EVANGELISM

Shiera Mae B. Puguon

BETHESDA SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
 What is evangelism?

Most Christians know that they should be engaging in the work of evangelism, but few know
what evangelism is.

For example, is the stay-at-home mom who helps run the play group at her church doing
evangelism if she incorporates Bible stories into the craft activities? Can a play group become an
evangelistic play group?

Or does evangelism only occur in more "conventional" tactics: witnessing on the street, leading
large crusades? Are those the only ways the gospel of Jesus Christ can be communicated, the
only way people can evangelize?

In other words: What counts as evangelism? What is evangelism?

This word evangelism carries a lot of baggage, tradition, and emotion. Furthermore, most people
have been poorly equipped with evangelism methods that are no longer effective in today’s post-
Christian world. As a result, many people become frustrated with their evangelistic efforts,
blame themselves when their evangelism efforts don’t seem to work, and simply give up
communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sam Chan’s Evangelism in a Skeptical World is a textbook on evangelism that explains the

essence of evangelism and equips Christians with the principles and skills they need to make the
"unbelievable news" about Jesus more believable in a skeptical world. In this book, Chan offers a
robust, biblical response to the important question: What is evangelism?

The definition of evangelism

Many people use the word evangelism in different ways. However, what does the Bible say
about this important word? When we look to Scripture, we run into a problem: there is no direct-
equivalent word for our English word evangelism in the New Testament. Its origin is rooted in
three Greek words:

 euangelion—“gospel”—to describe what is said (Mark 1:14–15)

 euangelistes—“evangelist”—to describe the person who is telling the gospel (Acts 21:8;
Eph. 4:11)
 euangelizo— “to proclaim the gospel”—to describe the activity of telling the gospel
(Rom. 10:15).

Evangelism, then, is the English term for the act of communicating the gospel, an act
conveyed in the New Testament by the verb euangelizo (‘to bring good news’) (14).
“The best way to understand the term evangelism,” Chan explains, “is that it is our attempt to
describe what happens when someone tells the euangelion or gospel, which is the ‘good news’
about Jesus Christ.” (14) Chan goes on to give a fuller answer to “What is evangelism”:

The essence of evangelism is the message that Jesus Christ is Lord. Evangelism is our human
effort of proclaiming this message—which necessarily involves using our human
communication, language, idioms, metaphors, stories, experiences, personality, emotions,
context, culture, locatedness—and trusting and praying that God, in his sovereign will, will
supernaturally use our human and natural means to effect his divine purposes.

In a general sense, evangelism refers to our human efforts of proclaiming this message to any
audience of believers and nonbelievers. In a narrower sense, evangelism refers to our human
efforts of proclaiming this message to nonbelievers. But in both senses, we proclaim the gospel
with the hope that our audience responds by trusting, repenting, and following and obeying
Jesus. (24)

Sometimes we need to rethink and re-define what it means to evangelize. The essence of

evangelism is the gospel, which is the good news of Jesus—not methods or the kinds and sizes
of audiences. Which means we are free to make this unbelievable* good news about Jesus more
believable in any number of ways: through urging or encouraging; blessing or warning; and even
activities for children such as singing, puppet shows, and drama.

(*Note: Why does Evangelism in a Skeptical World refer at times to the gospel as

"unbelievable"? Chan writes, "Many people today cannot believe in the gospel because of
'defeater beliefs.'" If someone holds a defeater belief, they cannot imagine calling themselves a
Christian—"Not if the Christian God sends people to hell! Not if the Christian God oppresses
women. And certainly not if the Christian God won't allow gays to get married." Chan explains,
"Until these [defeater beliefs] are addressed by Christians, people [who hold these beliefs] will
refuse to believe the gospel of Jesus. But if Christians can hear, understand, empathize with, and
address [these] presuppositions, then the unbelievable news of Jesus might become more
believable." Chan's book Evangelism in a Skeptical World will help you achieve these goals.)

Bible verses about evangelism and its roles

The Bible has some important things to say about various roles in evangelism. These roles help
us better understand it. Just as in an orchestra, where there are different parts to play—from
violinists to trumpeters, flutists to percussionists—in the same way, there are different roles in
evangelism.

