I have posted a web page, comparing seven different examples of personal evangelism in the New Testament. Since Blogger doesn't seem to allow tables, and a table seemed to be the most sensible way to prepare this, I'm not placing the material on this blog.
I haven't posted this, or the accompanying web page, because I'm a great personal evangelist. I'm not.
My conclusions:
1) There was no set pattern.
2) The evangelists were all spiritually prepared. The Holy Spirit had also clearly prepared at least some of the people they evangelized, as well.
3) Baptism and follow-up were important.
4) None of these conversations started by warning about sin, or by telling of God's love. These approaches may have their place, but weren't used in any of these cases.
5) All of these conversations were with strangers. It's probably important to get to know someone, and win their trust, before leading them into belief, but it wasn't necessary in any of these cases.
Thanks for reading.
Musings on science, the Bible, and fantastic literature (and sometimes basketball and other stuff).
God speaks to us through the Bible and the findings of science, and we should listen to both types of revelation.
The title is from Psalm 84:11.
The Wikipedia is usually a pretty good reference. I mostly use the World English Bible (WEB), because it is public domain. I am grateful.
License
I have written an e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which is free to anyone. To download that book, in several formats, go here.
The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
8 comments:
Great post! I really enjoyed your conclusions!
Thanks, Cody!
Martin
I think your analysis would also support my own belief that the Web is a significant medium for evangelism - ie in terms of meeting unexpected people. Indeed those you might not ever expect to meet. At Internet Evangelism Day we are offering resources to encourage Christians to use this medium.
Blessings
Tony
Thanks, Tony.
I'll check Internet Evangelism Day out.
Thanks for posting that table. I started a series through acts looking at personal evangelism to see if I could find THE biblical pattern.
Your table is fantastic. I'll link to it.
Pastor Chris
EvangelismCoach.org
Thanks, Evangelism Coach. The New Testament is what's fantastic.
This is very interesting. One thing that struck me was that in the majority of these cases, the other person intiated or invited the conversation. Nicodemas came to Jesus; the Ethiopian eunuch asked for guidance; Cornelius sent for Peter because of a vision; the jailer asked Paul and Silas how he could be saved. I've posted some further thoughts, along with some additional examples that came to mind, on my own blog.
Thanks for such a thought-provoking chart and post!
April 18, 08: You are right, brucea.
Thanks for your comment.
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