Church Based Strategy for
Persuasive Evangelism
I. Reaching Out
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CONTACT
How do you meet
non-Christians?
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CONNECT
What do you have
in common?
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COMMUNICATE
What do you have to say?
II. The Open Door
• The Philosophical
Marketplace.
• Witness through Work.
• The Whole Christ to
the Whole Person.
III. The Means of Grace?
• The Bible.
• Prayer.
• The Church.
IV. Questions:
• To what extent do you
think the members of
your church have an
adequate understanding
of the Gospel – how
equipped are they to
communicate it?
IV. Questions:
• How do you think
you could equip
your church to be
evangelists?
IV. Questions:
• What are the
dangers you can
see in encouraging
people to “go into
all the world“?
IV. Questions:
• What are the
dangers in the
Christian ghetto
mentality?
Engaging Personally
Our Aim?
• “Since the heart of God’s revelation of himself is the figure
of Jesus Christ, and since the heart of the Christian story of
salvation is the career of Jesus Christ, Christian apologetics
– like everything else in the Christian religion, from worship
to mission, from prayer to almsgiving – rightly focus’s on
Jesus Christ. The heart of the Christian religion is personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, and it is this to which
apologists hope to point their neighbours. Whenever we
can, therefore, we aim to focus on Jesus Christ: not on
Christian metaphysics, or Christian morals, or Christian
church membership – although each of these can help the
case as Christ is truly known through them”.
• JOHN STACKHOUSE
Engaging with the Gospel
• “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will
be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good,
pleasing and perfect will.”
• ROMANS 12:2
Evangelism Starters
BEAUTY
Evangelism Starters
COMMUNITY
Evangelism Starters
FAMILY
Evangelism Starters
EQUALITY &
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Magnificent Obsession
• “The name of Jesus is not only light but food: it is also oil, without
which all food of the soul is dry; it is salt, without whose seasoning
whatever is set before us is insipid; finally it is honey in the mouth,
melody in the ear, rejoicing in the heart, and at the same time
medicine. Every discourse in which his name is not spoken is without
savor” (Bernard of Calirvaux cited in Institutes 2:16:1).
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“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which
cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator,
made known through Jesus” (Pascal, Pensees).
How do we know?
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There are three ways to believe: reason, habit, inspiration. Christianity which
alone has reason, does not admit as its true children those who believe without
inspiration. It is not that it excludes reason and habit, quite the contrary, but
we must open our mind to the proofs, confirm ourselves in it through habit,
while offering ourselves through humiliation to inspiration which alone can
produce the real and salutary effect. Less the Cross of Christ be made of none
effect” Pascal
•
“It is possible to know the great truths without feeling the truth of them.
That’s where the problem lies. In my case” - Robinson
•
“We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart”
“The organ for seeing God is the heart. The intellect alone is not enough”
Jesus is the Reason
• - “The greatest disappointment (and resulting pain) you can feel is
when you have just experienced that which you thought would bring
you the ultimate in pleasure – and it has let you down. Pleasure
without boundaries produces a life without purpose. That is real pain.
No death, no tragedy, no atrocity – nothing really matters. Life is
sheer hollowness, with no purpose” Ravi Zacharias, The End of Reason,
p.41
•
What is Mans Chief End?
The Source of my Forgiveness.
• “Why do we presume so much on the ability of human nature? It is
wounded, battered, troubled, lost. What we need is true confession,
not false defence.” Calvin, Institutes Book 2:11:11
• “When I look at my sins (and if I think they’re sins, then they are sins), I
can see the appeal of born again Christianity. I suspect that it’s not the
Christianity that is so alluring; it’s the rebirth. Because who wouldn’t
wish to start all over again?”
• Nick Hornby
Jesus is my Freedom
• Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains – Rousseau
• The human will does not obtain grace by freedom, but obtains
freedom by grace – Augustine.
• Know the truth and the truth will set you free…..I am the truth…- Jesus
Christ
Jesus is my Hope
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What is your only comfort in life and in death?
That I am not my own,
but belong body and soul,
in life and in death
to my faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven;
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
Jesus is my proof
• Why did you not give me sufficient evidence? - Bertran Russell
• I want a personal God who loves us all in a way that goes beyond
words. A God who fills us with a sort of reassuring and magical light. A
God who is the very expression of love so perfect that to feel all of it at
once would be to lose yourself for ever in a place of sublime happiness.
Marcus Brigstock
Jesus is my Everything
• “outside Christ, there is nothing worth knowing, and all who by faith
perceive what he is like have grasped the whole immensity of heavenly
benefits”
Calvin
Jesus is my Identity
• “I am not, in my natural state, nearly so much of a person as I would
like to believe; most of what I call ‘me’ can be very easily explained. It
is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His personality, that I
first begin to have a real personality of my own”.
• “By understanding many things, I have accomplished nothing. Grotius
And so?
Lord Jesus Christ,
• there are many things I do not understand,
• grant me your light;
• there are many things I fear,
• grant me your love;
• there are many sins I have committed,
• grant me your forgiveness;
Prayer
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take my life,
all that I am,
all that I have,
all that I dream;
and create in me a new life,
a new spirit,
a renewed mind.
baptize me with your Holy Spirit,
create in me a clean heart,
forgive my sin.
Prayer
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welcome me into your church,
your family, your bride
From now on enable me to live as your child
seeking your kingdom,
serving your people,
saving your world.
and when my time is come,
take me to be with you
in the new heavens and the new earth;
where suffering, sin and sorrow,
shall be no more.
For Jesus sake, Amen.
Media
• https://theweeflea.w
ordpress.com/
Suggested Reading
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Why Trust the Bible by Amy Orr Ewing (IVP, 2005)
•
The Book that made your World by Vishnal
Mangalwadi (Thomas Nelson)
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God’s Undertaker
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Is God a Moral Monster by Paul Copan (Baker 2011)
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Is God Anti-Gay
by John Lennox (Lion, 2009)
by Sam Alberry (Good Book Company,
2009)
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Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
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Reason for God by Tim Keller (Hodder and Stoughton)
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Magnificent Obsession (CFP)
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The Dawkins Letters (CFP)
• rzim.org
• bethinking.org
• euroleadership.or
g
• solas-cpc.org