1 Thessalonians 1:4–10 reveals six crucial parts that persons play in the symphony of
evangelism, which Chan outlines below:
 1. God’s role is to choose people for salvation (v.4). God has a sovereign role in salvation.
This is the theological idea of calling, election, and predestination.
2. Jesus’ role is to save people from wrath (v.10). He is responsible for dying for people
and their sins, rising from the dead, and one day coming back to judge people. Jesus’
other role is that the gospel story is about him (v. 8). The gospel is a message about who
Jesus is and what he’s done to save people from their sins.
3. Paul’s role is to communicate the gospel (v. 5). He did this both with words and actions,
not just what he said but also how he lived. Paul gives more details about his model life
in 1 Thessalonians 2:6–12.
4. The Holy Spirit’s role is to empower the person who is communicating the gospel (v.
5). Perhaps this means that the Spirit gives the person the gift of effective communication
or the words to say. And the Spirit also illuminates the person hearing the gospel by
convicting them (v. 5) and opening their heart to receive the gospel with joy (v. 6).
5. The Thessalonians hear the gospel and welcome it with joy (v. 6b). They respond with
faith (v. 8b) by turning from their idols to God (vv. 8b–9). Now they imitate Paul (v. 6a)
and are models for other believers (v. 7) while they wait for Jesus to return (v. 10).
6. The gospel is a message about Jesus (v. 8). It is the means by which the Holy Spirit
convicts people of their sins (v. 5) and enables them to welcome God’s salvation with joy
(v. 6). (20–21)

This chart further describes these evangelism roles by mapping them along six theological
categories:

Like Paul’s role in 1 Thessalonians, “Our role is to communicate the gospel both in words and
actions. But our role is not God’s: we are not sovereignly choosing who gets saved. Our role is
not Jesus’: we are not saving people from their sins. Our role is not the Holy Spirit’s: we cannot
force people to believe. Instead we must stay focused on our role as the evangelist and do it
well.” (21)

Common approaches to evangelism

Over the years, several approaches to evangelism have been developed to communicate the
gospel and lead people to salvation—including some less-than-savory approaches, like pressure
evangelism. Chan presents several of the best approaches to evangelism, including these
common ones.

(1) Everyday evangelism—One of the most common approaches to evangelism integrates

evangelism into our daily lives. “Our usual approach to evangelism is to add some activity to our
lives: maybe I’m going to try to tell someone about Jesus at lunch or I’m going to join a book
club… But we need to change our lives so that we live an evangelistic lifestyle, not a life with
add-on bits of evangelism.” (45)

Through this approach, believers are intentional about going to non-Christians before they come
to us. It pays close attention to and navigates the three concentric circles of conversation—
interests, values, and worldview—being alert to what people are saying and learning to
transition from one layer of the conversation to the next. Everyday evangelism also listens to the
stories of others, while telling our own story of spiritual transformation, and looking for
opportunities to tell Jesus’ story of good news.

(2) Evangelism expository talk—A more formal approach to communicating the gospel uses an
expository Bible message. Examples include an evangelistic Sunday church service or youth
group events, after-dinner talks at a restaurant or coffee shop, and men’s breakfasts or dinners.
Chan describes this approach in this way:

We begin with a Bible passage. Sometimes you are given a text, and sometimes you get to
choose. Your choice should be guided, in part, by your audience. What concepts of sin,
salvation, Jesus, and conversion will best suit the audience, setting, and occasion? What learning
style will the audience prefer—didactic or narrative?

