If you are a Christian who just watched this video, you will probably agree with me that there are several good ideas here. (And who isn’t looking for good ideas?) At the same time, you may have realized that these two gentlemen have a different perspective about evangelism than you do but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Well, my perspective is “different” too. My parents read Bible stories to me almost every day from when I was born until they were satisfied that I was reading Bible stories myself almost every day. They also encouraged me - and helped me - to memorize Bible verses. When he was born, my dad’s dad belonged to one denomination, his mother to another. (He said they never argued about religion.) A few years later, they moved to a house on the Hebrew cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where my grandfather had accepted a position as caretaker of the cemetery. So Dad also learned much about the beliefs and practices of observant Hebrews. Subsequently all five members of that family continued to call themselves Chrsitians while blending the beliefs of those three traditions in favor of doing what my dad would later urge me to do - “Read for yourself, study for yourself and think for yourself. Because of that, I consider Christianity to be a personal religion - not an institutional one. I have no college degrees and I’ve never attended seminary classes so these are merely suggestions. Take them for what they are worth. The most popular way to measure the success of evangelism is the number of people who are persuaded to make first-time professions of faith in Jesus. Another way (not nearly as popular as the first one above) is the number of people who join a particular religious organization. As an alternative, I suggest measuring the success of your own or anyone else’s evangelistic work in the following ways: Success in evangelism can be measured by evidence that a person has (or several people have) learned a new way to trust the Lord. Conversion is the miracle whereby a person’s trust is transferred from what he thought he could do to save himself from sin or its consequences to what the Lord does (has done, is doing and will yet do) to save us. The first way most people learn to trust the Lord is to trust him for forgiveness (instead of trying to earn or deserve his forgiveness). Faith is the evidence of things not seen - things we can’t observe with our five senses and can’t measure with scientific instruments. (Hebrews 11:1) Is Jesus really who he claimed to be - the great I AM, the true Messiah and the savior of Adam’s rebellious race? The evidence for that consists primarily in the ways his life and his death fulfilled the prophecies of the Hebrew prophets of antiquity, including the enacted prophecies of the sacrificial system. Another way people learn to trust the Lord pertains to the five solae - Latin for five onlys - By grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone (based on) the Scriptures alone to the glory of God alone. Another way people learn to trust the Lord is for transformation. Theologians describe this as “sanctification”. Another way people learn to trust the Lord pertains to his nature and the nature of his kingdom. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” This can be understood as meaning that neither the kingdom of grace or the kingdom of glory can be inaugurated or expanded by political means. The language people use when talking about these various aspects of the good news is often indicative of how (or even whether) they understand these things. My wife and I once lived in a city where there was a rescue mission. Sally sometimes made donations to the mission. I had more time than money so I sometimes helped there. Each of several workers and the mission at different times asked me, “Are you saved?” I had reason to think they were referring to whether I claimed the promise of forgiveness of sins so I answered in the affirmative. Some of those times, I considered the question to give me permission to ask my inquisitor to tell me about how they were converted. In each case, the answer was about things that person had done. In no case did the anwer include anything the Lord had done. The people who had asked me that question may very well have trusted the Lord for forgiveness but that is only one step in the Christian journey. And telling some people what those Christians had done posed the risk of giving the impression that they thought they had been forgiven because of something they had done. I believe each aspect of salvation (justification, sanctification and glorification) is only by grace and only through faith. To measure success in evangelism in terms of the numbers of “decisions” that have been made is to risk giving the impression that we think we are saved by our decisions.
And then he (Jesus) told them, Go into all the world and preach the Good News (Gospel to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. Mark 16:15-16
I am an Evangelist and I found it to be helpful to. God bless you.
Impressed and so i want to be an evangelist
I love that ,good job for jesus christ.
If you are a Christian who just watched this video, you will probably agree with me that there are several good ideas here. (And who isn’t looking for good ideas?)
