The elders are currently reading a book called The Soul Winning Church: Six Keys to Fostering a Genuine Evangelistic Culture. We'd love you to read it too - we've just reached chapter 4, about Personal Evangelism.
The authors - J. A. Medders and Doug Logan - say the essence of evangelism is simply telling people how awesome Jesus is. They write:
'People are often nervous about evangelism because they don't want to wade into the culture's hot topics, or they don't feel equipped to engage in apologetic arguments. The apostle Peter helps us reframe the content of our evangelism in 1 Peter 2:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10, ESV).
Most of this passage is about who we are, as believers. After framing our identity, Peter sets the activity that flows from that identity - "that you may proclaim." Peter sees Christians as proclaimers, heralds, "make-knowners" of the gospel and the excellencies of Jesus. He says we are to proclaim "the excellencies of him."
In other words, the task and privilege of every Christian is to simply tell others how awesome Jesus is.
We can tell them how wonderful he is. We can tell them how incredible he is. We don't have to get embroiled in an argument. Proclamation isn't argumentation. We don't have to have every answer. We can say, "I don't know - let me think about that and get back to you. But for the moment, can I tell you why I believe Jesus is the key to life and eternity?" We can think about the ways in which Jesus is amazing - his perfections, sinlessness, deity, kindness, mercy, power, miracles, teaching - and make them known. And most of all, we can talk about how incredible it is that Jesus would die on a Roman cross for sinners like us. We can share how amazing it is that Jesus would die in our place and that he would rise again from the dead and is reigning in heaven, offering real joy-producing, life-altering forgiveness for anyone who believes in him. We can talk about amazing grace, non-expiring mercy, eternal life, and the love of God.
What amazes you about Jesus? What do you love about Jesus? Talk about that with people.'
They go on to say that people really are ready to hear. Apparently, according to a 2021 study, 66% of people are open or very open to a conversation about the Christian faith. In the UK, according to the 2022 Talking Jesus Survey, 75% of non-christians who had a conversation with a Christian friend about Jesus felt comfortable doing so, and 33% of them left the conversation wanting to know more about Jesus. That's one in three! Could it be that more people are willing to talk about Christianity than we tend to think?