The next step is to convert the big idea into a question with an answer… After you have your
question, the next step is to convert it into an existential question. The existential question is the
need addressed by this passage. You may need to reflect on the passage and the question you’ve
developed to work out what existential need is addressed by the big idea. (218, 220)

(3) Apologetics—Another common approach to communicating the good news of Jesus Christ is
through the use of facts and evidence, arguments and logic—also known as apologetics, an
approach that seeks to get people to change their views. “So how can we get people to change
their views?” Chan asks. “Do people believe what they believe because of evidence? Or because
of presuppositions? This is the chicken-and-egg argument that divides the Christian world in the
field of apologetics,” which includes two dominant approaches: evidentialism and
presuppositionalism.” (252)

 Evidentialism believes that if we give people evidence for what we believe, the evidence
will compel them to belief. “Those who take a more evidentialist approach believe in the
importance of using reason, arguments, logic, facts, evidence, and data in evangelism.”
(252)
 Presuppositionalists simply assume Christian presuppositions and start from there by
presenting the gospel and praying for the Spirit to do his work. “A presuppositionalist
will tend to be pessimistic about the enterprise of apologetics, believing that there is little
place for using reason, arguments, logic, facts, evidence, and data in evangelism.” (253)

Chan uses a modified presuppositionalist approach: “I frequently use reasoning and arguments
and evidence to dismantle a nonbeliever’s presuppositions. Once we’ve established some
common ground, I can present the Christian worldview as an attractive alternative to their faulty
worldview.” (254–255)
Chan's book will help you grow your skills and confidence in these three types of evangelism.

The relationship of evangelism to missionary work

Missionaries have understood something important about the work of evangelism that lay leaders
have begun to realize in the last several years: evangelism must connect the gospel to culture.
Chan explains the relationship between gospel and culture in two ways.

First, “The gospel is transcultural because it is true for all cultures. In the Old Testament, God is
the God of both Israel and the nations. In the New Testament, salvation is for both the Jews and
the gentiles… The gospel is universal and normative for all peoples at all times and in all
places.” (132) And yet, secondly, ”the gospel is not acultural, as if it hovers above culture and is
devoid of any culture. Instead, the gospel is deeply enculturated,” which is why “we have to
explain the Bible’s culture whenever we give a story or talk from the Bible.” (132, 133)

There’s another aspect to the gospel-culture relationship: “The person we are trying to
evangelize is also enculturated. They are not a person who hovers above culture and is devoid of
any cultural influences. Instead, this person is deeply enculturated. And this can vary widely,
even within the same geographical area.…Each would have different cultural concerns, gospel
interpretation, cultural communication, and cultural application.” (133)

Not only are the evangelized enculturated—so are evangelists. “We ourselves as evangelists ...
are not free-floating people hovering above the culture, devoid of any culture. We are not
acultural. We each have a cultural accent and a cultural flavor. We are deeply enculturated, and
this will affect our understanding and application of the gospel.” (135)

Like missionaries who evangelize tribes in Papua New Guinea or the streets of Mumbai, when
we engage in evangelism we need to understand “There is no form for presenting the gospel that
hovers above a culture, devoid of culture. We have to pick a particular form that speaks to one
culture, but may not be able to speak to another culture.” (138) This doesn’t mean the gospel
itself changes, only the way we communicate it to various kinds of people.

Are all Christians evangelists?

After his resurrection and before his ascension, Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has
sent me, I am sending you” (Jn. 20:21). But does this apply to all Christians or just certain ones,
like the disciples? Are all Christians evangelists?

As we have seen, “the essence of evangelism is its message, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Evangelism is defined by its message, not by its method, medium, or audience.” (37) Since
evangelism has nothing to do with the kind of Christian—professional pastor or evangelist, lay
Christian or leader—but with the content of the message—the gospel of Jesus Christ—all
Christians are evangelists, called and sent by Jesus to make his unbelievable news more
believable.
This will look different for different Christians. As Chan explains, “there are different models of
evangelism in the Bible: sometimes it’s a logical presentation of ideas, sometimes it’s an event
with emotional impact, and sometimes it’s through stories.” Furthermore, different people
experience God’s regenerating work in different ways. And because “people will be persuaded in
different ways—through logic, experiences, or personal examples” (38)—this leaves the door
open for Christians to use different methods to evangelize.

