In previous series of posts, we have looked at two areas where churches often spend too much time talking and not enough doing: Doctrinal Statements and Prayer Meetings. The third area is evangelism.
Talking About the Gospel
For far too many people, evangelism is equivalent to talking. Preachers give evangelistic sermons where they tell people about the Gospel; evangelists go out to street corners and pass out gospel tracts while shouting Scriptures through a bull horn. When churches engage in door-to-door evangelism, they walk around a neighborhood, knocking on doors to tell others about Jesus.
Which is why I say, “Enough with Evangelism!” Or at least, enough with this kind of evangelism. I am all for evangelism, but not for the kind which does little more than inundate people with words upon words. In the following chapter, I will issue a call to cancel several word-heavy evangelistic programs, and exchange them for a way of life that lives and shares the gospel in a tangible way with others.
Background to Evangelism
But first, a little background. While it is true that many of the evangelistic events we read about in the Gospels and Acts by Jesus and the Apostles were heavy on words, there is a big difference between then and now which we must not overlook.
he writes this:
Sometimes the first door we knock on is the one that opens, but this is usually not the case. Sometimes we have to knock on ten, fifty, even hundreds of doors. 