal life and experiences to shows his reader that it is easy to share the Gospel. He also uses witnessing examples from the lives of various Christians to show the readers that they too can share the gospel without fear. He advocates a simple and non-confrontational approach to evangelism and states that God can use even imperfect attempts to share the Gospel. What God cannot use is the Christian’s silence about the Gospel.

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.

Critique Questioning Evangelism, a book by Randy Newman about evangelism, was well written to present another way of sharing the gospel that can rejuvenate the witnessing process. The point of the book is to evaluate the way Christians are thinking and present them with new ways to think. Newman presented his material in a well and convincing way by providing examples and insights into sharing the gospel by questioning non-Christians. Multiple insights that Newman presented spiked my own interest and challenged me to apply these ideas to my own evangelistic journey.

evangelistic efforts are usually conducted by a charismatic preacher who carries the burden of presenting truth, pretty much by himself. Usually, there are no small groups and no meaningful interface between church members and the public who come to these large meetings. Almost every year now, there are evangelistic efforts that are spread around the world by satellite down links. Thousands of churches can receive the evangelistic message simultaneously. This has resulted in tens of thousands of baptism. This method of evangelism fails to create friendships between church members and the public who attend these meetings.

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.