“So the challenge for us when we evangelize is to be open to different methods, mediums, and
entry points. We don’t have to evangelize the same way that we were evangelized. And we don’t
have to impose our learning styles on other people.” (38) We do, however, need to take seriously
our calling as evangelists. “God uses our gospel presentations as natural means for his
supernatural regenerating work. This keeps us humble about our abilities. But it also encourages
us to keep doing the work of an evangelist, because if God so wills it, he will use our words to
move someone from death to life.” (38)

10 Things You Should Know about Evangelism

1. Our evangelistic efforts must stem from a biblical understanding ofevangelism.
There are so many ways to go wrong in evangelism—impulses of fear on the one side,
vain ambition on the other—that if we do not nail down a truly biblical understanding, we will
quickly veer off course. So we start by understanding that biblical evangelism is teaching the
gospel with the aim to persuade.
2. Evangelism is often the label given to things that are not evangelism.

Is sharing your testimony evangelism? Is defending the Christian faith evangelism? How
about doing good deeds for the oppressed? Certainly those are good things that serve and support
evangelism. But they are not evangelism itself. We must not confuse the gospel with the fruit of
the gospel.

3. Evangelism entails teaching the gospel first and foremost.

God teaches us the gospel through his Word; we can't just  "figure it out" on our own. So
it stands to reason that we must speak and teach the gospel to others: the truth about who God is,
why we're in the mess we're in, what Jesus came to do, and how we are to respond to him. It’s no
wonder that Paul often described his evangelistic ministry as a teaching ministry.

4. Evangelism aims to persuade.

We want to see people move from darkness to light. Having that aim helps us know what
things to talk about and what things to lay aside. Evangelism isn't just data transfer; we must
listen to people, hear their objections, and model gentleness because we know that souls are at
stake. And we know what it means to truly convert: a true Christian has put his complete faith
and trust in Jesus, so much so that he has repented of a lifestyle of unbelief and sin.
Understanding this guards us from false conversions, which are the assisted suicide of the
church.

5. Evangelism flourishes in a culture of evangelism.

 Much instruction is given about personal evangelism. And that’s right and good since
we're each called to testify to our own personal encounter with Jesus. But when people are
pulling together to share the gospel, when there is less emphasis on getting “a decision,” when
the people of God are pitching in to teach the gospel together, a culture forms that leads us to ask
"Are we all helping our non-Christian friends understand the gospel?" rather than "Who has led
the most people to Jesus?"

6. Evangelistic programs will kill evangelism.

We need to replace evangelistic programs with a culture of evangelism. Programs are to

evangelism what sugar is to nutrition: a strict diet of evangelistic programs produces
malnourished evangelism. So, we should feel a healthy unease with regard to evangelistic
programs. We must use them strategically and in moderation, if at all.

7. Evangelism is designed for the church and the church is designed for evangelism.

A healthy church with a culture of evangelism is the key to great evangelism. Jesus did
not forget the gospel when he built his church; in fact, a healthy church is meant to display the
gospel. Think of the ways that the gathered church displays the gospel: we sing the gospel, we
see the gospel in the sacraments, and we hear the gospel when we preach and pray. A healthy
culture of evangelism does not aim at remaking the church for the sake of evangelism. Instead,
we must highlight the way God designed the church to display and proclaim the gospel simply by
being the church.

8. Evangelism is undergirded by love and unity.

Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for
one another” (John 13:35). In that same discourse, he prayed that his disciples would be unified
“so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20–21). Jesus says the love we
have for one another in the church is evidence that we are truly converted. And when we are
unified in the church, we show the world that Jesus is the Son of God. Love confirms our
discipleship, and unity confirms Christ’s deity. What a powerful witness!

9. A culture of evangelism is strengthened by right practices and right attitudes.

We need to make sure that we see evangelism as a spiritual discipline. Just as we pray for
our non-Christian friends, we must be intentional about sharing our faith with them.
Furthermore, we must never assume the gospel in conversations with non-Christians lest we lose
it. We need to view the gospel as the center of how we align our lives to God as well as come to
God in salvation.

10. Evangelism must be modeled.

One of the greatest needs in our churches today is for church leaders to boldly model
what it means to be an ambassador of the gospel. Pastors and elders must lead the way in sharing
their faith, teaching others how to be ambassadors for Christ, and calling their congregations to
do the same.

REFERENCES

https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/evangelism

https://www.crossway.org/articles/10-things-you-should-know-about-evangelism/