At the same time, you may have realized that these two gentlemen have a different perspective about evangelism than you do but you can’t quite put your finger on it.
Well, my perspective is “different” too. My parents read Bible stories to me almost every day from when I was born until they were satisfied that I was reading Bible stories myself almost every day. They also encouraged me - and helped me - to memorize Bible verses.
When he was born, my dad’s dad belonged to one denomination, his mother to another. (He said they never argued about religion.) A few years later, they moved to a house on the Hebrew cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where my grandfather had accepted a position as caretaker of the cemetery. So Dad also learned much about the beliefs and practices of observant Hebrews. Subsequently all five members of that family continued to call themselves Chrsitians while blending the beliefs of those three traditions in favor of doing what my dad would later urge me to do - “Read for yourself, study for yourself and think for yourself. Because of that, I consider Christianity to be a personal religion - not an institutional one.
I have no college degrees and I’ve never attended seminary classes so these are merely suggestions. Take them for what they are worth.
The most popular way to measure the success of evangelism is the number of people who are persuaded to make first-time professions of faith in Jesus.
Another way (not nearly as popular as the first one above) is the number of people who join a particular religious organization.
As an alternative, I suggest measuring the success of your own or anyone else’s evangelistic work in the following ways:
Success in evangelism can be measured by evidence that a person has (or several people have) learned a new way to trust the Lord.
Conversion is the miracle whereby a person’s trust is transferred from what he thought he could do to save himself from sin or its consequences to what the Lord does (has done, is doing and will yet do) to save us.
The first way most people learn to trust the Lord is to trust him for forgiveness (instead of trying to earn or deserve his forgiveness).
Faith is the evidence of things not seen - things we can’t observe with our five senses and can’t measure with scientific instruments. (Hebrews 11:1)
Is Jesus really who he claimed to be - the great I AM, the true Messiah and the savior of Adam’s rebellious race? The evidence for that consists primarily in the ways his life and his death fulfilled the prophecies of the Hebrew prophets of antiquity, including the enacted prophecies of the sacrificial system.
Another way people learn to trust the Lord pertains to the five solae - Latin for five onlys - By grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone (based on) the Scriptures alone to the glory of God alone.
Another way people learn to trust the Lord is for transformation. Theologians describe this as “sanctification”.
Another way people learn to trust the Lord pertains to his nature and the nature of his kingdom. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” This can be understood as meaning that neither the kingdom of grace or the kingdom of glory can be inaugurated or expanded by political means.
The language people use when talking about these various aspects of the good news is often indicative of how (or even whether) they understand these things.
My wife and I once lived in a city where there was a rescue mission. Sally sometimes made donations to the mission. I had more time than money so I sometimes helped there. Each of several workers and the mission at different times asked me, “Are you saved?”
I had reason to think they were referring to whether I claimed the promise of forgiveness of sins so I answered in the affirmative.
Some of those times, I considered the question to give me permission to ask my inquisitor to tell me about how they were converted.
In each case, the answer was about things that person had done. In no case did the anwer include anything the Lord had done.
The people who had asked me that question may very well have trusted the Lord for forgiveness but that is only one step in the Christian journey. And telling some people what those Christians had done posed the risk of giving the impression that they thought they had been forgiven because of something they had done.
I believe each aspect of salvation (justification, sanctification and glorification) is only by grace and only through faith. To measure success in evangelism in terms of the numbers of “decisions” that have been made is to risk giving the impression that we think we are saved by our decisions.
And then he (Jesus) told them, Go into all the world and preach the Good News (Gospel to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. Mark 16:15-16
U want to be an evangelist
I wish i can smile when I share the Gospel. I wear face masks when I share. Well I smile but they cant see it
Tracks are they still around
Rob Whitaker 😂, bro
ohhh this is Church of Christ, baptismal regenerationists. That's errant.
"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" Jn.8:32
We don’t believe in baptismal regeneration