There are many inhibitions Christians have about sharing the gospel, but perhaps three stand out especially:
- Disabled by the fear of man
- Disempowered by a lack of skill-set or calling
- Disqualified by sin or failure
Do you recognise yourself in any of these?
The response to these issues in the church has often been to present a method of gospel explanation that will make it easier to gently and intentionally start conversations (fear of man), help achieve the evangelism task (skill-set), and let everyone play (calling or disqualification). The idea makes sense: if we can supply an effective enough method, it will lead to more people becoming messengers of the message.
METHOD MESSENGER MESSAGE
Yet, whilst this approach can lead to some positive outcomes, evangelism equipping and encouragement that hinges on rote methodology should never be thought of as the ideal. The power of evangelism is not in a method, but in the truth of the message of the gospel.
We can put too much stock in method being able to fix the inhibitions of the messenger and the ignorance of the world when these things are actually best addressed by the wonder and power of the gospel itself, by its plain truth and its reality at work in the messenger’s life. Method is useful, to be sure, but it has to find its proper place.
REORDERED:
MESSAGE MESSENGER METHOD
Leonard Ravenhill rightly points out that “any method of evangelism will work if God is in it.” This begs the key question: How do you make sure God is in your method? You make sure God is in the messenger. And how do you ensure God is in the messenger? You start with the message – the gospel itself.
MESSAGE
We don’t start with the gospel in evangelism equipping solely so that we understand it well enough to tell the world about it (as important as that is). We start with it, reassert it, and press into it over and over again, because without its truth the light in our lives, individually and communally, will fade.
When we take the time to talk through the gospel, explore its truth, wrestle over its intricacies, marvel at its wonder, delight in its hope, respond to its invitation to repent, and live in its reality, we are changed. Our minds become sharper as to how to express with simplicity the depths of the gospel. Our lives are refined into the image of the one at the centre of the gospel. Our hearts are moved for those who don’t yet know the gospel.
Simply put, the best evangelism equipping and encouragement is found in knowing the gospel deeply. By its truth and power we become more than people with a message delivered by a method, we become the living embodiment of the message (2 Cor 5:17-21).
MESSENGER
The 2019 Oscar nominated movie 1917 tells the story of two soldiers who are sent on a perilous mission to deliver a life-or-death message to the front lines of a World War I battle. These messenger soldiers risk their lives to get the message to those who need to hear it, so that they may be saved from certain death.
We might view our role as messengers of the gospel in a similar way, jumping out of the safety of our church trenches and heading into the battlefield with our message (and indeed for some around the world there are very real dangers in evangelism). But where this messenger analogy falls short is in the impact of the message on the messengers themselves. In 1917 the soldiers first carry the message out of duty, and then later out of urgency, knowing that it could save lives. But the message itself has no impact on them as people; only the mission they undertake.
Far more than just carriers of a life and death message, we are the living embodiment of what the message is. It is transformational. Indeed, as we are transformed by our knowledge and experience of the gospel and submission to its truth, we have the hope to overcome any challenge that evangelism presents, not by method, but by the power of the message itself.
- Disabled by fear? Let the gospel of peace enable you to live in freedom (2 Tim 1:7).
- Disempowered by weakness? Let the authority of the gospel empower you beyond your limitations (2 Cor 12:9).
- Disqualified by sin? Let the gospel of salvation restore you to relationship with God and qualify you to serve his kingdom purpose (Mat 5:14-16).
Let the gospel bring you to life and let that life be lived as a messenger of gospel hope in word and deed.
METHOD
Having committed to talking through, wrestling over, and knowing deeply the gospel for ourselves, we can begin to discern more appropriately what resources are available and use them effectively in any given context. To be clear, method here means a simple way of explaining or exploring the gospel, rather than techniques within evangelism such as asking questions, listening well, offering prayer etc. The best approach for talking someone through the tenets of the good news will always be a deep knowledge of the gospel—with head and heart—so that in any conversation you might know how to make connections from the wonderful truth of the gospel to the life of the person you are talking to. To reveal the word of God that is living and active as being true for their life, so that our friends, neighbours, colleagues, or strangers would receive the gospel as people, rather than as the targets of any given method; that they would see the gospel as a message of life because they are talking to someone truly alive by its power.
With all this in mind, these gospel methods can be brilliant tools for evangelism in different contexts, as they build upon the gospel foundation we already have in our lives.
